Evening Standard
David Ellis made some very, very big claims for this new Portobello Road spot from the team behind the nearby Pelican and the Hero in Maida Vale: that the in-house pasta may be “London’s best”, and that (just a few weeks into its stride) it can take its place alongside Bocca di Lupo (est. 2008) as one of only two “perfect” Italian restaurants in the capital.
David omitted the River Café from that accolade, while pointing out that Canteen’s two chefs, Jessica Filbey and Harry Hills, are both graduates of its kitchen – and “God, can they cook”. Their fettuccine and ravioli “became the source of the kind of rapturous joy”; their winter tomatoes with oil and thyme demanded “why can’t every tomato taste like this?”, while the whole meal left him in a “euphoric daze”.
The name, of course, is “a conceit” – part of a “wilfully nonchalant” approach that brings the widely hyped Yellow Bittern to mind: here at Canteen there are no reservations, there is no wine list (just red or white from the keg at £47 per unmarked bottle), and “lunch is the thing” (although they have started opening on weekday evenings).
Which means, in David’s reading of the room, a very Portobello Road customer mix of “those who married well, of actors, and anyone who works at night but can afford to dine in the day, like public school drug dealers.”
David Ellis - 2024-11-17Daily Mail
Tom Parker Bowles added his name to the growing list of critics awarding the highest of accolades to this new Italian, declaring it “River Café level. Albeit at half the price”, while hailing its founders James Gummer and Phil Winser (also behind The Pelican, The Hero in Maida Vale and The Bull in Charlbury) as “rather serious restaurateurs”.
Apparently casual (no bookings; friendly staff) – “large and cavernous, a mixture of industrial and homey” – the restaurant has hit its stride remarkably quickly, he said, and “seems to have been born fully formed”. The open kitchen dominated by a vast wood-fired oven has a mainly female brigade led by head chef Jess Filbey and sous Harry Hills (both River Café-trained) – and “by god can it cook”.
Dish after dish impressed Tom: pizzetta “gone in a few joyous bites”; gnocchi “light as a sigh”; pumpkin ravioli “something quite remarkable”; fresh pasta – silken fettucine in a rich, cream-laden duck ragu – “some of the best I’ve tasted in London”; puntarelle in a sharp, oily, anchovy-heavy sauce “an instant winter classic”. The verdict: “magnificent.”
Tom Parker-Bowles - 2024-12-08The Times
Giles Coren took Soho House honcho Nick Jones to this Italian-inspired spot from the “astonishing” Public House group of restaurants, following its trio of successful openings in the past couple of years, the Pelican in Notting Hill, the Hero in Maida Vale and the Bull in Charlbury.
Nick used to run Pizza East on this very site, and shared Giles’s enthusiasm for the replacement, declaring that “It’s basically a smaller, cheaper River Cafe. Most of this lot worked there, in fact” – including the head chef, Jessica Filbey.
Giles enjoyed “fresh, squishy, pillowy gnocchi”, “a very good, tight, precise cacio pepe on pasta”, and a spatchcocked chicken that was “always going to be great, but came out truly historic”.
Giles Coren - 2025-01-05
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