Author's product rating: 
| Advantages: |
Friendly staff, great steaks, nice ambience |
| Disadvantages: |
Little for veggies, off the beaten track |
| Recommend to potential buyers: |
yes |
Jamie Oliver's recent series in which he traveled around Italy hoping to rekindle his love of cooking showed just how chauvinistic the Italians are about their cuisine. Wherever you go in Italy the people for that region will claim that theirs is the one that has contributed most to Italian cuisine. However, the experts seem to agree that it is Naples and the Campania region in which it is found that has produced the best known Italian dishes which are now eaten all over the world. The colourful Inslata Caprese, Sorrento lemons which are made into the fabulous limoncello liqueur and the most highly regarded buffalo mozzarella all come from this region. However, it is pizza that is probably the most celebrated and best-known dish from Campania and it was first prepared at the Palazzo Reale di Capodimonte in the late nineteenth century by the chef Esposito.
As you can imagine pizza is on the most popular items on the menu in restaurants in Naples - well all Italian. Don't get me wrong - I love Italian food; not just pizza and pasta but all those delicious dishes like "saltimboca" or "osso bucco" or a rich Tuscan bean soup. It's just that I eat so much Italian food at home that when faced with the prospect of a whole week of Italian food I couldn't get really excited about it. Of course, the food we did have in Naples was excellent and so much better than my attempts back home but after a few days I yearned for something other than Italian food.
On the surface, the only other restaurants in town were Chinese and neither of us are big fans of Chinese food but a stroll around the Piazza Amadeo area one afternoon unearthed La Cueva - an Argentinian restaurant tucked away just off a tiny square. We went in for a drink and found the staff friendly and welcoming; when a young guy came in trying to sell little animals and birds carved from wood they bought one from him and gave him a drink on the house. I can only think that in England they'd have turfed him out using a broom! We returned to eat the following evening - it happened to be the night of one of
Italy's group matches in the European Championships.
As you enter there is a bar area with a couple of tables but most people stand at the bar. You are as welcome to pop in for a drink as to eat (although I guess they'd probably welcome the money from diners more!) and it is a rather pleasant place for a drink. Unless you don't enjoy football on this particular evening because all the staff and their friends are in the bar cheering on the Italian eleven. As the match continued their shouting became more and more frenzied especially as it looked for a time that Italy were in peril. However, at no point did we feel the staff neglected us or that, as the only diners that evening, we were in the way.
The décor was semi-rustic, semi industrial. The uneven walls had been made to look like a wine cellar ("cueva" is, of course, the Italian word for wine cellar) and are painted a terrific burnt orange shade that worked beautifully with the modern wrought iron wall sculptures. The tables and chairs were a mixture of wooden and wrought iron. The lighting was subtle but good enough to see your food (why do many restaurants insist on turning the lights right down?). Generally it was a comfortable and attractive place to enjoy a meal.
Argentinian food concentrates heavily on meat dishes, in particular beef and then, in particular steaks. This is fantastic for me, the confirmed carnivore but not so good for my partner. However we had enquired about this during our previous visit and were assured that a non-meat alternative would be available. Strangely, the menu did not feature any fish dishes. As a meat-eater I was spoiled for choice but finally opted for a juicy steak to be served rare along with salad and plantain chips. My partner was promised a selection of items from the menu which were meat-free, including some items from the list of starters
We asked whether the restaurant had a house wine they could recommend and the barman dashed over holding a bottle on which the label bore a picture of the Argentinian footballer Maradonna. Maradonna is something of a hero in Naples because it was with his not inconsiderable input that Napoli won the Serie A title in 1987. It wasn't a house wine as such but one they recommended to most diners; we however decided that as staunch England supporters we could not let it pass our lips and opted for a reasonably priced Malbec Norton instead.
We had decided not to have starters since we thought our main course dishes would be quite heavy - anyway I would rather leave room for a dessert than opt for a starter if there's the possibility that tummy space might be at a premium! When our main courses came we were proved right. My steak was huge and came very rare just as I'd requested, the serving of plantains was more than generous and the salad was beautifully dressed. My partner's dish was similarly huge and was a medley of salad, fried plantain chips, some sautéed potatoes which seemed to have been coated in a mixture of fiery spices and empanadas - I suppose the nearest thing I can liken an empanada to is a pasty or perhaps a samosa - a triangle or semi-circle shape pastry shell filled, usually with a spicy meat mixture, but in this case lightly sautéed spicy vegetables and then baked. He was impressed by the food itself but said the overall combination was a little dry.
The dessert menu was short but seemed to include the usual sweet suspects of Italian cuisine - tiramisu, zabaglione and, of course, ice cream. Unfortunately, as is so often the case these days, my tiramisu was clearly a bought-in ready-made affair that I found a bit disappointing and the portion was rather mean. Maybe they were doing it for my own good, but I could have easily eaten a bit more.
I have not quoted prices since it is some time since my visit and they will inevitably have changed. However I will say that it is possible for a couple to enjoy a three course meal with wine for comfortably less than 50 Euro.
Overall I would recommend "La Cueva" to anyone visiting Naples and who is looking for something other than traditional Italian cuisine. Yes, it sounds a bit daft to say that but "La Cueva" really does make a welcome change with its quality food and friendly staff. I would hesitate to recommend it to vegetarians because of the lack of choice and would suggest that at least a couple of veggie friendly options could be added to the menu quite easily given the number of meat free starters available. "La Cueva" is tucked away discreetly away from the centre of Naples which may, ultimately, lead to its demise. This would be a terrible shame.
La Cueva
Via Martucci 16
Naples 80121
Tel +39 081445782
Nearest station - Piazza Amadeo
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