After 15 years serving modern British cuisine in Islington, Almeida will close its doors for the last time on 1 January, with a new Italian set to rise up in its place.

Details are scant, but what we do know is that the new Italian restaurant is planned to open a few months later, there’ll be a considerable interior design overhaul (though we trust they’ll keep the floor-to-ceiling

Updated 10/1/17 with soft launch info

Stevie Parle, whole behind Craft, Rotorino, Dock Kitchen and Sardine, is turning his hand to his newest venture Palatino, a Rome-influenced restaurant in Clerkenwell (a place where it's all happening at the moment). 

It will be taking Rome as a culinary melting pot of Italian cuisine, with recipes collected over many years and taking

As the Christmas season is well and truly with us, you can't help but notice that panettones are starting to fill the shops. And going one step further, Vico has launched the Panettone & Gelato menu - all paired with warm drinks in case it's a little bit too cold outside.

On the menu is: 

• Panettone with Gelato: mini panettone filled with your choice of 2 gelati (recommended

Luca is the latest restaurant from the people behind The Clove Club. We head down to Clerkenwell to take a look. 

23/11/16 - updated with soft launch info

Does London have room for two places serving up freshly rolled pasta? Given the permanent queues outside Padella, one would think so. All of which is good news for newcomer Emilia’s Crafted Pasta which is opening next month at St Katharine's Dock.

The restaurant's founder Andrew Macleod’s says he wants this to be the best pasta restaurant outside of Italy. To that end, every bit of pasta in the place

Sumosan Twiga will open in Sloane Street in November, after the Japanese half of the venture makes the short jump from its previous home in Mayfair. The new restaurant will serve award-winning sushi, sashimi and other high-end Japanese hot dishes alongside classic Italian. There’ll also be an express lunch bento box available for £29. 

Japanese and Italian are a match made in heaven according to the owners, as both cuisines

The Savile Row Martini.

Updated 27/10/16 with Test Drive

Like the sound of strong cocktails and brilliant Italian bites to accompany them? Who wouldn't? Italian mixologist Simone Caporale (who used to work at Artesian - once the World's Best Bar) is

We Test Drive Margot, an Italian restaurant bringing a little of Mayfair service to Covent Garden.

12/10/16 - Updated with soft launch info.

It's always a good news day when we hear about a new Salt Yard Group restaurant opening. Their next place will be Veneta, opening in the St. James’s Market development later this year. Here's what we know about it so far:

It's inspired by Venice - Chef Director Ben Tish, and Head Chef Jamie Thickett (formerly of Opera Tavern) will oversee the menu. Seafood lovers will be happy

Updated 4/10/16 with soft launch details

There's a new restaurant from Kurt Zdesar on the way - he's behind Chotto Matte and Black Roe - and this time he's opening an Italian restaurant with Stefano Stecca. Stecca has worked with Locatelli and Novikov and the menu will be based on recipes from his childhood (with a bit of a modern twist). 

That Italian menu will have pasta handmade on-site and stone-baked pizza from a wood-fired oven. They're

There's a new Italian restaurant coming to Shoreditch called Popolo (yes, you did read that right). It comes from Jonathan Lawson, who has worked with Theo Randall for five years and is now opening his own place, joining up with his business partner, Munur Shah. 

It's a small restaurant at 32 seats and the menu at Popolo is being described as Italian with a touch of Moorish and Spanish - and in practice, that means dishes

It's all change in the City where trad British restaurant Harper's has been entirely transformed into Roma, an Italian restaurant focusing on all things Roman. The site itself on New London Street has a rather lovely connection with the new approach to food - it's where an actual Roman fort used to stand back in the day.

​The wine list has a Roman Empire theme - so every wine is traced back to vineyards which the Romans would have known. As for the food, apparently

Over in Knightsbridge the multi-million pound renovation of The Franklin Hotel has come to an end with the hotel reopening today. The property was closed for a year while it was done up by new owners the Italian group Starhotels, who brought in Anouska Hempel to oversee the new-look.

The 35 room hotel overlooking Egerton Gardens now has a restaurant with a well known Italian chef in charge. Alfredo Russo is best known for his Turin restaurant Dolce Stil

The people behind Soho's Mele e Pere have gone east to set up a waterfront trattoria in the old Olympic village, now called Here East. We head down there for a look.