La GocciaFloral St, WC2E 9DSTucked away in the labyrinthine side streets of Covent Garden, in the aptly named Floral Court, you’ll find Petersham Nurseries’s West End outposts: the Petersham, a copy of its original restaurant, and its intriguing (Italian) little sister, La Goccia. Both restaurants spill out on to the courtyard which is strewn with the group’s signature blooms, and there’s a shop for anyone keen to take the Petersham Nurseries aesthetic home with them after supper. Inside, La Goccia is buzzy, made up of several rooms and centred on an open grill, where chefs effortlessly whip up the menu’s edited selection of Venetian small plates, or cicchetti. In our opinion it would be rude not to sample the burrata at an Italian restaurant, so that’s how we started our meal; it was fresh and creamy (with just a trickle of milk seductively oozing out when it was cut into) and served with a generous dollop of Zisola olive oil, which we mopped up with big hunks of the onion and rosemary focaccia (it’s what the Italians would want). Other standout dishes include the fried chicken (sourced from the family’s Haye Farm) which was expertly done, simultaneously moist and crispy, and even better when doused in the accompanying aioli; the squid with tomato salsa and the white truffle tagliolini, which transported us to an al fresco dining table on the Mediterranean.