Hyde Park Corner, Italian Restaurant Guide

“Brilliant” Italian dishes “cooked to perfection” inspire rave reviews for chef Theo Randall’s well-known HQ, by Hyde Park Corner. For many diners, “the fact that it’s a large, bare, windowless hotel restaurant is completely irrelevant” – “there is good space between the tables”; “the kind staff all try really hard”; and “it always feels like a treat (that’s not as expensive as some other places)”. The odd meal doesn’t go well, at which time the “soulless” space seems more significant, but bad trips here are quite rare. Top Menu Tips – “at weekend lunchtime, Theo Randall does an excellent buffet antipasti followed by a set lunch with bottomless prosecco or Aperol spritz. The restaurant always has a buzz when these meals are on with lots of large families. And the business three-course set lunch at £33 is amazing value!”

This “old reliable favourite” in Belgravia celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, as ever serving “beautiful (if very expensive) Italian food” in a “fantastic ambience”. A dazzling gastronomic phenomenon in its early days under founding chef Giorgio Locatelli, it’s “not as busy as it used to be, but still worth a visit”.

“Excellent on every count!” – Angela Hartnett’s elegant Mayfair HQ is strong on “understated luxury” and yet is a case of “unfussy fine dining” without the striving and pretentiousness that can go with this level of cuisine. Under chef George Ormond (in place since autumn 2023), the menu is “inventive but unmistakably Italian” and his “refined” dishes are “beautifully prepared” and all delivered by the “professional yet unfussy” staff. Perhaps because of its personable approach, it’s seldom recommended by expense accounters; certainly, when it comes to the bill, it’s viewed as being relatively affordable: “not cheap obviously, but quite good value for this class of place”.

“Superb” cooking from a “precise seafood menu” means Mauro Sanno’s “busy” Sardinian spot is, to its many fans, “just perfect” – “you can go for business and pleasure”. “My favourite affordable Italian restaurant” may be the claim of a regular used to Belgravia prices, but “the house wine can’t be faulted at £25 a bottle”. “People criticise the decor, the table spacing and noise levels but I like the vibe, and it’s always busy!”

2021 Review: The replacement for Alain Ducasse’s Bulgari (RIP) – the first London sibling to famous NYC restaurant Scarpetta opened in Knightsbridge’s Bulgari Hotel in June 2019, serving Italian classics. The seventh location for the group, this one is named Sette for “lucky number seven”, apparently. It opened too late for survey feedback, but received a major panning from Sunday Times critic, Marina O’Loughlin for pasta “sauced in the American rather than Italian way: drowned rather than dressed…”

2021 Review: Emptied your wallet at Harrods and need to recover over a bowl of pasta and glass of fizz? – Richard Caring’s “fun” and “nicely buzzing” Italian brasserie, near the store’s rear entrance, can be just the job. Now two years old, its fanbase primarily seems to extend to shoppers and other miscellaneous Knightsbridge types, as it elicits limited survey feedback; but all reports praise its “great consistency in a fun setting with attentive and engaging staff”.

Florence, Vienna, Zurich, Monaco… and, since April 2023, Belgravia now boast outposts of this Tuscan wine dynasty’s empire – run by the 26th generation of a family whose brand-extension into the restaurant trade started in 1957. Despite a relatively prominent location – a side street off Sloane Street – it has attracted no feedback in our annual diners’ poll in its first year of operation. It’s also been largely ignored by the press, although in April 2024, The Evening Standard’s Joanna Taylor reported “excellent” food even if a meal here “may set you back more than flights to Pisa”.