Clapham, Italian Restaurant Guide

An “interesting range of modern, high-quality Italian dishes” means this “buzzy” Clapham Old Town venue – inspired by chef-patron Robin Gill’s experience of working on the Amalfi coast – draws a more-than-local clientele. The Dairy, its influential older ‘sister’ around the corner, closed down in 2020. Top Menu Tips – “superb octopus arancini, fresh gnocchi and pappardelle ragu”.

“A nice pit-stop for pasta lovers” – this expanding chain is now up to its fifth restaurant spin-off from the original Soho deli (with the June 2023 opening of a new 80-seater, overlooking Clapham Common), and fans say it provides an “attractive”, “buzzing” setting for “simple dishes, well cooked”. A meal is “unlikely to live long in the memory though”, and there’s a growing fear that “as they have expanded the quality has dropped”. Top Tip – at the W1 original (est. 1944 originally as a deli) “sitting upstairs or by the bar is lovely, the windowless basement is not particularly comfortable”.