Italian Restaurants in Covent Garden
1. Opera Tavern
Spanish restaurant in Covent Garden
23 Catherine Street - WC2
“Handily located near the Royal Opera House”, this converted pub serves Spanish and Italian-style small plates of “food that’s just a bit better than its local competition” in the heart of Covent Garden. It is “not the best of the Salt Yard chain, but good for a quick pre-show meal”.
2. San Carlo Cicchetti
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
30 Wellington St - WC2
“Don’t be put off by the tourist location or the gold frontage” if you visit the flagship branch of this successful Italian chain near Piccadilly Circus (which is due to double in size over 2023). For a national group, it and its siblings deliver a surprisingly high-quality formula that mixes “a great range of Venetian-style small plates” with “friendly and efficient” service and “bright and vibrant interiors” which create a “wonderful and buzzing atmosphere”. Top Tip – “super for pre-theatre eating”.
3. VyTA
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
21 The Market - WC2E
2022 Review: In the heart of tourist Covent Garden – on the corner of the market itself, near The Punch & Judy pub – this large (200-seat) Italian arrived in late 2019. It’s the first venture outside Italy for Nicolo Marzotti, who has 13 restaurants back home. The jury is still out on whether or not it transcends its tourist trap location (including some seating on a balcony over the main market square).
4. La Goccia
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
Floral Court, off Floral Street - WC2E
“It’s lovely to sit at the outside tables in the summer” in the “beautiful courtyard” of Covent Garden’s Floral Court, dining on “interesting small plates” of Italian food – “albeit on the expensive side” – at the central London offshoot from the well-known Petersham Nurseries in Richmond. It’s just “great for a girls’ day lunch or dinner”.
5. The Petersham
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
1 Floral Court, off Floral St - WC2E
“One of the prettiest restaurants in London – charmingly tucked away in Floral Court, Covent Garden” – this is the in-town offshoot of the famous Richmond plant nursery, and in fact houses two establishments – “La Goccia is the better of the two” (see also). There’s “a lovely atmosphere in this light and bright room – it’s the sort of place you might take your rich aunt to for lunch”. The food, though, is “not especially memorable” and “weirdly expensive for average fare”.
6. Ave Mario
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
15 Henrietta Street - WC2E
“We all loved it – especially the kids”, is the most popular view of this vast and OTT mock-Italian operation in Covent Garden from French group Big Mamma, whose “funky interior, fun staff and really positive vibe” create a jolly backdrop to some “surprisingly good and cheaply priced food” – mainly pizza and pasta. Moaning “shame about the Instagramming teenagers” rather misses the point of the whole enterprise, although the odd ‘off’ report suggests that the joke can fall flat on a bad day – “indifferent service, a quiet atmosphere and disappointing grub: what went wrong? They had something but blew it!”.
7. Café Murano
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
36 Tavistock St - WC2
“Reliably good Italian food at fair prices” and particularly “switched-on service” won revitalised support this year for Angela Hartnett’s “very serviceable” mini-chain, which is generally a “very safe choice”, and – at its best – “memorable” in the level of “very confident” cooking it can achieve. Even fans, though, concede the “atmosphere can be a bit low key”, in particular at the “rather gloomy” WC2 branch (and the best reports are at St James’s).
8. Café Murano Pastificio
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
Pastificio, 34 Tavistock Street - WC2E
“Reliably good Italian food at fair prices” and particularly “switched-on service” won revitalised support this year for Angela Hartnett’s “very serviceable” mini-chain, which is generally a “very safe choice”, and – at its best – “memorable” in the level of “very confident” cooking it can achieve. Even fans, though, concede the “atmosphere can be a bit low key”, in particular at the “rather gloomy” WC2 branch (and the best reports are at St James’s).
9. Fumo
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
37 St Martin's Lane - WC2
The “beautiful setting” and “elegant small sharing plates of tapas-like cicchetti” make this “great spot” from the San Carlo group “perfect for pre- or post-Coliseum dining” and it inspires uniformly positive feedback from a big and diverse fan base.
10. Rossopomodoro
Pizza restaurant in Covent Garden
50-52 Monmouth St - WC2
2021 Review: “Neapolitan influences are evident in the choice of ingredients, and the wood-burning oven makes for good, chewy, charred crusts, unlike most high-street pizzas” – so say fans of this global chain, whose HQ is indeed in Naples. Not everyone is impressed, though, and ratings are dragged down by those who feel it’s merely an “everyday” choice: “OK for a bog-standard group, but not great”.
11. Margot
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
45 Great Queen Street - WC2
“A very sophisticated Italian restaurant” in Covent Garden that combines “gorgeous” cooking and “excellent wines” with “superb” service and an “elegant” interior. Just one catch, and you can probably guess what it is… it’s no bargain (“the crab ravioli at £31 had only 6 ravioli on the plate…”). Top Top – “good value for the pre-theatre menu”.
12. Bancone
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
39 William IV Street - WC2N
“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.
13. Monmouth Kitchen
restaurant in Camden
20 Mercer St - WC2H
“A good find for a pre-theatre meal” – this “efficient and friendly” Covent Garden dining room is quite stylish for somewhere inside a modern chain hotel, and serves an offbeat mix of Peruvian and Italian dishes: “a great selection”, with “lots of small-plate choices and interesting combinations” – “just enough to choose easily and all delicious”.
14. Da Mario
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
63 Endell Street - WC2
“Very friendly” and “authentic” – this “family-run traditional Italian trattoria” is a “dependable and good-value” option in Covent Garden, “with outside tables in decent weather”. The food is “good but not exceptional”. Top Menu Tip – “try the calves’ liver and tiramisu”.
15. Miscusi
Italian restaurant in Covent Garden
23 Slingsby Place - WC2H
2023 Review: One of Italy’s recent hits, this sustainable fast-food pasta business with 12 branches arrived in Covent Garden in November 2021(and quickly opened a second in Islington in June 2022). The limited feedback in our annual diners’ poll was somewhat in tune with The Telegraph’s William Sitwell (who was so disappointed he suggested the chain “be summoned to the foreign office and expelled”): “I was so excited based on all the social media around the place: food was average (as in something you’d make at home when you’re in a rush)”.
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