Bluewater, Italian Restaurant Guide

2021 Review: This September 2019 yearling in the heart of the town (occupying a former NatWest bank, hence the name) is notable for its owner: Stuart Gillies is the former CEO of Gordon Ramsay's restaurant group, and has launched this venture with the help of wife Cecilia. Previously a chef, Gillies has devised a ‘European small plates’ menu for the two-floor wine bar.

2022 Review: “Everything you could wish for in a local”, say fans of this quirky Italian, in a tiny but characterful former guards’ room in the grounds of the old Woolwich Arsenal. “High-quality food is freshly prepared in an amazing setting with friendly, professional staff. A joy!”.

“A fabulous neighbourhood restaurant”… even more so given that the neighbourhood in question is Lee. “Kitchen competence far outweighs the modest location”, delivering high quality home-made pasta and wood-fired pizza. The Luciano in question is owner Enzo Masiello’s father.

2021 Review: “Amazing pizzas” are a culinary highlight on the sizeable menu (moules, salads, pasta…) at this early-wave microbrewery in Blackheath which celebrated its 20th year in 2020, and where you can also sample, of course, a wide variety of brews fermented in the adjoining stainless steel tanks. Over the years it’s spawned spin-offs in Cardiff, Reading and Bristol.

One of Deptford’s few culinary hotspots worth remembering – this white-walled café on the high street “remains an excellent option for elevated Italian dining” (certainly by local standards). The menu is short but interesting: typically a couple of pasta options and two or three main dishes with a meat, fish and veggie option.

Diminishing feedback in recent years makes it hard to recommend this “noisy and fun”, family-run Sardinian on Brockley Rise quite as resoundingly as we used to. Fans, though, still say it’s “a super, local Italian trattoria, with a great menu: especially the quirky ice cream and sorbet flavours”.

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: By the Stratford entrance to the Olympic park, this all-day Italian restaurant and café arrived in autumn 2019 and has since spawned a couple of Essex-based spin-offs. The space – with big windows – is modern, but the food is traditional: arancini, pasta, pizza from the oven…

“Simple pasta done very well” lives up to the billing at this straightforward chain, which added a branch on Baker Street complete with outside terrace to its other three locations at the start of 2024. They are “nothing amazing, but the food is good, the service friendly, and it is a very easy option” when out and about or “when cooking just feels like a chore”.

2023 Review: “All ages have a great time in true Italian style” at this Sydenham fixture, a “family-owned trattoria with a devoted following of regulars” who come for the classic, fresh-cooked pasta and pizzas.