Hackney, Italian Restaurant Guide

“A clever, Italian-Japanese fusion that actually works well, who knew!?” – this tiny and original six-seater in Dalston inspires nothing but love amongst early reporters. “If you’re bored of the endless tasting-menus trend in the food scene, the one here is top notch” – with five courses for £39 (or you can order individually at £9 per plate). “Bargain!” – “I went back the next day...”

“If Wes Anderson did Italian restaurants, they might be something like this”; and this “very 2019” Shoreditch yearling – whose glam, pastiche decor apes a thriving 1960s ristorante – feels “like popping to the Amalfi Coast for lunch without the air travel!”. Definitely, it’s not one for food purists, who can condemn what they see as “overhyped, Instagram-led, bog-standard, fake cooking”. Don’t take it too seriously, though, and it’s superb “fun”, service is “prompt and smooth-running”, and the calorie-laden scoff – with echoes of 1970s Britalian – is “generously portioned” and “surprisingly good”.

This “buzzy”, well-known Italian (in the Arthaus building near London Fields) continues to inspire relatively limited feedback. Pizza is the most popular option foodwise, and reports say it “ticks all the boxes” for a good time. Its sibling Lardo Bebe is no more.

“Delicious filled pasta” made exclusively with ingredients from Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy: that’s the proposition at this “tiny, Spartan place just off Hoxton Square”, which has earned solid ratings in its first year. It has also introduced the region’s fried bread, gnocco fritto, to London, apparently. Sister establishment Parma in Fitzrovia focuses on cheese, charcuterie and Lambrusco wine.

Italian restaurant "with its heart in Venice", appropriately for a canalside spot.

Pasta lunches give way to sharing nibbles and aperitivo in the evenings at this seasonal authentic Italian from owner Antony Difrancesco and head chef Mattia Antonioni; the Stoke Newington newbie has already spawned a City sibling, and bottomless brunches are now a feature.

A former Hackney dive bar is given the hipster treatment, with wood-fired pizza oven, gin distilled on-site, a decent cocktail list and bottomless brunch. Parent company Albion and East Group have also opened a second site Canova Hall in Brixton.