Islington, Italian Restaurant Guide

“What a find!” – this Puglian specialist close to Islington’s Almeida Theatre (it takes its name from the Salento peninsula’s red earth) is “a cheap ’n’ cheerful favourite”, thanks to its “generous portions of absolutely delicious and comforting Italian food”. It may “lack kerb appeal, but once inside you find an attractive dining room with quite a buzz” – making it a “classic and authentic neighbourhood restaurant”. Since spring 2023, founder François Fracella also has now opened a second site near St Paul’s.

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)”.

“The best vitello tonnato ever tasted” was one fan’s recommendation at Louis Korovilas’s Islington yearling, which serves a range of affordable pasta alongside Italian street-food dishes. Another supporter “raved about Noci last year, but found a recent lunch a little disappointing with cooking lacking the earlier refinement”; but even they still thought “this is a cut above the usual Italian fare and still something of a find”. In any case, Korovilas must be doing something right, as in May 2023 (too late for our survey) he launched a new offshoot in Battersea Power Station; to be followed swiftly in August 2023 by one in Shoreditch.