The Guardian
Grace Dent was the first critic to visit Adam Byatt (of Trinity in Clapham)’s “heavenly-white neighbourhood Italian” just off Wandsworth Common, declaring it a “surefire hit” – an “achingly civilised, Emilia Romagna-influenced, candlelit trattoria where the cloakroom tags are actual Amalfi Coast pebbles engraved with numbers” and the weekly laundry bills for the tablecloths “must make the accountants weep”.
Its environs are thick with wealthy hedgies, but some of Rosina’s prices are “staggeringly pocket-friendly”, including cavatelli cacio e pepe at just £8 and “post-service pasta” (spaghetti with anchovy, chilli and garlic) at £16 – which is also “the first time I’ve seen a restaurant give a glimpse into what its owner eats after hours. More of this, I say.”
A carpaccio of wild sea bass with chilli, Amalfi lemon and a clean, sharp, precise olive oil shifted Grace’s view from “this is perfectly pleasant” to “holy god, this is really quite special”. This was confirmed by a couple of “genuine death row delicacies”: a white risotto that was “a sensory bombardment of unctuous gloop” and some “absolutely remarkable” roasted baby spuds. Turbot was perfectly cooked and tiramisu, whose recipe was credited to an Italian woman called Pina, was “wet, light and stodgy in all the right places”.
Grace Dent - 2026-09-13The Times
Camilla Long headed to “blandissimo” Wandsworth Common, where “Posh London Food” began at Marco Pierre White’s restaurant Harveys (now Chez Bruce), but whose days as “a serious food place are long over”. Here, chef Adam Byatt (of modern British restaurant Trinity in Clapham) has “suddenly decided he wanted to do Italian food” (Camilla suggests this urge is a “midlife howl”).
The restaurant attracts a lunchtime crowd of “boomer foodies in big necklaces” and an evening crowd of “check-shirted Hooray Henrys with signet rings”. “If I had to put a label on it, I’d say it is Carluccio’s for people who could actually buy Caluccio’s”.
But for all the “polite, ho-hum” Italian cooking (nice pasta; an elegant whole bream in salt; a musky rabbit escalope), what Camilla really admires – and what she’s quite sure Byatt is most interested in – are the “rip-roaring, rude dishes” on the menu: earthy rabbit livers in chianti, deep-fried gnocchi with salame rosa and, “bolting out of the blue”, veal tongue with mostarda – the “ugliest dish I’ve ever seen, the colour of old schoolboy socks in the flesh”, but whose “melting loveliness, the incredible, jelly-like softness and the blooming subtle taste” she will remember forever.
Camilla Long - 2026-10-04
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