Fitzrovia, Italian Restaurant Guide

“Awesome, thin and crispy pizza” has built quite a following for this “fast, simple, really cheap and really cheerful” Goodge Street spot – where, “unless strip lighting, functional metal tables and chairs are your thing, the ambience is forgettable”. Celebrating its quarter-centenary this year as ‘The People’s Pizzeria’, it now has a branch in Camden and ‘click & collect’ kitchens in Wood Green, Colindale and Croydon.

Celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, this traditional Italian in Fitzrovia is “chaotic and very small”, so you’re “packed like sardines” – but that’s part of the appeal to fans, who reckon it’s “great fun” and “worth returning to”.

The food of Emilia-Romagna is the inspiration for this Italian duo in Shoreditch and Fitzrovia. They major in pasta, with sliced meats, cheeses and wines from the region as back-up, and all reports say the food is of a good standard.

“Really nice, and often outstanding dishes” are acclaimed by most reports on this former greasy spoon in Bloomsbury from ex-Rochelle Canteen chef Anna Tobias and the 40 Maltby Street team: and they say the simple, modern bistro dishes are backed up by a “very fair wine list” with a “good selection of natural wines”. (A more sceptical, minority view is that “although the place hits the nerve of the Zeitgeist – with food suggesting honesty and simplicity, complete with an air of sophistication – its success is a pricey London phenomenon possibly explained by the decline in home cooking”).

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”.

“A top party place” – Paris-based Big Mamma Group’s “huge and buzzing” omaggio to the Sicilian trattoria in Fitzrovia boasts an “amazing atmosphere” buoyed up by ongoing Insta-success which helps draw in an energetic crowd skewed to twenty- and thirty somethings. The food’s not for the cognoscenti of Italian cucina, but it is “consistent” and low cost.

“Real Bolognese starters and pastas made by real Bolognese” win praise for this “popular, authentic, family-run restaurant” in Soho. Michela makes the pasta every day, her husband Enrico cooks it and their daughter Carlotta serves it. It’s tiny, so “booking is essential – but you may still have to wait if the previous occupants of your table can’t bring themselves to leave!”. Top Menu Tip – “tiramisu is a highlight”.