Italian

• Manteca

  Nose-to-tail cooking meets Italian fare in Shoreditch

• Giancarlo Caldesi to open new Caldesi in Belsize Village

  

  Just before Christmas, Neighbourhood restaurant Calici closed its doors in Belsize village, but it'll be back soon under a new name. It turns out, as first reported by the Ham and High, that celeb chef  Giancarlo Caldesi will be taking on the space, making it the second Caldesi restaurant in London (there's another in Bray as well as a

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• Grasso is a genuine family-run Italian American restaurant that's just landed in Soho

  

  It isn't often that a restaurant manages to open in the middle of Soho in a fashion that's so completely under the radar we have to wait for a reader to let us know about it. But that's the case with Grasso which threw open its doors on Dean Street just before Christmas. Even rarer, this is a restaurant that's entirely independent and family-owned.

  The family in question are the McCaffreys. Seanie runs the restaurant,

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• Test Driving Daroco London - an Italian in new-look Soho (with an excellent dive bar)

   

  Arriving in Soho via Paris, Daroco offers up an Italian menu that's backed up by a very promising basement bar. We went down to try it out.  

• Mortimer House Kitchen goes Italian under Nessa chef Tom Cenci

  

  After success launching Nessa in Soho, chef Tom Cenci is also taking on another restaurant by the same group, Mortimer House Kitchen. It'll be different to Soho's British menu though, with Mortimer House being a strictly Italian affair. 

  The menu is apparently influenced by Cenci's family summers on the Amalfi coast and includes:

  • Zucchini caesar with parmesan and
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• Tabisca Italian steakhouse opens in Chelsea

  

  Opening very under the radar between Christmas and New Year in Chelsea is Tabisca, an Italian restaurant which started in Lecce. The original restaurant over there describes its offering as "dishes with particular attention to the flavours of Salento and Puglia". 

  The restaurant has an enormous menu featuring everything from crostini to meat and cheese platters. But the main focus is meat with

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• New York Italian The Dover comes to Mayfair

  

  A new restaurant has quietly opened in Mayfair, sneaking in before the end of the year. The Dover has taken over the space that was Moncks of Mayfair, which itself closed at the onset of the pandemic back in 2020 (after less than a year in business). 

  As for this

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• Capilungo is a Puglia-inspired café by day, wine bar by night in Covent Garden

  

  Opening in Covent Garden, this Italian cafe and wine bar is very much a family affair. 

  Running things will be Gianluca Capilungo (former Bar Manager for Aqua) and Asia Capilungo (previously a chef at Soho House and Cubitt House) who've joined up with their uncle Luca Capilungo as well as Asia’s partner Huzefa Sajawal (co-owner and Executive Chef of Fatt

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• Test Driving Il Gattopardo - a Mayfair Italian that delivers on food and vibes

  

  Does Mayfair need another glitzy Italian restaurant. Il Gattopardo would suggest it does, particularly one where both the food and vibes are given equal weight.

• Dalla will serve up homestyle Italian dishes in Hackney

  

  25/10/23 - updated with the opening date

  Last week we brought you news on what was going to be taking over the old Bright site in London Fields. Now we've got the scoop on what's going in the group's other defunct restaurant site, Peg, on Morning Lane. Dalla sees three

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• Indegno is bringing Bolognese street food to Brick Lane

  

  London is getting its own version of an Italian street food snack shop designed to be the perfect drinking food. Crescentina are a dish from the Emilia Romagna region of Italy - they're fried dough crescents (hence the name) that are filled with savoury ingredients.

  Now Indegno which has three branches in Bologna is gearing up to open its first UK restaurant in East London. On the menu will be:

  • Indegna -
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• Brasseria Brompton is taking over the old La Brasserie site on Brompton Cross

  

  Three years after the closure of La Brasserie on Brompton Road, a new owner is intending to breathe life into what was once a super-popular neighbourhood restaurant. Andrea and Alberto Fraquelli, who own La Brasseria Milanese in Marylebone and Brasseria Notting Hill are opening it as Brasseria Brompton. Taking on this restaurant space is particularly poignant for the brothers who used to come here with their

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• Super trendy Paris spot Daroco is heading to London's Soho

  

  3/10/23 - Updated with opening details

  We've already had the successful launch of Milk Beach and Kapara at the new area of Soho that is Ilona

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• Test of time - we return to Angela Hartnett's Murano to check out its new look, menu and head chef

  

  To celebrate its 15th birthday Angela Hartnett's Murano has had a makeover and brought in a new head chef. We went to check it out.

• Milan's Paper Moon comes to London as part of The OWO on Whitehall

  

  2/10/23 - Updated with details of the menu and new images

  Paper Moon is the first restaurant to open at The OWO that's outside of the main Raffles hotel. The high-end Italian restaurant hails from Milan, with the original opening there in 1977 and they also have restaurants in Doha, The Algarve, Hong Kong and more. They say that the space in London has been designed around the

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