“It’s good, but not like mamma makes…” If you’ve been to an Italian restaurant with an Italian person, chances are you’ve heard that phrase.

La Mia Mamma restaurant in the Chelsea neighborhood in London is giving a whole new meaning to “made in Chelsea.”

For a 28£ fixed menu that included an Aperol spritz, antipasti (3 hot, 3 cold) pasta, desert and espresso, I left pleasantly stuffed. You could have a main including in this for 10£ more (which Michele would probably do), but just the pasta was way more than enough for me. The antipasti is fresh from the market that day and the pasta is just like mamma makes it. Really. The concept of La Mamma Mia is to give the customers real Italian home cooking, 20 regions, 20 mammas cooking for you. Yes, there’s the fixed Italian restaurant menu of the chef but the specialty menu is based on the region for that month. This month (August) it’s Sicily and Sara (see her in the video below) is one of 3 wonderful mamma’s from Sicily cooking for us, taking us through summer in the sun-drenched isle of Sicily with our taste buds.

Sicily and it’s culture has always enchanted me. Italian American culture is heavily Southern and Sicilian. But Sicily, it’s Greek, Roman, Spanish and Arabic history has always gotten my history nerd rocks off. The island is on my bucket list so when my friend Marjan of Marjan Focus invited me to La Mia Mamma and I found out we’d be eating Sicilian cuisine, I couldn’t wait. Yes, there was the famed arancini then there was a casserole type potato, peas, bacon, deliciousness, polpette, stewed aubergines… Yum! This was all before our main pasta dish of a pesto with pistachio and ricotta. Don’t worry, I saved room for the Nutella and coconut mousse!

Yup, I think this place will pass the Michele seal of approval. We’ll see… Mamma Sara, I may be coming back!

Sharing antipasti with Marjan at La Mamma Mia

A delicious Sicilian pesto with pistacchio & ricotta

La Mia Mamma 257 King’s Rd, Chelsea, London SW3 5EL