BOCCONCINO, MAYFAIR
Best Italian restaurant for: classic Italian cooking in a grand setting
Dish to order: the daily fresh market fish special
Bocconcino serves up hearty, classic Italian food in elegant but pared-back surroundings. Muted neutrals, lofty ceilings, glass walls and copper accents lend all the refinement you’d expect of its Mayfair location, and the menu is generous, too. Antipasti include soft-as-a-cloud burrata with pesto and juicy tomatoes, and slow-cooked, lemony artichokes. Get them to share along with a basket of rosemary flatbread, served hot from the woodfire oven. Then there’s an almost overwhelming choice of pasta, pizza, meat and fish, with daily market specials for the latter. Red gurnard was on offer when we visited, theatrically filleted at the table and served with the freshest homemade tagliatelle and a tomato, black-olive and caper sauce. Wash it all down with whichever Italian wine the sommelier suggests.
Find it: Bocconcino, 19 Berkeley Street, Mayfair, London W1J 8ED
Telephone: +44 20 7499 4510
Website:bocconcinorestaurant.co.uk
FRANCO’S, ST JAMES’S
The fact that a place has been popular for ages is no guarantee of anything; after all, Disneyland has been popular for ages. And so it is with Franco’s, which has occupied this unlikely spot by the corner of Jermyn Street and St James’s Street – behind White’s, basically – since a time when, for most English people, pasta was, as columnist Ian Jack has rather brilliantly put it, ‘a rumour’. Franco’s has undergone several transformations over the years but the fundamentals remain the same – impeccable Italian classics delivered con brio. The spaghetti carbonara is not always on the menu, but you can always get it if you ask – and you should.
Find it: Franco’s, 61 Jermyn Street, London SW1Y 6LX
Telephone: +44 20 7499 2211
Website: francosondon.com
SORELLA, CLAPHAM
The latest from The Dairy stable, Sorella is inspired by the time Irish chef Robin Gill spent at two-Michelin-star Don Alfonso 1890 on the Amalfi Coast. Now his food comes with an Italian accent, but fans will recognise his signatures: crispy chicken skins top cheese agnolotti, desserts (including Pump Street chocolate and fennel gelato) are never too sweet, and his love of charcuterie, fermenting, pickling, curing and smoking are present and correct with plates of 20-month-aged prosciutto Marchigiano and black-pepper coppa served with tangy farm pickles. And, of course, there’s still the brilliant-value chef’s menu for £45, meaning you can rack up the drinks bill from the all-Italian wine list.
Find it: Sorella, 148 Clapham Manor Street, London, SW4 6BX
Telephone: +44 20 7720 4662
Website: sorellarestaurant.co.uk
LUCA, CLERKENWELL
From the owners of The Clove Club (Daniel Willis, Johnny Smith and chef Isaac McHale) is another exciting London restaurant. This is an all-singing Italian à la carte menu though, without a tasting menu in sight. The interiors are crawling with greenery and the space is candlelit making it a great place for a date. Don’t skip the starters – there’s beef carpaccio with oyster emulsion, sea robin crudo with buttery Capezzana olive oil and turnip tops with smoked cod’s roe. The open pasta kitchen serves delicious homemade pasta and there’s a lovely bar, perfect for a Negroni later on.
Find it: Luca, 88 St John Street, Clerkenwell, London EC1
Telephone: +44 20 3859 3000
Website: luca.restaurant
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