Artusi, restaurant review: This is a cushty addition to Del Boy's old stomping ground

Artusi, 161 Bellenden Road, London SE15, Tel: 020 3302 8200

Artusi's décor is stripped right back and very basic

This is not another column about how Peckham is the epicentre of cool in London. Everyone wrote that seven years ago. This is a column about how, seven years after a place was declared the epicentre of cool, my people invaded it and began the fairly lengthy process of taking it over. Every revolution needs its favourite restaurant and, being posh rather than pompous, I imagine Artusi is it.

Basically, every one of my mates is moving to Peckham and having babies, which strikes me as a marvellous thing to do. New chapter and all that – same as the old one, but different. More prams and possibilities; more hope and happiness.

When I grew up a few miles away, in Tooting, Peckham was the place my hero, Del Boy, came from. There was a lovely link: John Sullivan, the writer of Only Fools and Horses, grew up near where I did, being a Balham boy; and Buster Merryfield, who played Uncle Albert, was an Old Sinjun – which is to say, he went to the school that gave me a cricket club to play for. The south London, both fictional and real, that these guys inhabited is gone now, colonised by middle-class muck like me.

You wouldn't see Del Boy in Artusi; but if I had the privilege of his company for an afternoon in the area, I wouldn't mind taking him there one bit. The Sunday lunch menu is refreshingly limited: always a sign of a confident kitchen. Two starters, two mains, two desserts. There are four of us – five if you include a bump – so naturally we get the whole lot between us.

The two starters are ox tongue with salsa verde and octopus with potatoes and parsley. I've had my run-ins with ox tongue over the years, because if the texture is too slippery, it can feel like you're making sexual advances on a giant bovine lover. Even in Peckham that ought to be frowned upon. But here they have done it beautifully, with pinkish-purple meat that's tender rather than rubber-like. The salsa verde, meanwhile, has lashings of parsley, onion, garlic, olive oil and vinegar, giving the aftertaste a nice acidity.

There's more parsley on the plate with the octopus, served in the best Venetian style with soft-boiled potatoes, which have never been my thing frankly, but are fine here. The key is to get the octopus firm enough to bite properly, which is exactly what they've done, searing it without spoiling it.

Of the two mains, the lamb shoulder with potatoes and bagna cauda (a hot garlic and anchovy dip originally from Piedmont in Italy) would be my firm second choice on a return trip. To have an accompaniment of pretty unspectacular potatoes in both a starter and a main (if you have the octopus, too) seems rather perverse, and given how short the menu is, it would be better to go for some variation. The red sauce also lacks the requisite heat and punch, and the lamb shoulder is the cold side of lukewarm.

The gilt-head bream with carrot purée and crema di cime di rapa (turnip), however, is much better. This species of bream, named after the little gold bar across its forehead, is a delicate beast. Though easily overcooked and polluted by too many distracting flavours, here it is just right and its moist, hot, tender white parcels go very well with a rich, ideally seasoned purée the colour of sunset over the Mediterranean.

Finishing things off, both desserts are superb. An olive-oil cake with chocolate and caramel has the rich, fruity aroma of a Tuscan hillside roasting in the sun, and the accompaniments give the dish an indulgent, moreish aftertaste.

Even better, though, is the chocolate sorbet with home-made honey ice cream. These have very different textures: the sorbet icy and wet; the ice cream smooth and sloppy – and somehow they sit together in a very happy union.

Perhaps the best thing about Artusi is the lack of fuss. You get three courses for the stonking value of £20, and the décor is stripped right back and very basic. With a full view of the kitchen, you can catch a glimpse of Jack Beer, the chef they've poached from the Clove Club. He is putting wonderful Mediterranean grub out on a daily basis, and has given chumps like me another very good reason to move to Peckham.

8/10

Artusi, 161 Bellenden Road, London SE15, Tel: 020 3302 8200. £65 for two, with drinks

Four more foodie notes from the past week

White strawberries

Delightful, pineapple-ish taste, though the red seeds look like an outbreak of some fruity disease.

Apple mash

I had some of this with calf's liver at the Delaunay in Covent Garden. Tough life, I know. Perfect for spring.

Avocado

Am trying to have more of this for breakfast, in accordance with fashion. Balsamic really brings it to life.

Cauliflower

Can't get enough of these florets in 2015. Specifically, lovely roasted with a garlic yoghurt dip. Healthy, too.