New-ish Italian Store (Best Italian), Borough Market, London

[limster]

Replaced Shipp's Tearooms and opened a few months ago. Sell sandwiches etc. and also not bad lobster tails (coda di aragosta iirc) which are crispy sfogliatelle-like pastrys filled with different varieties of cream. Very sweet white chocolate filling (I mistook it for regular pastry cream).

Also a had a pleasant but unmemorable grilled vegetable sandwich in a medium dense focaccia.

Walls stocked with various Italian groceries and a bunch of imported cured meats.

[medgirl]

Had lunch here today with visiting sis and bro-in-law. Nice atmosphere in the cafe. They had toasted foccacia sandwiches. I had a plate of rotello pasta with pesto. Sandwiches were competent, but could have done without the plain old lettuce on the side. The pesto on the pasta was quite good, but the only downside was that the pasta was microwaved, so the texture was affected. Nevertheless, it was a good lunch for the price.
We tried what limster descibes in his original post as the coda di aragosta. I couldn't quite work out what they were and asked the lady behind the counter. From her accent, I think she is French, and she described them as 'croissants filled with pastry cream', but they were much crunchier than croissants. Quite nice, the coffee cream one we picked would have benefited from less sweetness and more coffee flavour. We also had a slice of pumpkin amaretti cake, which was very rich and sweet, but went well with their coffee. The italian dried pasta, oils, biscuits, vinegars, sauces, etc they sell look extremely attractive.

[guyboxer]

@ medgirl:hi there,coda di aragosta a.k.a aragostelle are indeed a type of sfogliatelle. The crunch is given by the lard ,which is used liberally to spread onto the pastry,before it's rolled into the traditional clam-like shape.
The filling should be ricotta and semolina,rather than pastry cream.

[limster]

Forgot to mention, they also sell Oddono's gelati.

[abby d]

i tried this today. the lemon sorbet was wonderful and my icecream-eating friend really liked the pistachio (complete with little pieces of pistachio nuts), vanilla and strawberry (really fruity which was not overwhelmed by cream).

[limster]

Tiramisu there is very good - very smooth mascapone with perfect consistency, along with a suave and seamless combination of flavours.

Salads were ok - caponata needs raisins and pinenuts and could be cooked even softer. Broccoli was pleasant with artichoke and olives.