As a proud Italiana it is my duty to guide you through London to help you get the best Italian food. We all know how easy it is to misdo that pasta, and I don’t want you to get the wrong impression about my beloved food culture. So, follow me and discover the best Italian Restaurants in London.
Simple as it is, Bocca Di Lupo doesn’t lie on tradition and quality. The atmosphere is clean and calm, you immediately get the impression that everything happens for a reason. And so is the menu: a triumph of flavors from the beautiful country involving every city with its traditions. The timeless favorites? Prosciutto sardo & melon, tagliata and fried baccalà.
What makes this restaurant a must of Italian culture is the dedication and commitment behind the explosive cuisine and its creations. Giorgio Locatelli’s Michelin-starred modern Italian cooking offers variety and the chance to discover a new way to embrace the traditions of the Bel Paese. The Locanda is as sleek and glamorous as its celebrity clientele. My menu guide? Scamorza alla piastra, frisella, pomodori e rucola; Risotto ai gamberi di Mazara del Vallo e zucchine and Coda di rospo, salsa di noci e capperi, salicornia
Polpo is called bàcaro, a Venetian word to describe a humble restaurant serving quality food in a simple and gentle way, respecting the product, and marrying it with young Italian wines. The setting brings to life the faded elegance of Venice and its most beloved traditions. Embrace the kitchen with Vegetable fritto misto, mushroom & Taleggio bruschetta and the Octopus carpaccio.
This smooth Savile Row spot, part of the D&D London stable, now has a lovely outdoor terrace, and inside all is looking spruce. In the kitchen, Francesco Mazzei, formerly of L’Anima, is wearing the chef’s whites, and the delicious dishes are inspired by the rich and complex cooking of Mazzei’s native Italian south: Burrata d’Andria, Paglia e fieno cacio e pepe con tartufo and Polenta corvino con funghi di stagione e tartufo.
Modern Italian fine dining in luxurious surroundings: the food is a marriage of Angela’s upbringing cooking, alongside her Italian grandmother and aunts. The modern Italian cuisine embraces the best of British and European produce, merging two different cultures. The informal style of service reflects Hartnett’s warm personality and proves a Michelin-starred meal can be fun. Make sure to try out the Honey roast aubergine, pink grapefruit, basil, smoked ricotta, Buffalo ricotta & swiss chard tortelli, and goats cheese anolini.
Sabrina Gidda, a two-time Roux scholarship finalist, is now heading the kitchen at this Portman Village Italian. She does a sublime rose-veal tonnato, parmesan gnocchi with venison ragù and slow-cooked lamb shoulder with salsify and bagna cauda – all dishes that blew us away. With dedicated service from a crack front-of-house team, this large and comfortable place is one of our most exciting discoveries.
Zafferano is the original Italian rustic trattoria, seamlessly transported to Belgravia. Inside, there’s a palpable buzz, but despite having more than a dash of Italian bella figura, this place is discreet, non-flashy and as classy as they come. Signature dishes include linguine with lobster, veal Milanese and zafferano (saffron) risotto. In autumn, have them shave white Alba truffles over a simple plate of scrambled eggs; you’ll die poor but happy.
A place so cosy, so intimate (16 seats at a pinch), with its teeny-tiny panelled bar, white-jacketed waiters and Dolce Vita photographs of Positano and the Amalfi Coast, that anyone who enters is instantly transported back to the Fifties, to the Italian seaside and to an arguably better world. There is simple pleasure in the food: beef carpaccio, wonderful pizza bianca with black truffle and Italian-American classics – an ace club sandwich, for example.
At Assunta Madre quality comes first, and the fish comes straight after it. In fact the fish comes from the Mediterranean Sea everyday, freshly caught to this restaurant in Mayfair. As Italians, they value tradition and respect for the products they work with: an example of simplicity, when the product is so high in quality, that you don’t need anything fancy to accompany it.
Tell me if this sounds familiar: you love pasta, but never order it in restaurants because it’s something ‘you can just make at home’. Dishes are small enough – and, at around £5-9, cheap enough – to let you to order three between two. Do this. In fact, bring extra friends so you can order a bit of everything. Who cares if you’ll likely be sat in a row? Talking is so overrated. There’s a changing mix of classics and lesser-spotted varieties such as tagliarini or pici cacio e pepe, a kind of hand-rolled no-egg noodle from Siena.
Fresh, pert, lactically oozing burrata, as fine as you’d find anywhere. A perfectly manicured vitello tonnato, with the smoothest, sexiest slathering of anchovy-scented sauce, draped across thin slices of softly blushing veal. Then a magnificent bowl of squid ink linguine, with shards of soft squid and shavings of bottarga and a true taste of the wine-dark sea. But moreover, Bocconcino is proof, if proof be needed, that the marriage of Moscow and Mayfair needn’t always end in hell.
A crowd-funded deli-restaurant and wine bar that serves Lombardian dishes featuring produce made by followers of Italy’s ‘slow food’ movement. A simple place, full of simple pleasures – specifically the best organically-produced cheese, meats and wines from their home district of Lombardy, in Northern Italy. My favorites? Fiori di zucca ripieni, Polenta tarangna con funghi & gorgonzola and Crema di mascarpone e fragole, biscotto ‘lingua di gatto’.
The name refers to the cured pig fat of Tuscany and the restaurant’s look is retro-industrial basic. Lardo is the Italian love-child of former Bistrotheque manager Eliza Flanagan, and offers homecured meats for around £4, small sharing plates for around £6, and pizza for up to £9. Enjoy your Burrata Amalfi lemon salad and the Lardo, gorgonzola piccante, basil, wild rocket and walnuts pizza.
The clue’s in the name: Sardo excels at Sardinian specialities. It’s largely thanks to the popularity of Romolo Mudu’s relaxed, welcoming ristorante that characteristic Sardinian ingredients such as fregola and malloreddus are finding their way on to other restaurants’ menus. All joined by a generous bread basket and olives.
Andrea Reitano, the young Italian restaurateur who seems to be taking over London, is the clever chap behind this Italian/Mediterranean in a former pub. But this is not your average pub makeover: the place is rammed to the rafters with Victorian and Edwardian antiques, and has hand-painted ceilings and walls. The food looks pretty special too: turbot from Italy, the best tuna from Spain and superb fassona piemontese, that highly prized Italian beef, ‘from a supplier who also serves Buckingham Palace’, says Andrea bashfully. We’re tipping this as one to watch.
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