Restaurants

Locanda Locatelli has ‘It’ status. Chef-owner Giorgio Locatelli is one of the most recognised and well regarded Italian chefs in the capital, and the loungey, sexy dining room is a celeb magnet. If that makes you think ‘high prices and lengthy waiting lists’, you’d be right. Yet once through the hallowed portals, diners are treated like royalty regardless of rank – although the two-hour slots for a table are strictly adhered to. Locatelli takes seasonal ingredients seriously; peas, artichokes and broad beans appeared in several guises on our spring visit and we couldn’t resist a pasta dish of borage parcels with walnut sauce, which delivered a gorgeous interplay of gently bitter flavours. A starter of deep-fried calf’s foot ‘salad’ with mostarda was far more delicate than the name would imply. Locatelli may hail from near Lake Maggiore on the Swiss-Italian border, but he’s a dab hand with southern Italian flavours, as in the well-rendered Sicilian dish of sardines beccafico – butterflied sardines stuffed and rolled and served on a salad of fennel and orange. This is cooking with a real sense of style and attention to detail. Service is appropriately solicitous and professional. The mostly Italian wine list is impressive, if not cheap, with some good, food-friendly wines by the glass.

Time Out Eating & Drinking Guide 2009