Harden's says
The legendary Soho deli (which marked 75 years in London in 2019) has opened a new pasta restaurant and deli in King's Cross.
Harden's survey result
Summary
“Small plates but big flavours” from “a lovely short menu of top-quality antipasti and pasta dishes” win numerous “cheap ’n’ cheerful” nominations for this small chain, which consists of the “busy, lovely but very crammed” Soho original (for 75 years a deli, but since 2018 and its relaunch by Private Equity firm White Rabbit, in this new guise) and a newer, bigger but less commented-on King’s Cross spin-off. “We need more branches of this great restaurant” plead fans… whose prayers are soon to be answered with a 90-seater outlet in Marylebone (in Wigmore Street, on the former Sourced Market site) plus in Bloomberg Arcade and Clapham, as well as one in Tokyo!
Summary
“A tiny restaurant with a big heart… and wonderful pasta” – the “transition from great Italian deli to restaurant is a big success” at this landmark, 75-year-old Soho store, which morphed last year from pure retail to providing an “excellent, counter-dining experience at moderate prices” nearby. “If you love pasta, this is the place to go” – “delicately silky, with the most fantastic sauces” – and it’s “a brilliant stop-off before film, theatre etc”. It’s not going to take 75 years to turn this rip-roaring success into a chain, though: branch no. 2 opened in the second half of 2019 in one of King’s Cross’s ‘heritage buildings’: ‘an 100-cover outfit decorated in the same pale green-and white-stripes that diners in Soho have come to know’.
Summary
“A tiny restaurant with a big heart… and wonderful pasta” – the “transition from great Italian deli to restaurant is a big success” at this landmark, 75-year-old Soho store, which morphed last year from pure retail to providing an “excellent, counter-dining experience at moderate prices” nearby. “If you love pasta, this is the place to go” – “delicately silky, with the most fantastic sauces” – and it’s “a brilliant stop-off before film, theatre etc”. It’s not going to take 75 years to turn this rip-roaring success into a chain, though: branch no. 2 opens in the second half of 2019 in one of King’s Cross’s ‘heritage buildings’ and will be ‘an 100-cover outfit decorated in the same pale green-and white-stripes that diners in Soho have come to know’.
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Have you eaten at Lina Stores?
Restaurant details
Lina Stores Restaurant Diner Reviews
"food is good and good value, though limited and very focused; the room is stunning althought the surroundings soulless. Big problem was service - quite a lot of waiters milling around, to the end not clear if anyone was ours; you simply had to catch a passing one to order, or to remind of order, get a drink etc. We were at the counter but strangely uninvolving - perhaps dangerous to watch chefs going through the motions of assembling pasta-sauce-protein in the five combos."
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