Harden's says
Chef Giuseppe Belvedere is inspired by his Sardinian heritage at this revamp of the former Jim's Cafe on Clapton's Chatsworth Road, serving cafe staples during the day and more ambitious dishes cooked over a wood fire and served alongside low-intervention Italian wines in the evening and Sunday lunch. He is backed by the team behind Milk Cafe and Juliet's Quality Food in southwest London.
Harden's survey result
Summary
Behind the ’50s-tastic frontage, this artful idealised Italian greasy spoon in Clapton (formerly Jim’s Café) operates as a café from breakfast, serving Italian staples for lunch and more ambitious evening fare with some Sardinian influences, alongside low-intervention wines. All reports say the food’s terrific, but one or two incidents of poor organisation dragged down the score for service.
Summary
A menu of Italianate breakfast dishes segues into lunches of café staples and subsequently more ambitious evening fare including homemade pasta and antipasti (alongside low-intervention Italian wines) at this Clapton hotspot, atmospherically shoe-horned into a gentrified former greasy spoon. Over its first year of operation it attracted too limited feedback for a full rating, but such feedback as we have is all positive.
Summary
Ex P Franco and Brawn chef Giuseppe Belvedere (backed by the team behind Milk Café and Juliet’s Quality Food) is inspired by his Sardinian heritage at this skillful revamp of the former Jim’s Cafe on Clapton’s Chatsworth Road. Serving café staples during the day, in the evening and at Sunday lunch he provides more ambitious Italian dishes cooked over a wood fire and served alongside low-intervention Italian wines. It opened in May 2023 after our survey had concluded, but in an early June write-up, The Standard’s Jimi Famurewa lauded its evocative interior as an “Italian beauty”. But, where the scoff was concerned, he was left with an “abiding feeling … of a short menu eliciting lots of intrigue but, also, a nagging urge for an actual dinner”.
For 34 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).
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59 Chatsworth Road, London, E5 0LH
Prices
 Drinks |
|
|---|---|
| Wine per bottle | £30.00 |
| Filter Coffee | £7.00 |
 Extras |
|
|---|---|
| Bread | £4.00 |
| Service | 10.00% |
59 Chatsworth Road, London, E5 0LH
Opening hours
| Monday | CLOSED |
| Tuesday | CLOSED |
| Wednesday | 9 am‑3 pm, 6 pm‑10 pm |
| Thursday | 9 am‑3 pm, 6 pm‑10 pm |
| Friday | 9 am‑3 pm, 6 pm‑10 pm |
| Saturday | 9 am‑3 pm, 6 pm‑10 pm |
| Sunday | 12 pm‑3 pm |
