The Two Minute Review: La Strada

Ronan Doyle
Jul 23
2 min read

Updated: Aug 5

What should we know about La Strada?

Those who mourned the closure last year of Rathmines’ neighbourhood Italian Manifesto will be thrilled to see owner Lucio Paduano back with La Strada. The new pizzeria’s pretty fitout in the style of a side street terrazza makes the most of a small Aungier Street space.

What’s on the menu?

Provenance is a cornerstone here, with a full page dedicated to laying out the quality Italian produce used throughout. Buffalo milk blue cheese is one Paduano’s particularly fond of. As paired in mousse form with tart Wexford strawberries (€12) it’s easy to see why, with a sharp shock of intensely funky flavour. Wafer-thin garlicky crostini are an ideal vehicle, if one in sadly short supply; a few more of these crisps would go a long way.

Meatballs in marinara (€9) are less meltingly tender than we usually like them – the melt-in-the-mouth marvels of A Fianco or Reggie’s they ain’t – but the slow-cooked sauce hits the mark head-on.

A shared garlic pizza with cheese (€8) offers a low-frills chance to assess the dough here, made with type 1 flour rather than the 00 more typical of Neapolitan style for a fuller, richer flavour (but bad news for coeliacs who swarmed Manifesto - no gluten-free options yet). There’s a lot to like in the soft, chewy, nutty crust even where it falls a little thicker than we like. The quality ethos really shines with fruity EVOO, oregano and flaky sea salt helping the mozzarella sing sotto voce.

Mortazza (€19) is among the Manifesto holdovers – no mystery why from the first taste. Salty and smoky and sweet from the standout pairing of mortadella, Andria burrata and Bronte pistachio, it’s a deceptively light layered treat of top-quality products.

Lured in by the sound of Caserta black pig cicoli and Spilanga ‘nduja, we found the calzone (€19) a bit of a letdown by contrast, with the fatty pork scraps’ flavour lost among pockets of sheep ricotta.

The dough doubles as sandwich bread during the day via the “saltimbocca” menu – what the Roman classic of veal and prosciutto has to do with these we still can’t figure out – with a more thin and crispy treatment we found suited it even more. The simple sciue sciue (€9) is effectively a Caprese, and we had no complaints with individual elements this good. Masaniello (€13) is a much more complex creation with tender slices of Ariccia porchetta playing off the smoky notes of Agnerola mozzarella and filling garlic-rosemary potatoes. A light lunch this is not.

Lucio’s “world famous” tiramisu is a rock solid rendition of this (let’s be honest) easy offering – we ate every bit but nobody is navigating the globe for it.

Are there drinks?

In lieu of wine (licence still pending) La Strada’s slinging a homemade lemonades (€5) that made for welcome relief from the late evening heat. Passionfruit and peach plays up the sweet factor but it’s the rounded flavour of watermelon and black tea that made an impression on us.