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!”.

“So lucky to have this as our local in Lee” – this “perfect neighbourhood Italian” sparks joy with its home-made pasta and wood-fired pizzas. Owner Enzo Masiello named it after his father Luciano, who played football for Charlton Athletic.

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.

Bright, white-walled local Italian on the high street in Deptford (sibling to Peckham’s Artusi) named for food writer Marcella Hazan; according to locals the scran’s “always reliable, delicious and great value”.

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…

“Excellent pasta” is the straightforward proposition at this Italian trio, with a flagship in Canary Wharf, which takes its name and inspiration from Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region.

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.