16 Best Italian Restaurants In London

London’s Italian-restaurant scene is wealthy and various, from conventional trattorias to stylish new eateries, from positive eating to home made pasta and pizza. Right here’s a number of the perfect to go well with a variety of tastes and budgets.

1.Norma, Fitzrovia

Norma occupies three flooring of a fantastically restored 18th-century townhouse on Charlotte Avenue. For particular occasions there’s a stunning personal eating room on the prime, a candy entrance terrace and simply inside, a uncooked seafood bar. Highlights of the Sicilian-inspired menu embrace the improbable signature pasta: rigatoni with aubergine, tomato basil sauce and ricotta. The Cornish crab in chilli and lemon butter is fantastically offered in a large crab shell. Seasonal complete fish full of sun-dried tomatoes, capers and herbs is one other winner. The charming, inviting ambiance at Norma was impressed by old fashioned Sicilian cafe tradition – an actual delight.

2.Cicchetti, Knightsbridge

The latest restaurant from the award-winning San Carlo Group is genuine Italian eating at its finest. Stunning, luxurious interiors and a colourful, eclectic artwork assortment make for tremendous stylish environment. The design is by London-based studio Fettle who have been impressed by classical Venetian structure and the work of Venice’s most influential residents like Carlo Scarpa. The meals, overseen by Cicchetti’s Govt Chef, Andrea Parente, is fabulous too. A tapas type menu permitting for sharing means you don’t need to miss out. The burrata with parma ham, shaved truffles and a piquant olive oil is a should, as is the tuna tartar with delicate spices, zesty lemon, olive oil and mache leaves. Decadent black truffle ravioli and black salt sea bass with herb and olive oil are additionally highlights. The present stopper desserts are insanely good with the chocolate bomb theatrically offered at your desk. Service is attentive, charming and knowledgable.

3.Legare, Shad Thames

This petite Italian gem opened in late 2019 however like many different eating places launching simply earlier than the pandemic, it feels new and thrilling now. The neighborhood restaurant focuses on seasonal components, recent pasta and a small pure wine checklist. Pasta is the star; easy and scrumptious. Attempt the wild garlic farfalle with peas, courgettes, mint and ricotta or Gargati al torchio with fennel sausage.

4.Bocca di Lupo, Covent Backyard

Jacob Kenedy and Victor Hugo have been pleasing diners since 2008 with regional Italian delicacies; every dish on the twice every day altering menu features a observe about which of the 20 areas it comes from. Perch on the lengthy counter to see the cooks at work and absorb the buzzy ambiance. If they’ll make one thing themselves, they’ll do it, from the moreish gelati, to breads, sausages, salame and pasta, with the remaining fastidiously sourced from Italy. Anticipate dishes like ravioli with butter and sage or rigatoni with sheep ricotta, basil and courgette flowers.

5.Maria G’s, Kensington

Launched in June 2022, Maria G’s is chef Robin Gill’s second restaurant in west London, becoming a member of Rye by the Water in Brentford, in addition to his well-liked south London institutions, Darby’s, Sorella and Bermondsey Larder. Tucked away on the bottom ground of a swanky new condominium constructing in Kensington, the decor is trendy and there’s a extremely pretty backyard terrace. Maria G’s menu relies round seasonal produce sourced from Chef Gill’s shut community of suppliers. Menu stars embrace: mackerel bolognese with squid ink linguine; hand-rolled fettuccine, mussels, lemon, and chilli; and monkfish cooked in puttanesca butter. And don’t miss the sage and anchovy fritti to start out.

6.Murano, Mayfair and Cafe Murano, Bermondsey

Angela Hartnett’s very good Michelin-starred restaurant reveals the influences of cooking together with her Italian grandmother and aunts. It’s Mayfair however the ambiance is casual with a menu that includes seasonal, fashionable Italian dishes utilizing the perfect of British and European produce. The wine checklist at Murano focuses on small sustainable producers, with Italian wines as a speciality. Additionally really helpful is sister restaurant, Cafe Murano, south of the river and that includes a northern Italian menu stuffed with robust flavors. Contemporary pasta, made every day on website, is the star of this extra informal offshoot. Menu highlights embrace: spaghettini, courgettes, burford brown with pecorino; linguini, clams, chilli and almond pangrattato; and grilled octopus, chickpeas, fennel and orange.

7.Polpo, Soho

Russell Norman’s unique Venetian-bacari-inspired restaurant stays probably the greatest locations for an intimate chunk in Soho. Taking inspiration from the normal bàcaris of Venice, the menu consists of cicchetti (Venetian tapas) plus bigger dishes together with pasta and pizza, all of that are designed to be shared. Don’t miss the pork-and-fennel meatballs and the linguine cassopipa.

