Italian Restaurants in Covent Garden
1. Fumo
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
37 St Martin's Lane - WC2
“Handily situated next to the Coliseum, serving tasty cicchetti” – this London outpost of a national chain within the San Carlo group is worth remembering for a light lunch or pre-theatre bite.
2. San Carlo Cicchetti
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
30 Wellington St - WC2
A “vibrant atmosphere (especially good for a group)” helps underpin the appeal of these “glitzy and lively” spin-offs from the San Carlo national chain of glam Italians, whose most central branch – just off Piccadilly Circus – is decked out with “marble tables and stylish chandeliers”. “Very tasty small plates” that are inspired by Venetian “cicchetti” are “served speedily”. In late 2021, they are due to open a second Knightsbridge branch, just across the road from Harrods.
3. VyTA
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
21 The Market - WC2E
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).
4. The Petersham
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
Floral Court, off Floral St - WC2E
A classic ‘rus in urbe’ venue – this lavish, flower-filled destination in a still-new-feeling Covent Garden development channels the charms of the well-known Richmond Park plant nursery in its two restaurants, interiors shop and florist. A “nice place”, undoubtedly, but one too often accused of serving “tiny, overpriced portions” of modern Italian food.
5. La Goccia
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
Floral Court, off Floral Street - WC2E
The courtyard on a summer’s day is a “top setting” and adds lustre to this swish Italian in Covent Garden’s relatively new Floral Court development. There was more appreciation too this year for Italian cuisine that – while “not cheap” – provides “lovely, fresh, simple dishes with super presentation”.
6. Ave Mario
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
15 Henrietta Street - WC2E
Undaunted by the pandemic, Big Mamma (the French group behind smash hits Gloria and Circolo Popolare) opened this huge – 7,000 square feet and 295 covers – newcomer in June 2021. Set over two floors, with two outside terraces, it’s in the same over-the-top vein as its siblings, this time aiming for a ‘cheeky interpretation of the Church’! Apparently that means a bar decorated with 3,500 bottles, and a mirrored basement for events. As with its siblings, the cooking (how did we nearly forget?!) majors on Italian dishes (lots of pasta and pizza) featuring loads of cream, the must-Instagram dishes in this case being a mega stracciatella and chocolate ice cream cake. It opened too late for any survey feedback, but Jimi Famurewa of The Standard diagnosed “sequel bloat and a brand getting slightly lost in the sauce of its own success”. “All the subtlety of a Swarovski-encrusted fist” and food that’s “a touch Nonna’s Gone to Iceland”.
7. Opera Tavern
Spanish restaurant in Covent Garden
23 Catherine Street - WC2
“Excellent tapas” – “served in a refurbished traditional pub”, “with a relaxed atmosphere” – makes this Spanish-Italian, small-plates venue on two storeys a useful address in Covent Garden. Part of the Salt Yard chain, it was revamped to good effect following a change of ownership three years ago.
8. Café Murano
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
36 Tavistock St - WC2
Angela Hartnett’s chain continues to split opinion in our annual diners survey. To their very many fans, these comfortable and well-located Italians (in Covent Garden, St James’s, and now also in Borough) are a real “favourite” thanks to their “buzzy” atmosphere, staff who are “always friendly and helpful” and their “wonderful” trattoria food (“gutsy peasant-type dishes, including good pasta”). Even fans, though, can feel that “prices are only just about OK for the quality” and harsher sceptics just feel they “trade on the Murano name” with a formula that’s just too “unimaginative”.
9. Café Murano Pastificio
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
Pastificio, 34 Tavistock Street - WC2E
Angela Hartnett’s chain continues to split opinion in our annual diners survey. To their very many fans, these comfortable and well-located Italians (in Covent Garden, St James’s, and now also in Borough) are a real “favourite” thanks to their “buzzy” atmosphere, staff who are “always friendly and helpful” and their “wonderful” trattoria food (“gutsy peasant-type dishes, including good pasta”). Even fans, though, can feel that “prices are only just about OK for the quality” and harsher sceptics just feel they “trade on the Murano name” with a formula that’s just too “unimaginative”.
10. Rossopomodoro
Pizza restaurant in Covent Garden
50-52 Monmouth St - WC2
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”.
11. Margot
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
45 Great Queen Street - WC2
Near the Freemasons’ Hall, this “classy” and “traditional”-looking Italian brasserie in Covent Garden is a “perfect business lunch place”, thanks to its classic cuisine and “well-paced” service (which is fitting for a place founded by two front-of-house specialists). Co-founder Paulo de Tarso has left, leaving Nicolas Jaouën (ex-La Petite Maison and Rivea) in charge. A small minority of reporters complained this year that, for all its qualities, the offering “lacks personality”.
12. Bancone
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
39 William IV Street - WC2N
“For a quick Italian meal in the West End”, you will struggle to better this award-winning duo of “beautiful” pasta-bars, off Trafalgar Square and in Soho’s Golden Square, where the “gorgeous fresh pasta” is notably “excellent value”. To be fair, the odd reporter does feel the cooking is “serviceable rather than spectacular”, but the vast majority say the dishes are “to die for”. “Friendly staff get high marks” too, as does the “fantastic buzz”.
13. Da Mario
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
63 Endell St - WC2
This “nice, intimate, friendly Italian restaurant” in Covent Garden makes you feel “as if you were in Italy”. The retirement of the family that ran it for years seems to have had little effect on the menu of basic trattoria classics, “reasonably priced wines and smiling welcome”.
14. Bar Termini
Italian restaurant in Soho
7 Old Compton St - W1
2018 Review: “Simply the best coffee you’ll find anywhere” is part of the resolutely and genuinely Italian approach at Tony Conigliaro’s tiny (expect no great encouragement to linger) but characterful Soho bar, known also for its definitive Negronis and authentic bites. In early summer 2017, a much larger ‘Centrale’ branch opened near Selfridges, with an expanded food offering including salads and panzerotti (akin to a fried mini-calzone).
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