Rickmansworth, Italian Restaurant Guide

2024 Review: This “great local” has had an up-and-down time of it of late, with the Gerrards Cross branch under new management, and The Grocer at 91, which had pivoted to being a food shop in the pandemic, now closed. On the plus side, this “very busy” outpost is still going strong with its “reliable” (if pricey) sandwiches, salads and toasties, and they also recently opened a new Amersham venue, The Grocer at 2 (Whielden St), spanning a grocery store and café.

A restaurant-within-a-restaurant, open in July 2025 within the town’s Crazy Bear (whose ownership was itself rejigged at the start of 2025). Well-known chef, Carlo Scotto, has come on board to bring an ambitious 14-seat chef’s table concept to the town in an open-kitchen environment whose launch PR promises ‘an intimate front-row seat to culinary artistry as it unfolds, with an atmosphere that feels more like a private dinner party than a conventional restaurant’. There are two experiences both with optional matched wines: the lighter, six-course ‘Carlo’s Edit’ (Tuesday to Saturday at 6pm) and ‘The Full Experience’ with eight courses (Tuesday to Saturday at 7.45pm). Sample dishes include Pickled Attika Kohlrabi, Langoustine, Jalapeno, Purple Shiso with Salad Burnet and a Moroccan Spiced Duck with morels.

2022 Review: Set in a “lovely building” with tables under a 200-year-old olive tree, this restaurant – one of eight in a local chain – is frequently packed with regulars, who come back for its “good honest Italian fare at a reasonable price”. There’s “something for everyone on the menu”.

This 16th-century tavern in Mill Hill is run by brothers Luca & Matteo Delnevo, whose heritage is evident in the Italian menus that are served here: “much better than the other local pub offerings” and “never disappointing”. (And now, “they also have some Asian-style dishes” as part of the offering.)

2023 Review: “Top Neapolitan pizza” (with a very wide range of choices and featuring ingredients shipped from Italy weekly) helps inspire fans of this casual, brick-walled Kilburn independent.

This “no-nonsense” Italian with “perfectly good pizzas” has been a family-friendly fixture in a railway arch by Golders Green tube station for more than four decades.

This “nice, no-nonsense, friendly Italian” veteran in Child’s Hill is “always full of locals”, who come for the “huge portions” of traditional, home-cooked fare, served with the benefit of a gigantic pepper grinder.

Reopened after a five-week refurb last summer by a duo of locals with backgrounds in hotels and the music industry, this long-established ‘Pub & Dining Rooms’ is aiming to win back the prominence it once enjoyed when it opened in 2000 as one of the first places in then-gentrifying Queens Park with any foodie ambitions. It promises seasonally led, restaurant-level cooking from a chef who should be able to deliver it – Tarryn Bingle, previously of The Pem, La Trompette and Arbutus.

2022 Review: A “lovely local” near Turnham Green, this “family-owned Italian” is “tiny but with terrific food and atmosphere”. There’s a good range of pizzas but the Puglian dishes are what makes it special.

“Superbly executed”, Mediterranean-inspired small plates “which change regularly” continue to win praise for this “really charming” basement spot, which is to be found in a picture-book Georgian terrace leading up to St John-in-Hampstead church. There’s also “a well-priced wine list including many options by the glass”.

This smartly converted pub in Ravenscourt Park offers a full menu of Italian starters and mains, but the highlight for most reporters is the “thin and crispy Roman-style pizza – so good”. (The Bird in Hand at Brook Green is a sibling on similar lines, while the Oak in Notting Hill was relaunched in July 2025 as The Good Oak under new owners).

This “reliable” old stager of a restaurant in Hampstead “has hardly changed in 40 years”, during which time its fans and foes have stuck to consistent themes. The former say “you’ll always get a good Italian meal” here; the latter that “the pretty location does not make up for the below-average food!” or “dismissive” service.

This “classy operation”, set unexpectedly on the Chiswick High Road, is “the closest thing to going on holiday in an Italian vineyard that’s available in W4”, with “proper professional Italian waiters, a solid wine list and a lovely atmosphere” – “step into the gorgeous interior with its white linen tablecloths to start a romantic evening of simple dishes using high-quality ingredients”. It’s the UK outlet of an actual Villa Di Geggiano, on a 500-year-old wine estate just outside Siena in the Chianti-producing Tuscan hills. Top Tip – “don’t miss out on a drink in the Lounge before your meal, it’s possibly even more stunning than the main dining room”.

In the underserved environs of Abbey Road, this modern Italian bar/café is worth remembering for its “really tasty Italian tapas-type dishes and some excellent Grappa!”

“A favourite in Richmond” – this “always very friendly stalwart” offers “efficient service” and a “fairly standard Italian menu” – which makes it “a useful pre-theatre choice, next door to the Orange Tree Theatre and a less than five minutes’ walk from Richmond Theatre”.

2024 Review: This “lovely local Italian” near Ravenscourt Park tube is getting back into its stride after “a dreadful time with lockdown followed by a flood at the premises”. Ex-Zafferano chef Andy Needham and his team offer a “really warm welcome and a beautifully executed short menu”. Top Menu Tip – “excellent pasta and specials”.

Withnail & I (filmed a street or two away) actor, Richard E Grant for many years ate weekly at this good-looking traditional Italian in Notting Hill: one of the area’s stalwart locations (with stablemates Essenza and Osteria Basilico on the same street). One first-time visitor this year also approved: “pasta with a chicken sauce plus other things and a decent bottle of wine in preparation for a visit to the Electric Cinema. Really good experience. Would definitely go again!”

This “old-school” Notting Hill Italian has been “a great crowd-pleaser for the whole family” for more than 30 years. According to one local: “you will not have a great meal but on the other hand I’ve never had a bad one” – as a result it can be “extremely busy, but the service is great” and keeps on top of things. Essenza and Mediterraneo in the same street (see also) are its younger stablemates.