8.Il Giardino, Knightsbridge

Open from Wednesday to Sunday till late autumn, The Berkeley resort’s out of doors house has as soon as once more been remodeled right into a plant-filled oasis. Il Giardino affords an interesting number of Italian drinks plus sharing plates like arancini, assorted bruschetta, rigatoncini cacio e pepe with truffle, tagliolini with pistachio pesto and scrumptious roasted wild seabass on a mattress of caponata. For dolce, suppose apricot crostata with amaretto ice cream and tiramisu served alongside gelato cones of Amalfi lemon and pastel peach sorbets.

9.Sette, Bulgari resort, Knightsbridge

Sette within the Bulgari Lodge has a terrific vibe and a wonderful menu. New York Metropolis’s Scarpetta restaurant household has introduced genuine Italian meals from the guts of Manhattan to London. The pasta is excellent, together with Scarpetta spaghetti with San Marzano tomato, basil and taglioni aqua pazza with lobster, calabrian chili, tomatoes, black breadcrumbs. Different highlights embrace ravioli cacio e pepe and the unbelievable tagliatelle with combined mushrooms and toasted hazelnuts.

10.Baccala, Bermondsey

This pleasant, neighborhood Italian restaurant and wine bar specialising in seafood was based by 4 pals, together with Sommelier Fabio de Nicola and Chef Moreno Polverini. Signature menu dishes embrace an Oyster tasting menu with recent native oysters, roasted octopus with marinated bell peppers, olives and basil and spaghetti with sea urchin & inexperienced peas. Baccala has a minimal industrial meets Mediterranean aesthetic and a beautiful chilled vibe that invitations diners to settle in for a leisurely lunch or dinner.

11.Lina Stores

The Lina Shops eating places are simply recognisable with their fairly mint-green façades and pastel-colored interiors. The pasta, handmade within the deli on daily basis, is the primary occasion right here and doesn’t disappoint. The spaghetti al nero is nice and for dessert, strive the cannoli with ricotta, pistachio or chocolate. Bloomberg Arcade within the metropolis and Marylebone are the 2 newest eating places on this profitable mini-chain.

12.Fatto, Kings Cross

Tucked away from the busy Kings Cross station in St Pancras sq., this informal new Italian affords a number of the finest Neapolitan pizzas in London. Craft beers from unbiased breweries within the UK and Italy are one other promoting level, as is the scrumptious recent lemonade. Pizza is accessible in vegan and gluten free choices too. The perimeters are additionally glorious, particularly parma, coppa and burrata and buffalo bocconcini, child gem, tomato and pesto.

13.Crazy Pizza, Knightsbridge and Marylebone

Based in Porto Cervo, Sardinia in 1998 by F1 legend Flavio Briatore. there at the moment are two London areas: Marylebone and Knightsbridge. A top-secret recipe of yeast-free dough leads to an extremely skinny and scrumptious crust. Uncommon toppings embrace shaved truffles and zucchini flowers. The crispy pizzas, made in Italian Morello wood-burning ovens, are topped with “made on the day, eaten on the day” mozzarella and recent tomato sauce. The Tartufo pizza with beneficiant shavings of recent black truffle and white truffle further virgin oil is a spotlight.

14.Bancone, Soho

The regularly altering menu at Bancone options pasta, made in-house every day. Not too long ago appointed Govt Chef, Ben Waugh headed up Pétrus and earlier than that the Savoy Grill. His menu has included scrumptious Barolo ox cheek pappardelle with Barolo vinegar and Cornish cod served with tagliatelle. The burrata is divine; it’s at present served with heritage tomatoes and basil oil. The stylish interiors function enticing blue leather-based banquette seating.

15.Al Mare, Knightsbridge

Govt Head Chef and Italian native, Marco Calenzo, previously of Zuma, has created a stellar menu on the new restaurant in The Carlton Tower Jumeirah. The restaurant affords scrumptious recent pasta made in home and produce sourced from the chef’s favourite Italian suppliers. Highlights on the menu embrace: Ricciola al Limone and conventional pasta specialities corresponding to Ravioli ‘Del Plin’ full of Guinea fowl.

16.River Cafe, Hammersmith

This ever-popular, Thames-side restaurant has provided a every day altering menu of seasonal Italian delicacies because it opened 35 years in the past. Proprietor Ruth Rogers and her head cooks Sian Wyn Owen, Joseph Trivelli and Danny Bohan current the wealth of flavors present in Italy’s regional delicacies.The menu is up to date recurrently whereas retaining a handful of signature dishes like chargrilled squid with chilli and wild rocket and chocolate nemesis cake.