Manteca

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

Hand-rolled pasta, fire, and the whole animal

Manteca on Curtain Road, Shoreditch, is built around a clear set of convictions: whole-animal butchery, hand-rolled pastas, wood-fired breads, and an in-house salumeria. The name itself is a quiet homage to a Dizzy Gillespie song, and that same spirit — serious craft worn lightly — runs through everything the restaurant does. Gambero Rosso recognised Manteca with a fork in its 2025 guide, a nod to the kitchen's consistent, disciplined approach.

The kitchen's philosophy

Chef and founder Chris Leach keeps the sourcing as deliberate as the cooking. Whole cows, native-breed pigs and goats arrive from Taste Tradition, a three-generation family farm in the North York Moors National Park where the Ashbridge family raises livestock outdoors using traditional practices. Those animals become the salumi cured in-house, the ragus, the meatballs, and the cuts finished over the grill. Nothing is wasted; the nose-to-tail approach is not a slogan but the structural logic of the menu.

A Sicilian thread in the glass

The Sicilian influence at Manteca extends well beyond the plate. In April, Chris and wine buyer Emily Acha Derrington travelled to Sicily to blend the restaurant's first own-label wine, working with cooperative Valdibella — founded in 1998 by families who have farmed the region for generations — and importer Modal Wines. The result is a limited 1,000-litre white blending grillo, catarratto and catarratto extra lucido: aromas of honeysuckle and peach, a clean finish, and a touch of bitterness from ten days' skin contact on a portion of the catarratto. The label, designed by Chris, draws on the jazz album artwork of Reid Miles — another thread connecting the restaurant's name to its identity.

The broader wine list celebrates low-intervention and classic fine wines from Italy, wider Europe and North America, while the cocktail list leans into amari. Together, they make a strong case for staying at the table a little longer.