Italian
BRUTTO
He changed the restaurant game with Polpo (distressed interiors, small plates, no ressies) and almost a year after leaving the group he co-founded, Russell Norman returned with the Tuscan-inspired Trattoria Brutto. The name comes from the Italian saying ‘brutto ma buono’, which translates to ‘ugly but good’ – so, the food is hearty and honest. He’s got Oliver Diver (who started out at Polpo in Soho before working at Wild Honey, Chiltern Firehouse and Allegra) heading up the kitchen and the menu includes dishes like panzanella, vitello tonnato, pappardelle with wild boar, lamb chops al cartoccio, beef stew, rosemary flatbread with broad bean puree, and chicken liver toasts. You won’t want to miss the £5 negronis and be sure to save room for tiramisu.
BACCALA
Named after the famous Italian salt cod dish, Baccala is the creation of four friends; sommelier Fabio de Nicola (previously of Hovarda, Oblix & Zuma Istanbul), head chef Moreno Polverini (previously at Four Seasons Hotel Group at Park Lane in London), Fabio’s designer wife Ilanit Ovadya, and Elif Taner Polverini, who is married to Moreno. It’s an intimate and charming restaurant of 30 covers, with an extra 20 in their downstairs space, counter seating at the open kitchen so you can see the chefs in action, and 14 seats outside for alfresco goals. The premise is simple, Italian seafood dishes made with love using the finest locally sourced produce. Baccala’s signature dishes include roasted octopus with colonnata lard on marinated bell peppers, olives & basil; roasted aubergine salad with walnuts & Vesuvian pink tomato; the mezze maniche with mussels, courgette flower & black cuttlefish; and the salted cod with sautéed escarole & yellow datterino.
MANTECA
Manteca in Shoreditch is the third iteration of a restaurant that started at 10 Heddon Street before moving to Soho, and now finally settling here in on Curtain Road. Of all these, the new place is the one that really feels like their home. If you’ve been to Manteca before and loved it then you will definitely be a fan of the Shoreditch restaurant. All the elements are there – the in-house charcuterie, the nose-to-tail menu, and the fresh pasta – and now it’s all wrapped up in a beautiful new space and a bold menu that combines some of their classic dishes with several new ones. Don’t miss the incredible mortadella, made fresh in house; the crisp, rich pig head fritti; the clam flatbread; the n’duja mussels; and the tonnarelli with a brown crab cacio e pepe sauce.
SORELLA
Think Amalfi coast but down a Clapham backstreet. Sorella is an Italian neighbourhood joint serving up traditional and seasonal food that hones in on all that owner Robin Gill loves about the Italian attitude to cooking and eating. And just like the rest of Robin’s restaurants (Bermondsey Larder, Darby’s and Rye by the Water), the menu is full of some stand-out dishes including the likes of smoked duck and black garlic arancini; Dexter beef bavette, borlotti beans and salsa verde; and apricot & frangipane tart with milk gelato. These guys really know their stuff.
ARTUSI
Artusi is one of those great neighbourhood joints that either makes you happy that you’re local or jealous if you’re not. The regularly changing menu always features simple but perfectly executed Italian dishes like ‘nduja with ricotta & monks beard, chicken leg with puntarelle & parmesan aioli, gurnard with samphire & tomato, and pastas made fresh that day. Start with a negroni and follow with a glass (or several) from the Italian wine list and you’ve got a very good time on your hands.
EATALY
Massive Italian food hall Eataly has finally opened in London – it’s stocked with over 5000 products spanning pasta, cheese and cured meats to gelato and olive oil, plus a zero-waste refill station and London’s largest Italian wine cellar. As well as the market and retail areas, Eataly is home to a number of dining counters, including Roman-style pizza at Pizza alla Pala, fresh pasta at the Pasta Fresca Bar, focaccia and salads at Made in Eataly, coffee and pastries at the Gran Caffè. There’s also the La Terrazza di Eataly al fresco restaurant, which serves up Italian classics like tuna crudo, burrata, cacio e pepe, ricotta & spinach ravioli and Torino-style pizzas alongside spritzes from Aperol.
