Recommended Italian Restaurants in London
The extraordinary rise of very fine “modern British” cooking in London isn’t the only gastronomic news. We’re enjoying an amazing Italian boom—our best chef, Giogio Locatelli, demonstrates the elegant style of Milan, but chefs from Amalfi, Venice and Rome are in pursuit, as are half a dozen Sardinians, and the excellent wine lists are showcases full of treasures from the top to the bottom of the Italian boot. Salute! (Websites can be found at the end of the listings.)
ASSAGGI
Assaggi means ‘taste,’ and here that translates to bold, uncompromising and mostly southern, as in Sardinian, well-known as Italy’s most idiosyncratic cooking (for some reason, we’re riding a boomlet of this island’s cuisine, with half a dozen Sardinian restaurants opening in the last two years, all pretty good; this was the pioneer). The restaurant is a large wood-floored room hung with primary-coloured canvases, over a pub. It can be fairly noisy, in an exuberantly jolly Italian way, and isn’t cheap–about £35 without wine. Specialties include carta di musica, twice-baked unleavened flatbread, bottarga (dried pressed grey mullet roe) shaved over baby fennel salad, and fish like rombo con fregola (turbot on pea-sized semolina grains, in tomato-saffron sauce). The fritto misto (mixed fried fish) is superb. The wine list is equally unconventional, and can be expensive; stick to the Sardinian wines, which can be rustic but tasty, or trade up to Maculan’s Breganze Bianco, a delicious godsend, reasonably priced.
Assaggi,
Open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday
Nearest Tube: Notting Hill Gate, Queensway
Nearby Attractions: Notting Hill,
LOCANDA LOCATELLI
Giorgio Locatelli invigorated Italian cooking here, in several restaurants. Now, in a comfortable and attractive room just off Portman Square, he’s created the best Italian restaurant in town. Signature dishes: ravioli filled with velvety ossobucco, monkfish with walnuts and caper sauce, and sweetbreads in sweet-and-sour sauce (a specialty of his native Lombardy). Also, try the cabbage parcels filled with spicy pork and saffron risotto, and rich and tender braised lamb and sweet peppers, or swordfish salad with leeks, all combining bold rusticity and easy elegance. The wine list is splendid, mostly Italian (the exceptions are Champagne and Port) at fairly low markups. The special Piedmontese and Tuscan lists are expensive but worth the money; this is the best place in town to have a big night out with stellar performers like Gaja, Conterno, Prunotto, Pio Cesare, Isole e Olena, Fonterutoli, and Antinori.
Locanda Locatelli, 8 Seymour Street, London W1H 7JZ. Tel: +44 (0)207 935-9088.
Open for lunch and dinner Monday through Saturday.
Nearest Tube: Marble Arch
Nearby Attractions: The Wallace Collection, Speakers’ Corner
ZAFFERANO
This genteel Italian is Knightsbridge personified. The decor is pleasantly understated, service is cheerfully solicitous, the atmosphere amiable. The menu is organised as four courses–imaginative starters, pastas, main courses, and desserts. There are always versions of gnocchi and ravioli (stuffed with things like oxtail, with a rich reduced sauce), as well as various noodles, all freshly made; the linguine with clams is as good as in Liguria. Main courses are inventive, authentic: sweet-and-sour skate or steamed hake with fried parsley and garlic, or rabbit wrapped in prosciutto. Don’t miss the cheesecake, made from goat’s cheese, with a sweet polenta crust and marsala sauce. The wine list is all-Italian, long, and well-balanced. There are also extensive separate listings of reserve wines from the Piedmont and Tuscany.
Zafferano, 15 Lowndes Street, London SW1X 9EY. Tel: +44 (0)207 235-5800.
Open Monday-Saturday for lunch and dinner.
Nearest Tube: Knightsbridge
Nearby Attractions: Harvey Nichols, Harrod’s, Hyde Park
LATIUM
Decor is a bit plain–the focus of the owners, a chef and a sommelier, was on the kitchen and wine cellar. What’s on the plates is delicious and refined: tagliolini with crabmeat and eggplant; gnocchi with porcini mushrooms, smoked salmon and pumpkin sauce; roast partridge with wild mushrooms, and a lot more. More than 200 Italian wines listed, carefully chosen and reasonably priced.
Latium, 21 Berners St., London W1T 3LP. Tel: +44 (0)207 323-9123.
Open Monday through Saturday for lunch and dinner.
Nearest Tube: Oxford Circus
Nearby Attractions: Oxford Street shopping
MANICOMIO
Duke of York Square is a newish plaza of posh shops just off Sloane Square. The real gem is this terrific, informal Italian restaurant. A long list of sophisticated and complex starters and pastas is a grazer’s paradise (don’t miss the walnut gnocchi with robiola cheese, or tagliatelle with pheasant and chestnuts; also some sexy salads). The wine list is mostly Italian, about 50 bins, middle of the road but not bad, with 16 by the glass in two sizes. There is a luxury deli/café adjoining, with olive oils, pastas, and fresh vegetables flown in from Italy available to take home.
Manicomio, 85 Duke of York Square, King’s Road, London SW3 4LY. Tel: +44 (0)207 730-3366.
Open for lunch and dinner seven days a week, café serves breakfast and lunch Monday-Saturday, brunch on Sunday.
Nearest Tube: Sloane Square
Nearby Attractions: Peter Jones, Kings Road
WEBSITES. For reservations, always a good idea, and more information: Locanda Locatelli at www.locandalocatelli.com;