Covent Garden, Italian Restaurant Guide

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).

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.

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”.

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”.

“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.

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”.

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”.

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”.

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”.

“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”.

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”.

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).