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Five places for aperitivo in London

With the party season fast approaching, try these five favourites for aperitivo to kick off your evening

By Time Out in association with Peroni Nastro Azzurro
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Italians don’t simply sit down to eat dinner. They glide into it, through the lovely ritual of aperitivo. Literally meaning a pre-meal drink, the word also refers to a process of leaving the chores of the day for the pleasures of the table. So, there will be a drink. And there will be a nibble or two, perhaps as simple as olives and slices of salami. Aperitivo, this precious moment between work and play, gives you a chance to talk to your friends over small plates of antipasti and Peroni Nastro Azzurro Piccola. Crisp and lightly sparkling, Peroni Nastro Azzurro has a refreshing taste with a clean character. This makes it the ultimate complement to food, especially suited to the rich taste of cured meats or cheeses.

Five to try

  • Restaurants
  • Italian
  • Victoria

Get hip to the vibrant vibe at Victoria and a taste of Venetian cicchetti (small sharing plates) at Tozi Restaurant and Bar. There’s Italian wines and cocktails, Peroni Nastro Azzurro Piccola and delicious Venetian nibbles on the menu every day – or start the week with the new Aperitozi offering, every Monday from 4.30 to 6.30pm, with £5 on selected cocktails, wine and prosecco by the glass, with one free cicchetto.

I Robert
  • Restaurants
  • Mediterranean
  • Mayfair

Taking its name from a painting by renowned animal artist Kate Boxer (and not ‘I, Robot’, the dystopian sci-fi film), this new neighbourhood trattoria, a trot away from Green Park, has a warm atmosphere with top Italian credentials care of chef Michele Granziera and manager Aldo Berti. Stop for aperitivo and savour the flavours of the excellent selection of cheese and charcuterie.

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Union Street Café
  • Restaurants
  • Mediterranean
  • Southwark

Owner ‘Don’ Gordon Ramsay has passed over the cheffing duties to Italian Davide Degiovanni, who brings heaven, rather than Dante’s ‘Inferno’, to the kitchen. The menu focuses on seasonal ingredients with an emphasis on Italian artisan producers. Drinks to entice include Peroni Nastro Azzurro Piccola and a twist on the classic Aperol spritz, which infuses the traditional recipe with an added dash of Bombay gin and elderflower liqueur.

Iddu
  • Restaurants
  • Italian
  • South Kensington

Promising an ‘incontro siciliano’ (‘Sicilian encounter’), this relaxed South Ken-meets-Sicily café-wine bar-restaurant includes a sophisticated cocktail menu concocted with a starring cast of Italian drinks (Aperol, Campari, amaretto, prosecco, pistachio liqueur), as well as Peroni Nastro Azzurro Piccola, and antipasti including a 24 month-aged prosciutto and a sharing platter of Sicilian appetisers.

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Apollo
  • Restaurants
  • Italian
  • Stoke Newington
  • price 1 of 4

The decor may be rugged (bare brick and plasterboard walls, tables and chairs that look like they’ve been refashioned from wooden floorboards) but the warmth of this new Neapolitan pizza bar doesn’t only emanate from the authentic wood-fired brick oven. With classic Italian aperitivo cocktails on the menu, as well as Peroni Nastro Azzurro Piccola, prosecco and wine, the delicious pizzas do much more than satiate any hunger pangs.

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