Isola by San Carlo is the latest addition to St Christopher’s Place and part of the San Carlo group, a collection of restaurants around the UK more recently known for THAT Dior pop-up on the Selfridges rooftop. Isola is all about bringing Italy’s famous cafe culture to central London with its bright interiors, classic food and big energy.
Isola has an extensive wine list, all from around Italy, and they even have a section on the menu for fine red wine, with bottles costing up to £540 – boujee. We decided to save the pennies and opted for one of their rose wines from Puglia. The food menu is also large, with plenty of dishes to choose from, all inspired by the flavours from Sicily and its surrounding islands. To start we shared two dishes from the antipasti section, the broccoli croquettes and the Apulian burrata DOP, which was decent sized, creamy and surrounded by juicy roasted yellow and red cherry tomatoes.
Following this we went for one of their pizzas, which are thin-crusted and made using Caputa flour from Naples. If you like strong cheese try the patate radicchio e gorgonzola, a white-based pizza topped with gorgonzola, potato & radicchio. We also had the spaghetti frutta di mare, a saucy dish with plenty of prawns, clams and mussels. If there’s two of you that like the sound of that, we recommend ordering the restaurant’s most famous dish, the spaghetti granseola – not only is it an Instagram dream but it includes a whole crab to feast on.
Given the restaurant is inspired by Sicilian food, for dessert we chose the pistachio cannoli, a trusty classic. The cannoli was large, crunchy and light, stuffed with plenty of creamy pistachio filling. If pistachio isn’t your thing you can also get a chocolate version too.
Isola fits in well to the bustling St Christopher’s Place and given its location its a great spot for a central dinner or a stop-off post-shopping on Oxford Street.
3-8 Barrett St, London W1U 1AY
sancarloisola.co.uk