With pizza that is so good, it makes us want to cry — SugoSugo is what Italian dreams are made of. We get a taste tour of highlights on the vegetarian menu like slices of La Ortolana de Pomodoro (with zucchini and bell peppers) and La Boscaiola (mushrooms and mozarella), over a chat with Nerio Fusina, who first came to Chennai in the ’80s to set up a leather business and realised this was an untapped market for Italian food. Decades later, his son Lorenzo has been passed on the mantle and partnered with Stefano Leone, Alexander Gorham and Prabaker Rajagopalan to open this restaurant in Manapakkam.
Awesome sauce
Expect interiors straight out of a Pinterest board and jars of pasta showcased on one wall that double up as an art installation. Before we get down to tasting, 67-year-old Nerio gives us a walkthrough of the kitchen, during which we find out that to keep the flavours authentic, most of the key ingredients — olive oil, flour, pasta and even cans of tomato purée — are imported from Italy. “Sauces just don’t taste the same if you aren’t using the right tomatoes,” Nerio stresses. Sauces are not to be taken lightly here, so much so that the name SugoSugo (sugo means sauce) serves up a double portion.
Life of pie
Later we find ourselves digging into La Bella, a focaccia sandwich with caramelised onions and thick slices of buffalo mozzarella and the addictive Patatizza, the restaurant’s signature Italian fries paired with a tangy pizza dip that we keep going back to. On the pasta front, we are presented with the tricolour La Colorata — think all the colours of the Italian flag — white from the rigatoni pasta, a splash of red from the tomato sauce and green from a topping of pesto. The piece de résistance as mentioned before are the pizzas — no gimmicks — just wholesome goodness in every bite. We don’t think you can go wrong ordering any of these, but if we were to pick a favourite, it would have to be La Tricolore topped with cherry tomatoes that sing alongside generous blots of pesto. La Bianca which is the four cheese variant with mozzarella, parmesan, emmental and blue cheese is also a must try. We wrap up with a warm Cappuccino and indulgent layers of tiramisu. Gelato, we hear, is on the cards next.
Meal for two at INR 1,000.