Italian

• Palazzo in Crystal Palace is an Italian bar and diner from the Made of Dough boys

  

  A Hot Dinners exclusive

  If you're a Crystal Palace resident wondering what's happening at the old Church Grill site on Church Road, well we have news for you. The space has been taken over by the team behind pizzeria Made of Dough and will reopen as Palazzo - an all-day Italian bar and diner.

  Music is going to be at the heart of this new SE19 place. They'll have a record library and a regularly changing DJ

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• Cicchetti is coming to Knightsbridge

  

  San Carlo already have two Cicchettis in London (and a few more restaurants too) and now they're gearing up for a third - this time in Knightsbridge. 

  As with their previous restaurants, it'll all centre around "contemporary Italian dining" with fresh pasta dishes, pizza, fish and meat-focused "carne" plates alongside a selection of fritti dishes. Here's a taste from their current

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• Margot

  High-end Italian in Covent Garden

• Emilia's Crafted Pasta is opening in Canary Wharf's Wood Wharf

  

  Emilia's Crafted pasta gets ready to open its third restaurant, this time in the new Canary Wharf development Wood Wharf. Expect their much-loved fresh pasta dishes, new snacks, a bar with tabletop games and lots more...

• San Carlo have opened Isola in St Christopher's Place, and it's a looker

  

  St Christopher's Place has upgraded its Italian restaurant offering. Taking over the space long held by Carluccios is Isola. It's the latest opening from the San Carlo Group (who run Alto on the rooftop at Selfridges and Signor Sassi Knightsbridge and Cicchetti Piccadilly among others).

  Billed as a Sicilian Grand Café they've gone all out with the interiors bringing in design company Fettle who were

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• Test Driving Il Borro London - a Tuscan bistro Mayfair-style

  

  The Ferragamo family have brought their Tuscan bistro to the heart of Mayfair. We went along for cocktails and pasta. 

• Manteca's new home is in Shoreditch, bringing along their Italian/British menu

  

  25/10 - Updated with the opening date.

  They've been big in Soho and now David Carter and Chris Leach's Manteca is moving to Shoreditch. They're taking over an old Pizza Express site on Curtain Road (very close to Carter's own Smokestak). 

  Manteca has Chris Leach at the helm and originally started life as ...

• Clapham's Studio Voltaire is reopening with a new café from Italian Supper Club

  

  Clapham art gallery Studio Voltaire is reopening after a major £2.8 million redevelopment and as part of that, they're also launching a brand new cafe. Called The Café at Studio Voltaire (yes, that's fairly on the nose).

  It'll be run by the people behind Italian Supper Club (who are also behind Da Henrietta at the Henrietta Hotel in Covent Garden). They'll be running a seasonal menu

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• Test Driving Trattoria Brutto - Russell Norman's ode to Florence is a winner

  

  Russell Norman, the man who brought us Polpo, is back with a brand new place in Farringdon that's influenced by the restaurants of Florence. We went down for an early look.  

• La Brasseria head to Notting Hill with their Italian luxe trattoria

  

  You may have been busy this summer visiting old London restaurant haunts, making up for lost dining time during lockdown. While it’s been a mixed bag of emotions seeing who’s still standing and who is still sadly boarded up, the inspirational openings keep coming. We’re happy to see that lovers of Italian food can still get their fix at Marylebone’s La Brasseria Milanese, which first opened back in May 2018. Now the owners,

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• Trattoria Brutto is Russell Norman's next restaurant, which is all about Tuscany

   

  15/09/21 - updated with launch details and the menu

  Since leaving the Polpo group, Russell Norman has been busy writing cookbooks, but we've all been wondering when he would make his return to restaurants. Well now we know - he's opening Trattoria Brutto. That comes from the phrase "brutto ma buono" meaning Ugly but good.

  It's

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• Vasco & Piero's are coming back to Soho

  

  There was much consternation earlier this year when the news broke that Soho legendary Italian Vasco and Piero's Pavilion was to shut because of rent issues. But we then learned pretty quickly from an Instagram post that it wasn't a complete goodbye as they were already on the hunt for a new

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• Gino d'Acampo's Luciano restaurant goes viral on TikTok

  

  Gino d'Acampo's new London restaurant Luciano may have been eviscerated in a review by the Evening Standard, but a new video on TikTok could change the restaurant's fortunes.

  Kiwi songwriter Natalie Te Paa, who is

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• Bocca Bocca will be Leytonstone's little piece of Amalfi in London

  

  A Hot Dinners exclusive

  Leytonstoners stuck in London for the summer are being offered a hit of the Italian coast on their high street instead. Local entrepreneur Gianluca Colini, who opened hit coffee shop Unity Café, is the man behind new restaurant Bocca Bocca.

  Gianluca's put together a tight and impressive team for this new opening. Jemma Londt-James, former manager of JOY at Portobello, will be in

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• Big Mamma's Napoli Gang is popping up in Soho

  

  They may have only recently opened Ave Mario in Covent Garden and before that Circolo Popolare in Fitzrovia - but before now Big Mamma hadn't occupied the space in between, Soho. But now they're planning a month-long pop-ip of Napoli Gang. 

  Napoli Gang is their (until now) delivery-only offshoot. This August it will be popping up in the Soho Fiorucci flagship store on Brewer Street. There you'll be able to pick

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