Islington, Italian Restaurant Guide

“You can practise your Italian language skills” at this “genuine, quirky Puglian restaurant in busy Islington, with great service from real Italians who know the region”. Even some fans concede that culinary results can be “mixed”, with hits and misses reported in a single meal. Nevertheless, it’s “always buzzing” and “might benefit from some sound absorbers as it can get very noisy”. They also have a lesser-known spin-off 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)”.

This “relatively new addition” to the capital’s Italian restaurant scene “doesn’t disappoint”, serving “delicious homemade pasta and a good variety of starters” at the four sites it has opened in two years (Islington, Battersea Power Station, Shoreditch and, most recently, Richmond). It‘s the brainchild of Andy Bassadone – one of the UK’s most successful restaurateurs who, for example, rolled out Côte; and it is part of the Various Eateries group owned by Hugh Osmond (of PizzaExpress and Punch Taverns fame).