RFK Cuisine · Italian · London
Best Italian Restaurants in London 2026
Italian · London · 7 rooms ranked · Updated June 2026
Reviewed by Daniel Whitford · Visited Q2 2026 · Senior Editor, Restaurants for Kings
No restaurant changed how Britain eats Italian food more than The River Cafe, and almost everyone worth eating in this city today passed through its kitchen. Trace the line: Ruth Rogers and the late Rose Gray trained a generation on the Thames, and their alumni went on to open the rooms that now define London's pasta cooking. The result is a scene split between the grand — Michelin-starred riverside lunches and Mayfair tasting menus — and the gloriously cheap, where a famous bowl of pici cacio e pepe costs less than a London cinema ticket. Seven rooms, from three Michelin stars between them down to the best £12 plate of pasta in the city, ranked on the cooking, the room and the value, with the dish to order at each.
1.The River Cafe
The restaurant that taught Britain Italian; book a Thames-side lunch for the chocolate nemesis and a grand occasion.
The River Cafe, on the Thames at Thames Wharf in Hammersmith, has held a Michelin star since 1998 and is the most influential Italian restaurant in British history. Ruth Rogers founded it with the late Rose Gray in 1987, and its insistence on the finest seasonal produce cooked simply rewrote British Italian cooking and trained a generation of chefs. The menu changes daily but the canon holds: handmade pasta, wood-roasted fish and meat, and the famous chocolate nemesis, a flourless cake that has been on the menu since the start. The sunlit riverside room, with its open kitchen and summer terrace, is one of London's great dining spaces. Choose it for a grand, long Italian lunch that marks an occasion. Book several weeks ahead, especially for weekend lunch.
Book weeks out for lunch; the pasta of the day, wood-roasted fish, and the chocolate nemesis to finish.
2.Murano
Angela Hartnett's Mayfair star since 2009; book for an elegant Italian tasting menu and a polished celebration dinner.
Murano, at 20 Queen Street in Mayfair, is Angela Hartnett's flagship and has held a Michelin star since 2009. Hartnett cooks Italian food with a fine-dining precision shaped by her years under Gordon Ramsay and her own Italian family roots, served as a flexible prix fixe and tasting menu rather than a rigid degustation. Expect refined handmade pastas, a celebrated risotto, and seasonal mains in a calm, grown-up room. Service is gracious and unstuffy, the wine list deep in Italian regions. It is the most polished Italian dinner in central London short of a hotel dining room. Choose it for an elegant celebration where the cooking matters as much as the setting. Book two to four weeks ahead for prime evenings.
Book a few weeks out; build a menu around the risotto and a handmade pasta course.
3.Luca
The fun one with a star; book Clerkenwell for the Parmesan fries and Italian cooking with a British accent.
Luca, on St John Street in Clerkenwell, comes from the team behind The Clove Club and earned a Michelin star in 2023 for Italian cooking made with British produce — what the kitchen calls Italian food with a British accent. The signature is the Parmesan fries, churro-like tubes of fluffy parmesan crusted and dusted with paprika, an instant classic; the pasta and the seasonal mains follow that mix of rigour and pleasure. The room is warm, lively and far less formal than its star suggests, with a marble bar and a covered garden. Choose it for a celebration that wants the cooking of a starred kitchen without the hush. Book a couple of weeks ahead, and start at the bar with the Parmesan fries.
Book two weeks out; the Parmesan fries first, then a pasta and a seasonal main from the daily menu.
4.Trullo
London's best neighbourhood Italian; book Islington for the eight-hour beef-shin pappardelle that made its name.
Trullo, on St Paul's Road in Islington, opened in 2010 when Tim Siadatan and Jordan Frieda — both River Cafe alumni — set out to cook serious Italian food at neighbourhood prices, and it remains the template. The signature is the pappardelle with eight-hour beef-shin ragù, a dish with near-legendary status among London's pasta eaters, alongside charcoal-grilled meats and a daily-changing menu driven by the market. The room is comfortable and unshowy across two floors, the service warm. It delivers much of the River Cafe philosophy at a fraction of the tariff. Choose it for a great-value Italian dinner with cooking well above its price. Book a week or two ahead, and order the pappardelle without thinking.
Book a week out; the eight-hour beef-shin pappardelle, then whatever is off the charcoal grill.
5.Padella
The famous £-something pasta queue; join the line at Borough for pici cacio e pepe, the best-value bowl in town.
