The best Italian restaurants in London

What’s the vibe? Highbury’s star Italian has been combining irresistible food with spot-on service and some of London’s best pasta since 2010.

Why go? For the pappardelle with slow-cooked beef-shin ragù (a silky delight) and brilliant stuff from the charcoal grill, like whole Cornish mackerel with panzanella. The menu changes daily and the comprehensive all-Italian wine list only serves to emphasise Trullo’s calibre.

What’s the vibe? From former Sager + Wilde head chef Chris Leach and Smokestak founder David Carter comes this classy ‘nose-to-tail’ Italian restaurant, with elegant hand-rolled pasta and a sustainable cooking ethic. 

Why go? For the mindblowing menu, which at last look included ’nduja-steamed mussels with cream and parsley, fazzoletti with duck ragù and duck-fat pangrattato, and Tamworth pork chop with grilled peaches. Woof! 

What’s the vibe? From the creators of Shoreditch’s Clove Club, this upscale venture channels the Riviera-style glamour and primi-secondi decadence of Italian restaurants that are a world away from ‘Lady and the Tramp’ trattoria set-pieces. In 2023 it was awarded a Michelin star, so you know you're in for a treat.

Why go? Luca is billed as a ‘Britalian’ eatery, so expect Italian dishes using UK ingredients – as in Scottish halibut with sweetcorn, tarragon, girolles and white balsamic vinegar. Pricey but worth it – try the prix fixe for £85.

What’s the vibe? A contemporary Sicilian-inspired restaurant with Moorish influences in a Fitzrovia townhouse. Small plates rule the roost, including such showstoppers as spaghettini fritters with parmesan sauce, stone bass crudo and beautiful buratta. 

Why go? For the six-course tasting menu, which at £65 is one of the best-value in the area. 

What’s the vibe? A trattoria so authentic you’ll think you’re actually in Italy until you glimpse Lambs Conduit Street through the windows. This much-loved joint has been serving up classico dishes for decades, and ‘La Dolce Vita’ is the vibe, with framed black-and-white pics of Italian actors lining the walls.

Why go? Big bowls of pasta and bigger glasses of chianti are the recommended order of the day at this always lively neighbourhood favourite.   

What’s the vibe? This honest-to-goodness Italian is just about the most perfect local restaurant you can imagine: smart but low-key, cool without being pretentious and brilliant value despite its sky-high quality.

Why go? For a concise, market-led chalkboard menu that offers constantly changing seasonal dishes such as crispy ox tongue, roasted sprouts with homemade ricotta and hazelnuts, and leg of lamb with bagna cauda, borlotti beans and kale.

What’s the vibe? A sleek Italian restaurant in Covent Garden with a short, simple menu that’s split into three sections: antipasti, pasta and dessert. There are generally around eight plates of pasta on the menu and half of them are usually suitable for veggies. Proper al dente pasta is slightly undercooked, and hard to get right, but the chefs here nail it. 

Why go? For the poetically named ‘silk handkerchiefs’ (technically called fazzoletti) with walnut butter and confit egg yolk. Simple, but delicious: soft sheets swimming in a rich sauce, with little chunks of walnut for texture.

What’s the vibe? The buzz is as important as the food at this enduringly popular Soho Italian. Dine at the bar and you’re in for a fun time – especially if you sit by the window, watching celebs swan into the clamorous dining room. 

Why go? The ever-changing menu celebrates the best of artisan regional cooking in diverse ways, while enticing cocktails and impressive all-Italian wines also make an impact. 

What’s the vibe? Set back from the Thames Path, this legendary Michelin-starred destination is not only a riverside icon but one of the flag-bearers for provenance-led seasonal Italian cooking.

Why go? Warm, buzzy and uber-expensive (in an artfully casual way), RC is dedicated to serving unfussy yet stunning regional food based on top-drawer ingredients – salads, pasta and wood-roasted specialities are the headliners, all backed by fabulously expensive Italian wines.

What’s the vibe? A south London sibling of Trullo, this sleek, speedy pasta joint serves up dishes that are small enough and cheap enough to let you overindulge horribly.