CECCONI'S SHOREDITCH
Similar to the Mayfair flagship, Cecconi’s Shoreditch serves up the same Italian faves but with a more relaxed vibe… it is East London after all. The restaurant very much looks the part with a black and white tiled floor, marble tables and artwork-covered walls. It’s a menu full of classics done right with dishes like tuna tartare, veal milanese, wood-fired pizza and lobster spaghetti, with all of the pastas also coming in sharing sized portions as well as individal bowls. The Shoreditch outpost of Cecconi’s is an instant hit – it’s classy but not stuffy, it’s got a buzzy atmosphere and the service is totally on point, just as you’d expect from a Soho House operation.
The Forza Win team has gone back to the roof with Forza Wine. The spot, on top of a renovated space on Rye Lane (complete with some epic views over Peckham), serves up an Italian small plates menu with dishes like lamb & pickled chilli flatbread, cauliflower fritti, and pork collar with wild garlic. There are plenty of drinks to go with the food, including wine, beers and frozen negronis, and there’s even a lift so you don’t have to worry about trying to make it down the stairs when you’re smashed – anyone who’s made the climb up and down to Frank’s will appreciate this.
CAFE MURANO
Cafe Murano Bermondsey is Angela Hartnett’s third outpost of her Michelin-starred Murano brand and this site feels very different to those in St James and Covent Garden. It features an open kitchen front and centre with dining counters overlooking the bar, kitchen and Bermondsey St itself. The menu features some new additions as well as the much-loved classics – there’s our favourite chicken Milanese, but also the likes of guinea fowl agnolotti, hake with mussels & n’duja, and delicia pumpkin tortelli. The all-Italian wine list is pretty impressive too, championing low intervention varieties. And if you’re really not sure what to choose, you can’t go wrong with Angela’s own Rosato.
LOCANDA LOCATELLI
Opened by Giorgio Locatelli in 2002, Michelin-starred Locanda Locatelli is known for smart Italian food, and though it’s a high-end place, it’s got a great convivial atmosphere too. You can expect dishes like artichoke salad with Parmigiano Reggiano, roast rabbit leg with polenta & grilled radicchio, basil-crusted plaice with potato & black olives and the pasta is top-notch too. It is on the spenny side, so save this place for a special occasion – although there’s nothing stopping you from coming in for a plate of pasta and a glass of wine. Treat yo’self.
LUCA
Luca, from the team behind The Clove Club, serves modern Italian food using British ingredients, so there are traditional-with-a-twist pasta dishes like agnolotti cacio e pepe with short rib and spaghettini with Morecambe Bay shrimps & mace butter alongside plates like Orkney scallops with jerusalem artichoke & nduja, Cornish halibut with porcini & pancetta, and salt-baked celeriac with chanterelles. Whether you for a plate of pasta or the whole antipasti, primi, secondi, dolci route, don’t under any circumstances skip the parmesan fries. The bar at Luca is a separate and distinct space and people are encouraged to drop in and have a drink and snack, so you can still get a flavour of the place if you’re short on time.
BIG MAMMA LAUNCHES NAPOLI GANG
We’re all about this GANG GANG. The team behind cult resto’s Gloria and Circolo Popolare, Big Mamma has launching Napoli Gang, a brand new, delivery-only kitchen that sends naughty, artisanal, home-made Italian food to your door. Oh yes, you’re gonna wanna get a pizza this! There’s the Hot Damn with Calabrian spicy nduja, San Marzano tomato and candied red onions; Greta’s pizza with red and yellow cherry tomatoes or the Notorious B.I.Cheese with mozza fior di latte, gorgonzola dop, parmigiano reggiano and black pepper.
Pizzas might be the star of the show but the rest ain’t just a bit on the side, there’s arancini al tartufo; Tuscan pork stew; or a creamy Apulian burrata to give them a run for their money. Napoli Gang is available within a two-mile radius of their Shoreditch, Kentish Town and Wandsworth kitchens, and they’ve just opened one in Wood Green so all you North London peeps can get in on the action too.
