La Casita

If you’re stitching up London looking for homestyle Italian hospitality and haven’t visited La Casita along Streatham High Road, than this is one restaurant that you need to reserve. Equidistant between Streatham and Streatham Hill stations, La Casita is easily reached from central London and Croydon, and is the perfect venue for classic Italian gastronomy or simple drinks and tapas-style dishes shared among friends. Established in 2008, La Casita has gained a reputation in the SW postcode for its impeccable service and atmosphere that keeps the white starched tablecloths and a friendly, welcoming attitude in equal measure.

La Casita is popular among Streatham and southwest London locals for a simple evening prelude of drinks and small, tapas-sized dishes. Mussels in a herbed tomato sauce with a cold Italian beer or a glass of white wine are enough to satisfy many, while a number of these smaller plates – flamed chorizo, garlic mushrooms, Galician octopus and padron peppers – are an excellent way to segue into a more substantial Italian meal at La Casita’s comfortably appointed Streatham High Road premises.

Classic Italian pasta dishes and pizzas are yet another way to approach La Casita’s authentic Italian selection. The house Casita pizza paired with a tricolor salad of avocado, tomato and fresh mozzarella is a light meal for two in itself, but the real action takes place when you take on the restaurant’s secondi piatti – main courses that are some of the best in this part of London. Fresh seafood features prominently, with traditional Italian-style grilled sea bass and even a few more far-flung Mediterranean dishes like the Portuguese paella-like seafood rice or the ‘Braz style’ fried salt cod. The Madeira skewers of charcoal-grilled beef with fried corn is a delicacy of the eponymous island, while generous steaks bring diners back to the bel paese, far in culinary terms from the reality of Streatham.