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This is the more casual offshoot of fancy Ristorante Semplice; while the ristorante’s high-end food presentation is over-fussy, in our experience, this trattoria is too casual by far. On a warm summer night, we could barely get in the for 100 or so Italians at a function who were occupying the pavement and the staff’s entire attention.
Diners were offered a standard Italian menu of unsurprising starters, a few own-made pastas and half a dozen main courses. Porchetta, which arrived with a pile of long-ago shredded lettuce, was indifferent at best; a tomato and mozzarella salad was poor for the £9.75 it turned out to cost (the waiter had been unable to price the specials for us).
Mains were better. A cod special came with only a (good) rocket and tomato salad, but the fish was fresh and perfectly cooked; ravioli was clearly recently made, though its large puddle of butter would not be to everyone’s taste. The few waiters swung between rude and solicitous; the party seemed to be their priority.
The trattoria’s decor is in the show-flat style of stripped wood floor and large lampshades, with much beige and brown; Ristorante Semplice’s interior is embellished with waves of gold. Both offer a good selection of regional Italian wines at Mayfair prices.