Southwark, Italian Restaurant Guide

“An unexpected treat despite the location” – a former warehouse at the back of an industrial building in Peckham – this ex-pop-up Italian serves “really original food at very good prices”, including “easily some of the best pasta in London”. “You feel the people working here really love what they do, and it shows in the food – it’s seriously happy food”.

“Quality Italian beefsteaks” – most notably from the Piedmontese Fassone breed – are showcased in style at Genovese owner, Roberto Costa’s, “unique” steakhouse group, where at each branch you “enter through the butcher’s shop” and “you can tell the staff which cut you want”. “The well-hung rump steak is absolutely delicious” and “a great selection of Italian wines” helps make it the perfect place to kill off an evening.

“A lovely and cosy, family-run Italian”, “handily placed near Waterloo”, which “has been a feature of the area for years” (well over 30). It’s always been “quite expensive”, but for traditional trattoria fare it’s a “go-to” for some diners, including as a business lunch spot.

2016 Review: “Off the beaten track” little Italian, near Shad Thames, which has long been a haven of “surprisingly accomplished” cooking; it has seemed more “impersonal” of late however, and the food “has gone from good to average”.

Gordon Ramsay’s “Italian-leaning” warehouse conversion in Southwark, with an indoor ‘olive grove’ complete with trees, pleases some with its “giant portions of great food” and “fantastic cocktails”. Far too many reporters this year, though, complain of a “sterile” aspect to its “industrial” decor, and dismiss the fare as mightily “uninspired”.

“Perhaps hopes were too high?” – Angela Hartnett’s spin-off Italians in Covent Garden and St James’s inspire a lot of feedback, but much of it is mixed. Fans do applaud her for “succeeding where most others fail in establishing a couple of cheaper ventures that follow her style, but do not feel part of a factory-made chain; and which provide some excellent, simple Italian cooking and carefully chosen wines”. But for many sceptics, the gloss is taken off the experience either by “food that’s fine but not exceptional; not-wholly-interested service; or a lack of ambience” (WC2 can be “very noisy”). She must be doing something right however, as in June 2019 she submitted plans to take over the Bermondsey site some will recall as Zucca (RIP) to become her next outlet. Top Tip – “a useful stop pre-theatre but the set menu never seems to meet expectations, so it’s better to stick with the à la carte”.