Padella
6 Southwark St, SE1 1TQ
Padella gets our vote all day long. From Tim Siadatan and Jordan Freida
(the brains behind Trullo), Padella is a masterclass in simplicity.
There are just eight dishes on the menu, and we’d happily go in for
seconds for all of them. Start with the cacio e pepe.
Luca
88 St.John Street, EC1M 4EH
Few cuisines let fresh produce sing like Italian does. At Luca, some of
the best ingredients found on the British Isles find a focus through an
Italian lens, meaning you’ll sit down to shrimps from Morecombe Bay,
grouse from Yorkshire and langoustine from Scotland, but you’ll also
find ravioli of spinach, ricotta in lemon and sage butter, and carbonara
filled agnolotti with toast quinoa and guanciale. We’re sold!
Bocca Di Lupo
12 Archer St, Soho, W1D 7BB
Bocca’s menu changes not once but twice a day, as they insist on staying
absolutely up to date with the changing seasons and the best of the
produce on the market. For summer that means a special regional takeover
menu throughout June, with 4-course tasting nights, including bucatini,
risotto, pachheri and homemade couscous. The perfect excuse for a Soho
summer night…
Trullo
300-302 St Paul’s Road, Highbury East, N1 2LH
Padella’s sibling, Trullo, is the neighbourhood Italian worth getting
familiar with. Fresh hand-made pasta is rolled minutes before service,
and tomato sauce simmers away for hours at a time. Come for the
pappardelle with beef shin ragu, stay for the baked aubgergine with
marinated mozzarella. Who needs a holiday under the Tuscan sun when
Trullo’s in town?
Burro e Salvia
52 Redchurch St, E2 7DB
At Burro a Salvia you can buy fresh-made pasta to take home, or drop by
the restaurant to eat straight away. As the menu changes weekly, it’s
always worth trying what takes your fancy – the signature pasta of
agnolotti cavour (beef, pork and spinach-filled ravioli) is a current
favourite for comfort eating, or go for anything with black truffles for
a payday lunchtime.
Lifestyle: Lists
Top 5: For Pasta
We all need more cacio e pepe in our lives
