Harden's says
Launching in July 2023, this hand-made pasta specialist's third and biggest branch occupies two storeys of a railway arch in the Borough Yards development adjacent to Borough Market. The menu promises new dishes such as smoked potato raviolo, produced in an open kitchen.
Harden's survey result
Summary
“Elevating accessible pasta to another level” and “at fair prices” has won a huge fan club for these pasta pit-stops, which – in July 2023 – added a Borough Yards location to their outlets in Soho and off Trafalgar Square. It’s the “narrow” WC2 branch that’s best known, and, despite the weight of custom, “helpful staff do their best” and it delivers “lots of atmosphere”. The food rating dipped this year, though, due to a few refuseniks who say “it used to be good, but is becoming a victim of its own success”. Executive Chef Ben Waugh creates all new dishes and ensures the classics are still on the menu, such as Fazzoletti (silk handkerchiefs) with confit egg yolk and walnut butter. There is also an aperitivi and cicchetti bar.
Summary
“A perfect pre-theatre choice that’s quick and classy” – these West End pasta-stops off Trafalgar Square and in Soho provide “excellent pasta, reasonable prices and a speedy turnaround”. “Buzzy rather than comfortable (many tables only have stools), really keen nearly all Italian staff provide the (fairly) limited menu” – “fab fresh pasta” with “modern Italian flavours” that’s “not complicated, but done with precision”, all “at an amazing price”.
Summary
“For a quick Italian meal in the West End”, you will struggle to better this award-winning duo of “beautiful” pasta-bars, off Trafalgar Square and in Soho’s Golden Square, where the “gorgeous fresh pasta” is notably “excellent value”. To be fair, the odd reporter does feel the cooking is “serviceable rather than spectacular”, but the vast majority say the dishes are “to die for”. “Friendly staff get high marks” too, as does the “fantastic buzz”.
Summary
“Superbly-flavourful” pasta dishes at “extremely good-value” prices – especially for the West End – make Louis Korovilas’s “handy” two-year-old “one of the better options in the tourist centre” of town, just off Trafalgar Square. Some reporters feel it’s “let down by the long, narrow shape of the restaurant”, but more commonly it’s judged an “elegant, buzzing, if packed space”.
For 33 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).
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