Why go? The daily menu might run from tagliarini with crab, lemon and chilli, to fettuccine with Scottish girolles, although the pappardelle with eight-hour beef-shin ragù is a fixture. 

What's the vibe? It's another Big Mamma joint, but supposedly the most modest of the lot. On just one floor, it's still highly lavish, with framed vintage Italian boxing shorts on the walls, and draped gold fabric that gives the impression of eating dinner inside Aladdin’s lamp.

Why go? For massive, hearty portions with an Italian-American bent (there's no pizza here, but huge bowls of pasta are house speciality). Also, save room for the wedding cake, one of the best puds in Marylebone.

What’s the vibe? What Franco Manca did for pizza, Emilia’s cute-as-a-button pasta specialist is doing for Italy’s other carb of choice.

Why go? The small selection lets the quality of the ingredients speak for itself: the pasta is handmade on site each morning and dressed with, say, salmon carbonara, proper pesto or slow-cooked, béchamel-laced ragù. Antipasti, dolci and wallet-friendly wines complete the picture. There’s a second branch in Aldgate and a third in Canary Wharf.

What’s the vibe? Gloria’s main room is like your Italian nonna’s parlour, if she also had the kind of hoarding problem that would get her on to a late-night Channel 4 documentary. Every inch is covered with a knick or a knack: your head needs to spin 360 degrees to take it all in.

Why go? The food is similarly fun. Get the carbonara for two: it arrives on a trolley in a parmesan wheel, where it’s twirled and whirled around, picking up more bits of cheese along the way, then finally lifted high and plopped on to each plate.

What’s the vibe? A perma-packed and endlessly Instagrammed restaurant which somehow swirls those distinct ingredients together into one bonkers whole. It’s the younger brother of West End super-trattorias Gloria and Circolo Popolare.

Why go? The food is huge in every sense – portions, flavours, calorific load – and it comes piled high on novelty plates shaped like sunflowers or cabbages. Try the smoked stracciatella, a rich, enticing initiation into the world of Ave Mario – a bowlful of creamy, cheesy intensity laced with an almost acrid note of smoke. 

What’s the vibe? The owners of Peckham’s hit Italian Artusi (see above) have applied the magic formula to its Deptford sibling Marcella, where you’ll find the same sleek, simple approach and equally friendly staff.

Why go? Dishes change throughout the week and come chock-full of homemade elements. Pasta is one of the stars, but everything is counterpointed with market-fresh ingredients and even the simplest ideas reveal surprising depths. 

What’s the vibe? Hackney locals love Lardo for its pared-back style, friendly staff and excellent Italian small plates. Fittingly for a restaurant named after the cured back fat of a pig, charcuterie is a speciality: try the delicious, paper-thin, fennel-pollen salami.

Why go? Crisp-based pizzas with leftfield artisan toppings are also a highlight, along with vegetable plates and homemade pasta. Sit at the bar and watch the chefs preparing your order.

What’s the vibe? A window showcasing trays of homemade ravioli lures passers-by into this Bermondsey pasta specialist. The menu’s short (around eight dishes) and affordable, the pasta is commendably al dente and the flavours sing.

Why go? For tortelloni with roasted pork shoulder and sage butter, linguine with monkfish, tomato, garlic and chilli, or taglierini with preserved truffle, butter emulsion and parmesan. No bookings, but it’s worth the wait.

What’s the vibe? One of London’s most highly regarded Italian chefs, Giorgio Locatelli, displays his profound connection to his country’s food and drink at his labour-of-love flagship restaurant. 

Why go? Although the setting’s polished and the food is Michelin-starred, it avoids pomp – instead, expect a joyful gallop through the styles, regions and ingredients that make Italian cuisine such a pleasure. Our tip: don’t stint on the luscious desserts.

What’s the vibe? Magical. It might just be the most atmospheric dining room in London. Despite being huge, it has a grotto-esque feel, the space illuminated by candles, strings of garden lights and a dazzling kaleidoscope of backlit booze bottles crammed on to every shelf of the arched walls. Plants in the rafters cast dangling fronds. There’s even an enormous tree in the centre of the back room.

Why go? For the beauty of a room. This is a breathtakingly inviting place, but stick to the small stuff when ordering off the trattoria-style menu.