Charing Cross, Pizza - Restaurant Guide

“Top pizza” at a “nice price” wins plaudits for this “lively and full” showcase just off Trafalgar Square from Neapolitan pizza master Ciro Salvo, who grew up in the family’s pizzeria at Portici in the foothills of Vesuvius (‘50 kalò’ is apparently pizzaiolo slang for ‘good dough ball’). Fans insist it is the “best pizza in London by a long way”.

“Delicious and innovative pizzas” using seawater (said to produce a lighter, more natural-tasting dough) is the USP of this smart Italian duo near Borough Market and in St James’s. They also provide “excellent fresh pasta” and “great service” – “the only downside is the noise”.

“Mad but fun… and actually pretty decent food!” – that’s the verdict of the young-at-heart (including parents with youngsters to entertain) after a visit to Big Mamma group’s huge and dramatic mock-Italian in Covent Garden, whose stagey interiors (complete with 6m ceiling and 3,500 bottles lining the walls) are designed with Insta in mind. The menu is mostly pizza and pasta (the latter includes a Spaghetti Carbonara option served in a 4kg pecorino wheel).

“Sneakily good pizza” – double-fermented Neapolitan-style – ensure that many branches are “always packed” at the Elliot brothers’ still-expanding chain, whose new summer 2025 opening at the Truman Brewery on Brick Lane marked a return to the site of one of their earliest pop-ups in 2013. Nowadays, it’s one of the more commented-on multiples in our annual diners’ poll. Top Menu Tip – “pepperoni and honey!”

“Proper steak venues” with “fantastic prime cuts for sharing” is how fans applaud Neil Rankin’s cocktail-fueled smokehouses: vibrant hang-outs featuring live-fire BBQ in the open kitchens that form the heart of each outlet (and with a selection of taco platters backing up the menu’s core of smoked meat dishes). Ratings have varied of late, though, and Paddington and Shoreditch branches closed in autumn 2024, now leaving only Soho, Covent Garden and the City. Top Tips – look out for Bottomless brunch deals; and the £15 steak frites lunchtime offer (in Covent Garden only).

As a “cosy choice for a romantic breakfast”, this big, famous Soho landmark wins the odd tip. What’s more striking, though, is how somewhere with a gorgeous Champagne bar and unbeatable heritage (from 1867) can – under Soho House, who mostly run it as a hotel – have sunk into such stupefying obscurity and mediocrity.

“A buzzy, fashionable Italian that’s thoroughly enjoyable for a casual but high-quality meal” – this smart, all-day bar/brasserie behind the RA in the heart of Mayfair is fast approaching its half-century, and remains a favourite for a loyal clientele of glam local professionals for less formal business occasions; post-work meet-ups; or a “refined brunch”. The sceptical view of it is that it’s “all good, but very pricey for simple food”. Part of the Soho House group for the past 20 years, it now has branches at the Ned in the City, in Shoreditch, and in international cities from West Hollywood to Mumbai.

‘Eat Pray Love’ – Elizabeth Gilbert’s 2006 bestseller – did no harm to the fame of these Neapolitan-inspired pizzerias (branded for the Napoli original, founded in 1870). Now with two London branches in Marylebone and Soho (alongside one in Manchester and a couple in Amsterdam), the spinoffs continue to win consistently high ratings. True to the style of Naples, a Marinara will only set you back a tenner, although fancier options will cost twice that.

“Consistently good family-style Italian restaurant in Soho” with “well priced, excellent food, and a nice vermouth bar serving its own creations” (they claim London’s largest selection of vermouths, as well as those they themselves make). Alongside good ranges of pizza and pasta – all of it homemade – the steaks are the highpoint of the short selection of ‘secondi’.

“I see them opening more sites in the capital: great value and a change from what their pizza peers are doing” – from its Mancunian roots, this fast-moving chain has conquered the UK, and expanded in London from a single site in 2021 to ten now dotted around town. There is the odd gripe about “the rot setting in”, but much more common is praise for its “really good pizza, simply done” (“never had a bad meal despite its massive expansion”).

2022 Review: Grab and go at this new brand from Pizza Pilgrims where you can order New-York-style 12-inch pizza – available whole or in slices (in five flavours) – or pizza by the metre. Wash them down with alcoholic slushies and to kill any spare time there are ’80s-style arcade games.