Islington, Italian Restaurant Guide

“Properly Italian food, properly cooked” is on the menu at this “super-authentic Puglian-style” restaurant “near the Almeida theatre” in Islington (“always a favourite place to go before a play”). “The food is rustic and always delicious” – “lovely pasta and rich, fresh, full-of-flavour sauces, in generous portions”, plus “spectacular pizzas”. There’s a “super atmosphere”, although it gets “very noisy at busy times”, and they have a second branch near St Paul’s in the City. Top Menu Tips – “they cater brilliantly for coeliacs, baking their own gluten-free bread on site and it’s fantastic”; “very good Salento Panzerotti di patate, finger croquettes with the lightest of crust rather than a mini-calzone”.

This quartet of modern pasta joints offer “high-quality ingredients” and staff who “make you feel very welcome”. But the cooking divides opinion sharply, with some reporters praising “good, unpretentious” cooking “at a fair price” and others complaining of “tiny, overpriced helpings – avoid!”. A more nuanced judgement: “good but could be so much better – menu had some great options but everything seemed overpowered with butter/oil”.

In the cosy and evocative, small (27 cover) restaurant of the Islington Arts Club – at the north end of Upper Street – this August 2025 launch is from chef duo Louis Korovilas and Taylor Sessegnon-Shakespeare, who previously worked together at Pied A Terre. It’s weekend-only, from Friday dinner to Sunday lunch, in an affordable (£65 per person) tasting format rooted in French and Italian cuisines, with a weekly-rotating menu (e.g. Broadbean orzotto with chicken wing, Aubergine scarpece, with bagna cauda and clams, Beef carpaccio with oyster mayonnaise and baby artichokes, finishing with Seasonal financiers).