Strand, Italian Restaurant Guide

“It’s lovely to sit at the outside tables in the summer” in the “beautiful courtyard” of Covent Garden’s Floral Court, dining on “interesting small plates” of Italian food – “albeit on the expensive side” – at the central London offshoot from the well-known Petersham Nurseries in Richmond. It’s just “great for a girls’ day lunch or dinner”.

“One of the prettiest restaurants in London – charmingly tucked away in Floral Court, Covent Garden” – this is the in-town offshoot of the famous Richmond plant nursery, and in fact houses two establishments – “La Goccia is the better of the two” (see also). There’s “a lovely atmosphere in this light and bright room – it’s the sort of place you might take your rich aunt to for lunch”. The food, though, is “not especially memorable” and “weirdly expensive for average fare”.

2022 Review: In the heart of tourist Covent Garden – on the corner of the market itself, near The Punch & Judy pub – this large (200-seat) Italian arrived in late 2019. It’s the first venture outside Italy for Nicolo Marzotti, who has 13 restaurants back home. The jury is still out on whether or not it transcends its tourist trap location (including some seating on a balcony over the main market square).

2021 Review: “Neapolitan influences are evident in the choice of ingredients, and the wood-burning oven makes for good, chewy, charred crusts, unlike most high-street pizzas” – so say fans of this global chain, whose HQ is indeed in Naples. Not everyone is impressed, though, and ratings are dragged down by those who feel it’s merely an “everyday” choice: “OK for a bog-standard group, but not great”.

The “beautiful setting” and “elegant small sharing plates of tapas-like cicchetti” make this “great spot” from the San Carlo group “perfect for pre- or post-Coliseum dining” and it inspires uniformly positive feedback from a big and diverse fan base.

“A good find for a pre-theatre meal” – this “efficient and friendly” Covent Garden dining room is quite stylish for somewhere inside a modern chain hotel, and serves an offbeat mix of Peruvian and Italian dishes: “a great selection”, with “lots of small-plate choices and interesting combinations” – “just enough to choose easily and all delicious”.

“We all loved it – especially the kids”, is the most popular view of this vast and OTT mock-Italian operation in Covent Garden from French group Big Mamma, whose “funky interior, fun staff and really positive vibe” create a jolly backdrop to some “surprisingly good and cheaply priced food” – mainly pizza and pasta. Moaning “shame about the Instagramming teenagers” rather misses the point of the whole enterprise, although the odd ‘off’ report suggests that the joke can fall flat on a bad day – “indifferent service, a quiet atmosphere and disappointing grub: what went wrong? They had something but blew it!”.

“Very friendly” and “authentic” – this “family-run traditional Italian trattoria” is a “dependable and good-value” option in Covent Garden, “with outside tables in decent weather”. The food is “good but not exceptional”. Top Menu Tip – “try the calves’ liver and tiramisu”.

“A very sophisticated Italian restaurant” in Covent Garden that combines “gorgeous” cooking and “excellent wines” with “superb” service and an “elegant” interior. Just one catch, and you can probably guess what it is… it’s no bargain (“the crab ravioli at £31 had only 6 ravioli on the plate…”). Top Top – “good value for the pre-theatre menu”.

“Reliably good Italian food at fair prices” and particularly “switched-on service” won revitalised support this year for Angela Hartnett’s “very serviceable” mini-chain, which is generally a “very safe choice”, and – at its best – “memorable” in the level of “very confident” cooking it can achieve. Even fans, though, concede the “atmosphere can be a bit low key”, in particular at the “rather gloomy” WC2 branch (and the best reports are at St James’s).

“Reliably good Italian food at fair prices” and particularly “switched-on service” won revitalised support this year for Angela Hartnett’s “very serviceable” mini-chain, which is generally a “very safe choice”, and – at its best – “memorable” in the level of “very confident” cooking it can achieve. Even fans, though, concede the “atmosphere can be a bit low key”, in particular at the “rather gloomy” WC2 branch (and the best reports are at St James’s).

“Elevating accessible pasta to another level” and “at fair prices” has won a huge fan club for these pasta pit-stops, which – in July 2023 – added a Borough Yards location to their outlets in Soho and off Trafalgar Square. It’s the “narrow” WC2 branch that’s best known, and, despite the weight of custom, “helpful staff do their best” and it delivers “lots of atmosphere”. The food rating dipped this year, though, due to a few refuseniks who say “it used to be good, but is becoming a victim of its own success”. Executive Chef Ben Waugh creates all new dishes and ensures the classics are still on the menu, such as Fazzoletti (silk handkerchiefs) with confit egg yolk and walnut butter. There is also an aperitivi and cicchetti bar.

“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”.

This “Soho institution” stands for “tradition and location”, offering “the best coffee 24/7” along with “the most atmospheric counter seating in London”. Founded in 1949 by the Polledri family, who still own it, it is a rare survivor of Soho’s once-thriving Italian community.

A “reliable Soho favourite”, where results from its blackboard menu are “always solidly good and can be excellent” – the same can be said of its handwritten ‘little black book’ of wines. “Small, relaxed and friendly”, it “can become pretty noisy, but that’s part of the fun”.

The timing of its debut, during Covid 19, couldn’t have been harder for this Covent Garden three-year-old, and it has yet to attract a huge volume of feedback or a settled view from diners. One fan says “you get a twist on Italian cooking, and boy do they get it right” in a “superb, light and airy space that’s ideal for a business meal”. To a critic it’s “bizarre eating in what feels like, and actually is, a hotel lobby, with some dishes very clumsily seasoned”.