Five New Italian Restaurants for a Hit of La Dolce Vita in London

The world is an uncertain place at the moment – but one thing we can be sure of is London’s adoration for Italian dining. Open an osteria, trattoria or ristorante in the capital right now and there’s a good chance the crowds will flock. Just in the past few months we’ve seen molto new Italian spots, from the traditional to the modern, the casual to the grand. And there’s plenty more in the pipeline – including a skewer-focused Abruzzo-style diner opening in east London next month.

Below, five new London Italian spots.

Trullo co-owner and chef Conor Gadd knows his way around fettuccine and strozzapreti. His pasta-peddling powers are in full swing at his first solo diner, the gorgeous Burro, which might be in the thick of the Covent Garden throng, but feels a world apart with its Roman-yellow walls, sultry lighting and elegant banquettes. It leans into Italian simplicity with a menu that includes veal al burro (veal pan-seared in butter); fettucine in a duck and porcini ragu; and a whole lemon sole with a luxurious sauce of prosecco, butter and caviar.
trattoriaburro.com

The gregarious spirit of Charlie Mellor – whose beloved Hackney wine bar The Laughing Heart closed in 2022 – runs through his new restaurant Osteria Vibrato. It’s there in the sprightly service, the dedication to premium produce and ingredients, and even the piano that’s built into the joinery, at which Ronnie Scott’s musicians occasionally play. Start with a Martini, then ease into the pleasing wine list before plunging into the menu of regional Italian dishes – a huge wedge of aged ricotta drizzled in olive oil, Sicilian red prawns drizzled in a different olive oil, plump tortelli filled with ricotta, and cheese- and prosciutto-gilded veal. Once you’re done, the bar at the back beckons. It’s the definition of a good time.
osteriavibrato.co.uk

When it’s time to kick it old-school, Sale e Pepe Mare is where you want to book. It’s the sequel to Knightsbridge’s Sale e Pepe – which has been a hangout for the likes of Rod Stewart, Roger Moor and Diana Ross since it opened in 1974 – and is awash in its same brand of old-world Italian charm. Here the focus is Italian seafood, including salt-baked whole sea bass, fruits de mer towers and lobster linguine. But there are also Sale e Pepe classics like Caesar salad and cacio e pepe, which are both mixed tableside. The room itself is all drama: wood panelling, polished marble and azure velvet, with roaming champagne trolleys and immense floral displays.
saleepepe.co.uk

After building a reputation south of the river for good times, tight menus of ace “Italian-ish” food and fun drinks, Forza Wine has crept north into Soho. It brings all the unpretentious joy of its Peckham and National Theatre predecessors, as well as a few of their signatures, including the Custardo, a silky, drinkable crème anglaise spiked with espresso from Catalyst Coffee (which the team has proudly trademarked) and its cauliflower fritti. The experience kicks off with £5 vermouth cocktails to sip while ordering from the menu, which might include cod with winter tomatoes and an ox cheek ragu with fried polenta.
forzawine.com

Some of the hottest tables in London right now are the plain wooden ones at Tiella. Seats at Dara Klein’s first permanent restaurant (the follow-up to her long-term residency at Islington’s Compton Arms) are snapped up quickly, with diners keen for a taste of her cooking, which draws from her Pugliese background childhood in Italy’s gastronomic heartland, Emilia-Romagna, as well as more than a decade of immersion in Italy’s trattoria culture. So far that’s meant a chicken Milanese given crunch with green apple and fennel, a rotating selection of pastas including passatelli – an egg pasta that’s cooked in the brodo it’s served in – and panelle, Sicilian chickpea fritters. Hot tip if you can’t snare a table: the bar accepts walk-ins.
@tiella_trattoria

Additional reporting by Joel Hart, Jo Taylor and Angela Hui.