Want To Know The Best Pizza Joints In London?Grab A Slice Of ThisNORMA
Ben Tish, Culinary Director of The Stafford London, is also responsible for Norma the hotel’s first independent restaurant. Norma is all about Sicily, drawing influence from the island’s cafe culture, old-school Italian hospitality and morish flavours. Taking over a converted townhouse Norma is split across three floors; the ground and first floors are home to the restaurant and cocktail bar with a private dining space up top. As well as the namesake pasta alla norma, the deep fried spaghetti fritters, the beech-smoked anchovies and homemade cannoli are not to be missed. Naturally the drinks list leans heavily on Sicily too with Marsala wines and cocktails made with chinotto, vermouth and limoncello.
MORTIMER HOUSE KITCHEN
Inside the Art Deco building of Mortimer House, which is also home to a members’s club, events space and gym, is Mortimer House Kitchen, a Soho House-esque all-day set up open to the public where Tom Cenci (who heads up Nessa, the restaurant at the group’s other club 1 Warwick) is cooking up an Italian menu. Inspired by Cenci’s family summers in Piedmont and the Amalfi coast, the menu at Mortimer House Kitchen features dishes that reflect the simplicity of Italian cooking and pay homage to the classics, including the likes of crispy polenta and parmesan mayonnaise; zucchini caesar with parmesan and pangrattato; carne cruda and ‘nduja bruschetta; maccheroni with taleggio, truffle and black pepper; chicken or aubergine parmigiana with fresh spaghetti and cured egg yolk on the side; Torta 900 chocolate cake; and pistachio cannoli.
Opened in 1987, The River Cafe is one of London’s most influential restaurants, launching the careers of Jamie Oliver and Theo Randall to name a few. Still as relevant as ever, The River Cafe is the model that a lot of the other restaurants on this map are based on: fresh, seasonal Italian ingredients, treated with the lightest of touches. The River Cafe changes its menu twice a day (yes TWICE) depending on what’s available and in season, but you can always be sure that it will deliver the goods. There’s anitpasti such as Roman artichokes with Amalfi lemon, and sea bass carpaccio; pasta dishes like ravioli stuffed with buffalo ricotta, garden herbs & lemon zest with marjoram butter; and secondi of whole wood-roasted pigeon, and chargrilled Scottish scallops with zucchini fritti, chilli and mint. For dessert there is one thing that is always on the menu – the classic, unbelievably gooey and rich chocolate nemesis cake. A meal at The River Cafe doesn’t come cheap, but it’s well worth a splurge at least once to experience one of London’s most iconic restaurants.
Not content with turning out some of the best pastries in town, Pophams in Hackney flips into a pasta restaurant come the evening. Makes sense when you consider working with pastry and bread dough isn’t miles away from rolling out pasta. It’s a short, regularly changing menu that features dishes like pig cheek tortellini, nduja scarpinocc, and taleggio cappelletti with grapes, and because the plates are small, you can easily order the whole menu. Make it a real carb fest with a wedge of their sourdough and insane balsamic butter.
Jay Patel (former Barrafina and Koya City GM) and chef Matt Beardmore (ex-Trullo) are the dynamic duo behind Legare in Shad Thames, which is all about seasonal produce, fresh pasta and low-intervention wine. It’s a simple understated space with white walls, an open kitchen and plain wooden furniture and benches. Keeping it simple is the order of the day in the kitchen too – think stracciatella with sobrasada, gnocco fritto, orecchiette with fennel sausage & cavolo nero ragu, and stracci with crab, chilli & pangrattato. All of this is complemented by a tight wine list of natural and low intervention bottles, mainly coming from Italy.
Located on Holloway Road, newly opened pasta restaurant Berto is the latest site from pizzeria Zia Lucia, which is right next door. The restaurant serves a selection of fresh pasta which is made on site daily. Dishes include Gnocchi with nduja and melted stracciatella, and wholewheat fettuccine with zuchini and tomatoes, all served in traditional yet very Instagrammable crockery. The pasta at Berto is not only fres and tasty but won’t do damage to your bank account either, with big portions ranging from £8-13 – buon appetito!