Bar Trattoria Semplice

Press Reviews (3)

• Richard Vines (11th March 2009)
  3/4 stars
  
  The critic visits a Mayfair newcomer which offers “as good an advertisement for Italian food in London as the most expensive restaurants… Semplice imports its ingredients and wines direct from small regional producers and allows the quality to speak for itself.” (“Bar Trattoria Semplice is an offshoot of Ristorante Semplice”, he notes, “which won a Michelin star this year, a bright spot in a dispiriting guide that honored French chefs such as Alain Ducasse and Joel Robuchon while passing over some of London’s most exciting venues, including Launceston Place, Texture and L’Anima”. There is now hardly a critic in London who has not disparaged the French guide’s most recent UK offering, which does make you wonder why some people still hold it out as some sort of ultimate authority. The three cited restaurants, incidentally, are all very favourably reviewed in Harden’s.)
• Jenni Muir (3rd December 2008)
  4/6 stars
  
  A rather staccato review of a new Mayfair trattoria, which is an offshoot of a nearby restaurant that’s always struck the Time Out team as being “a little too buttoned-up for an Italian”. Prices are thought relatively high, but the only dish apparently commented on was “generous in portion and just as liberal with flavour”.
• Fay Maschler (19th November 2008)
  3/5 stars
  
  “To provide competition for yourself on your front door is perhaps dopey”, says the critic, but the owners of one of her favourite Italian restaurants in London, Ristorante Semplice, “couldn’t resist the emptiness of the pub around the corner”. “[I]n the West End”, she opines, the new trattoria offers “good value”.