Meriden, Italian Restaurant Guide

“A true treasure in the leafy suburbs”, this “small and quirky” 16th-century pub operates as a “restaurant spread over different rooms”, “delivering a consistently high standard of high-quality British/Italian cooking”. “Luca (Delnevo) and the team treat you as part of the extended family”.

2021 Review: From its Finsbury Park base (next to the Park Theatre), this “cheerful” group of “good neighbourhood pasta-stops” subsequently expanded to Ealing and then onto Wembley branch (there’s also an outlet in Westfield Stratford); all deliver “well-cooked”, affordable pasta.

2022 Review: Set in a “lovely building” with tables under a 200-year-old olive tree, this restaurant – one of eight in a local chain – is frequently packed with regulars, who come back for its “good honest Italian fare at a reasonable price”. There’s “something for everyone on the menu”.

This “great local” has had an up-and-down time of it of late, with the Gerrards Cross branch under new management, and The Grocer at 91, which had pivoted to being a food shop in the pandemic, now closed. On the plus side, this “very busy” outpost is still going strong with its “reliable” (if pricey) sandwiches, salads and toasties, and they also recently opened a new Amersham venue, The Grocer at 2 (Whielden St), spanning a grocery store and café.

Celebrating its 40th anniversary next year, this “big, bustling old favourite in the heart of Golders Green” (occupying a railway arch by the tube) has itself hosted more than its fair share of birthdays over the years thanks to a crowd-pleasing combination of “generous portions of pasta and pizza” at “very reasonable prices”.

2023 Review: “Top Neapolitan pizza” (with a very wide range of choices and featuring ingredients shipped from Italy weekly) helps inspire fans of this casual, brick-walled Kilburn independent.

Home-made pasta and other Italian classics hit the spot at this “enjoyable local restaurant” in Child’s Hill, a family-run business for more than four decades which moved to its present address 22 years ago.

2021 Review: From its Finsbury Park base (next to the Park Theatre), this “cheerful” group of “good neighbourhood pasta-stops” subsequently expanded to Ealing and then onto Wembley branch (there’s also an outlet in Westfield Stratford); all deliver “well-cooked”, affordable pasta.

Under a picturesque Georgian terrace, close to St John-in-Hampstead church, this basement tapas bar is a prime destination in the area thanks to its “consistently delicious food, attentive staff” and “lovely atmosphere”. The menu adds Italian elements to its Spanish core, and there’s a “very good wine selection”.

“There’s an air of old-school sophistication as you enter” this “established Italian” with starched white linen “off an alleyway in Hampstead”. It scored consistently well this year for its “charming and helpful” service and “fab food, without fab prices”. Top Tip – “the wild boar ragu”.

2021 Review: “What a find!” – In a fairly obscure part of town, near the Queen’s Park Estate, “a really cosy, neighbourhood Italian, serving a top selection of cheap ’n’ cheerful dishes, but also more pricey ones, all freshly made and of great quality” (in particular the hand-rolled pasta). Service from husband-and-wife team Simonetta and Avi “is very professional but lively, and there’s a real sense of community at play (e.g. the staff were handing out little pieces of paper with a guest’s name on it, asking us to sing along for his birthday!)”

2021 Review: “Fun and lively, with a management who make you feel extremely welcome” – this simple, ‘Italian kitchen’ in Swiss Cottage serves pizza and pasta plus somewhat more ambitious dishes: it’s all “delicious and good value for money”.

A modern Italian on Abbey Road, whose menu is “not the biggest”, majoring in pasta and light ‘bites’. Feedback this year was a little up-and-down: “always enjoyable” to fans, but, to other regulars “less good and more pricey than it used to be”.

Near Archway, this “great little local” (named after the diminutive Fiat Cinquecento) is both “reliable and good value”. It may “feel a tad old school”, but chef-patron Mario Magli and his team serve up “wonderful food with love and enthusiasm”. (“I have had many meals here with friends and it has always been delightful and an example of how delicious Italian cooking can be”.)

“Owner/front-of-house Giuseppe is Sicilian, chef Antonio is Sardinian, and the cuisine is a mix of the two” at this cute Primrose Hill corner-site, praised for its “fabulous cooking and charming service”. An impressive wine list explores biodynamic bottles from the two islands.

2021 Review: “A top local” – this small, basic-looking three-year-old between Wood Green and Tottenham is worth remembering for its “great pizzas along with superb pastas”.

“Run by Michel Roux’s daughter” Emily and her husband Diego Ferrari (former head chef of Le Gavroche), this Notting Hill five-year-old “gives us the best of two culinary worlds: French and Italian”. The “precise, thoughtful and delicious dishes (celeriac, crab, turbot, veal)…” are “real high-end comfort food” and the “dining room is cool and buzzy without being overly formal”. “Both wine list and cheeseboard are on the conservative side, but none the worse for that”; and “the Italian sommelier has an encyclopaedic knowledge of Italian wines and will always steer us to something new and unusual”. Some reports note a “post-Covid blip amidst staff changes”, and a slip in ratings generally backs up those who feel the experience is “not bad, and better than average, but not quite the quality it was previously”. Top Tip – “lunch is particularly good value”.

This “decent Notting Hill Italian” is “always mobbed (and the back area is particularly noisy), but the basic fare is great quality and the service is smiley”. It has notched up a quarter of a century, and spawned two offshoots in the same street – Essenza and Osteria Basilico.

A “local favourite” in Notting Hill for more than 30 years on account of its “always-consistent” cooking, this rustic Italian is the sort of place with something for “every member of the family”. It has spawned two offspring in the same street, Essenza and Mediterraneo – an indication of how well it suits the neighbourhood.