London, Italian Restaurant Guide

2022 Review: This 55-year-old City trattoria is a popular, lunchtime rendezvous spot on account of its “huge” helpings of classic dishes; its terrace by Bow churchyard for al fresco eating; and its good regional list of Italian wines.

“While I do go to this place and enjoy it, I question whether it is good value for what it is: it’s safe and reliable but couldn’t be said to be top-notch” – the verdict we deliver pretty much every year on these civilised Italians in Chelsea and the City, which, so long as you are fairly cost-insensitive, provide a “smart and buzzy” environment for meeting a pal or holding an informal business lunch, with Italian cooking that’s “generally well done if a little uninspired”. Top Tip – cute, heated outside terrace in SW3.

2022 Review: A “family-run trattoria” three minutes’ walk from St Paul’s that rates highly for its “varied Italian menu” – and it’s notably well priced for the City, too.

At the heart of the brutalist Barbican complex (with views of the internal lake) this arts-centre amenity is, fans say, “a better-than-you’d expect place”: “a nice restaurant with good service and a range of choices to suit most tastes”. Possibly this is true, but, arguably, this is also an indictment of the modest level of expectations of most Britons towards their institutions and top caterers (in this case, Searcy’s).

This “friendly Italian near the Barbican” has a good-sized fan club. It serves “food that is just that little bit different” – “the cooking seems to have taken a step up recently, and the place is often bustling”. There’s a “great and fairly priced list of Italian wines” – “and do leave room for the puddings”.

“We love the pistachio decor and the spacious seating”, say fans of this expanding chain, which had operated as a treasured old deli in Soho for over 75 years before starting to branch out as a pasta-chain in 2018. Impressions of it are something of a mixed bag though. To fans, its stylised outlets are “very convenient” and “can be trusted for a good-value and enjoyable experience with excellent food” (mostly pasta) in “sensible portions”. On the downside, though, are a fair number of diners to whom it’s a good concept whose execution is “perfectly fine but unexciting” (“starters good, pasta average-to-good, but compared with folk who had raved to me about other branches, I was left with a sense of ‘meh?’”). Still, their backers are enthusiastic and this year they added new locations in Greek Street and South Kensington.