Bocca Di Lupo

Press Reviews (11)

• Jasper Gerard (5th October 2009)
  4.5/5
  
  It is the dining room of the much-lauded Soho Italian – a notably “entertaining” space, where there is a “sheer enjoyment” rarely present in the “starched dining rooms of London” – that wins over the critic, rather than the kitchen. He likes the “tapas” style, and the “authentic and powerful” dishes, but some of them are certainly not for “delicate consitutions”.
• Marina O'Loughlin (9th April 2009)
  4/5 stars
  
  Ms O’M is growing a bit wary of places like this Soho newcomer, which quickly has become a “critical rave”, but is “currently struggling to live up to the hagiographies”. “A table is currently about as easy to find as a non-delusional Apprentice contender”, she notes, and “like the equally acclaimed Terroirs, it has suffered as a consequence. Prices have crept up, service is strained, some dishes seem a little slapdash”. There are some “terrific dishes”, but “some duffers, too”. She opines that “this restaurant-of-the-year stuff comes from over-excitement about an independent restaurant doing decent food at accessible prices in a city still bloated with expensive high-end options”, but her long-term prognosis for the place is favourable nonetheless.
• AA Gill (16th February 2009)
  3/5 stars
  
  Even by the critic’s own oblique standards, this week’s review is a triumph of not mentioning anything to do with, or tied in with the restaurant until well after half-way through the article (instead we get the Royal Geographical Society and sailing in the Persian Gulf). When he finally gets to the point at this “noisy and comfortable” Soho restaurant, it’s to describe a meal where – having ordered “almost everything” on the menu – results are “fine… just not memorable”; and for all four at the table “[not] quite as good as the high expectations we brought with us”. Specific criticisms, however, are absent (aside from hating the “collegiate style” of a menu that encourages sharing). All-in-all “Bocca di Lupo is right for Soho, I just don’t think I am any more”… whatever that means.
• Terry Durack (10th February 2009)
  17/20
  
  “[M]y new favourite menu is the one at Soho's Bocca di Lupo”, says the critic. Let’s just say his review is a bit of a rave.
• Matthew Norman (26th January 2009)
  9/10
  
  “Were the food merely decent, this would be an attractive and exuberant restaurant, but the brilliance of the cooking raises it to the first rank”, says the critic, who finds himself reluctantly approving this Soho newcomer’s website’s gushing claim that: “It's the taste of honest Italian food that will bring you back to Bocca di Lupo”.
• Jay Rayner (26th January 2009)
  
  “Bocca di Lupo is a very welcome new arrival”, says the critic – the general manager’s name may be Victor Hugo, but “rest assured a night here will not leave you misérable”. (Roll up, roll up. Free rib-protectors with every copy of the Observer.)
• Elena Berton (14th January 2009)
  5/6 stars
  
  “[T]he main reason for visiting this new Soho Italian”, say the critic, should be the chance to experience an outstanding gastronomic tour of most of Italy’s 20 regions, preferably perched next to the long white-marble counter with a full view of the kitchen”, and her meal here was “remarkable”.
• Giles Coren (12th January 2009)
  9.67/10
  
  Having spent much of his piece taking to task his opposite numbers at the Guardian and Observer for their negative reviews of Kettners – “any restaurant (or indeed anything) that reeks of frivolity, extravagance, bourgeois aspiration or pretentiousness must be flattened with the cold hammer of Socialist Realism” – the critic finally turns his attentions to the new Soho Italian to which his review notionally relates.
• John Walsh (7th January 2009)
  Food 3/5 stars, Ambience 4/5 stars, Service 4/5 stars
  
  This “immediately attractive” Soho newcomer offers an “opportunity to check out some classics (and a few extremes) of Italian regionalism”, says the critic. “There are lots of good things to enjoy”, but the menu is sometimes “eccentric” and it “should be approached with caution”.
• Jan Moir (3rd December 2008)
  
  “There many, many good things about Bocca di Lupo”, says the critic. Right from the off, we know how this review of a new Soho Italian is going to go, and the food here is indeed “tremendous”.
• Fay Maschler (3rd December 2008)
  4/5 stars
  
  “Chef Jacob Kenedy and general manager Victor Hugo’s new Italian venture is, to put no finer a point on it, absolutely spiffing” – we don’t have to wait too long for the doyenne of critics to get to the point in her review of this new Soho spot.