The Times
Jay Rayner swooned over a meal which confirmed his view that Francesco Mazzei, whom he has followed from L’Anima and Sartoria to this new perch in the swanky Corinthia hotel, is “quite simply the best” of the many great Italian chefs currently working in London.
The “uneasy setting” – Jay reckoned Albert Speer would have admired the architecture of the dining room, whose linen screens were reminiscent of a First World War TB infirmary – and the “unconscionable pricing” could not disguise the quality of Mazzei’s cooking. “The earthy, jagged edges to his food are heavily inspired by his Calabrian upbringing, but never get rubbed smooth by the gilding of the grand dining room”.
This is a chef whose “game is complete”, from the springy focaccia at the beginning of the meal, via some “tottering lasangna pastachina” (from the chef’s mum’s recipe), tuna crudo, porchetta, a huge portion of zucchini fritti, through to the final dish of “cocoa-pelted tiramisu presented tableside in an earthenware bowl the size of an SUV tyre”.
“I know I will sit in more comfortable spaces in 2026,” Jay concluded. “I will certainly settle smaller bills. But I doubt I will eat better than I did at Mezzogiorno.”
Jay Rayner - 2026-02-08The Times
To support his contention that you can eat well at both extremes of the hospitality marketplace, Giles Coren reviewed two London establishments this week: the new restaurant from Fancesco Mazzei, ex-Sartoria and “one of London’s two or three best Italian chefs”, and a “tiddly Korean joint in Greenwich” which started out a few years ago as “a shack by the station”.
At Mezzogiorno, he gorged on a menu that was “very Calabrian/Sicilian (spicy, ballsy, plenty of ’nduja) with the odd Roman interloper (carbonara, cacio e pepe etc)” – all of which was beautifully cooked. Set inside the Corinthia hotel, it was “a dazzling space, with regal service, a wine list as long and sexy as Boccaccio’s Decameron and top-flight Calabrian scran with a bill that could have your eye out”.
Equally “lovely” was lunch at Naru, consisting cold fresh and fermented vegetables, a raw fish plate of lean and fatty tuna, salmon and yellowtail sashimi, nigiri of squid and sea bass and inside-out rolls that were all very good and well priced (a nigiri set is around £25 for ten pieces), followed by a “compellingly crisp and squishy seafood pancake”, and skewers of grilled pork belly and ibérico shoulder.
Giles Coren - 2026-02-15