Padella, beside Borough Market at 6 Southwark Street, is Tim Siadatan's casual pasta bar and the most democratic great meal in London — most plates run around £9 to £14, and the cooking punches far above it. The signature is the pici cacio e pepe, thick hand-rolled pasta in a glossy emulsion of pepper, butter and aged Parmesan, an Instagram-famous bowl that earns the hype; the pappardelle with beef-shin ragù carries over from Trullo. The room is a tight counter-and-tables space and takes no full bookings, running a walk-in queue and a limited app waitlist instead. Choose it for a brilliant, cheap pasta lunch when you don't mind a wait. Go at opening or mid-afternoon to beat the line, and order two pastas to share.
Queue early or late; the pici cacio e pepe and the beef-shin pappardelle, two plates each.
6.Theo Randall at the InterContinental
River Cafe's former head chef on Park Lane; book for rustic Italian and the best Italian hotel dining in Mayfair.
Theo Randall at the InterContinental, at 1 Hamilton Place on Park Lane in Mayfair, is run by the chef who spent years as head chef at The River Cafe, and it brings that produce-driven, rustic Italian cooking into a serious Mayfair hotel dining room. Randall blends the best British seasonal ingredients with hand-picked Italian imports — the wood-fired and slow-cooked dishes, the handmade pastas, a famous soft-centred amaretto cake. The room is comfortable and grown-up rather than buzzy, well suited to a quieter celebration or a business dinner. It is the smart choice when you want River Cafe cooking in a hotel setting. Choose it for a polished Mayfair Italian dinner. Book a week or two ahead, and ask about the set lunch for value.
Book a week out; a handmade pasta, a wood-roasted main, and the amaretto cake to finish.
7.Cafe Murano
Angela Hartnett's casual sibling; book St James's for an easy Venetian-style lunch that rarely disappoints.
Cafe Murano, on St James's Street, is Angela Hartnett's relaxed, all-day counterpart to her starred Murano, modelled on a Venetian bacaro. The cooking is simpler and cheaper than the flagship but holds the same standards: cicchetti to start, well-made pastas, and a short list of seasonal mains in a handsome, easy room. It is the most flexible entry on this list — good for a quick, civilised lunch, a pre-theatre dinner, or a relaxed catch-up — and the most likely to have a table at short notice. Choose it for a dependable, unfussy Italian meal in the heart of central London. Book a day or two ahead, or chance a walk-in at off-peak hours, and start with the cicchetti.
Book a day or two out; the cicchetti and a pasta, ideal before the theatre or a relaxed lunch.
How London does Italian
London's Italian scene is, to an unusual degree, one family tree. The River Cafe's produce-first philosophy and its open kitchen trained the chefs who now run the city's best Italian rooms — Theo Randall cooked there for years, Tim Siadatan of Trullo and Padella came up through it — so a single idea about ingredients and restraint runs from a Michelin-starred riverside lunch all the way down to a £12 bowl of pasta in Borough. The cooking is rarely showy; it is about a great ingredient cooked simply.
The practical reality splits by tariff. The starred rooms — River Cafe, Murano, Luca — book weeks ahead and run at fine-dining prices; the pasta specialists — Trullo, Padella — are cheaper and either book a week out or run a queue. The smart move is to pair one grand Italian lunch with one cheap, brilliant pasta dinner. For the wider city, the London dining guide maps every neighbourhood by occasion; for the source of it all, compare our best Italian in Rome.
Where not to look for it
Skip these for serious Italian food
The Instagram trattorias selling giant-portion theatre over cooking. London has a wave of photogenic, mega-portion Italian rooms built for a queue and a phone camera. They can be fun, but the cooking is rarely the point and the value is poor. Every room on this list earns its place on the plate; if a restaurant's main draw is a metre-long pasta for the camera, eat at Padella instead.
The tourist-trap "ristorantes" around Leicester Square and Covent Garden. The streets thick with footfall hide expensive, mediocre Italian rooms trading on location. For genuinely good Italian, you generally have to leave the most touristed blocks — head to Hammersmith, Clerkenwell, Islington or Borough, where the kitchens on this list actually are.
Frequently asked
What is the best Italian restaurant in London?
The River Cafe in Hammersmith is the standard-bearer — Ruth Rogers's riverside restaurant has held a Michelin star since 1998 and shaped how Britain cooks Italian food. Murano, Angela Hartnett's Mayfair room, has held a star since 2009, and Luca in Clerkenwell earned one in 2023. Below the starred three, Trullo and Padella from the same team set the standard for London's pasta cooking. The best depends on the occasion: River Cafe for a grand lunch, Padella for a cheap, brilliant bowl of pasta.
How many Michelin-starred Italian restaurants are in London?
Three lead this list: The River Cafe, holding its star since 1998; Murano, Angela Hartnett's Mayfair restaurant, starred since 2009; and Luca in Clerkenwell, which earned a Michelin star in 2023. London's wider Italian scene runs far deeper into excellent unstarred cooking — Trullo, Padella, Theo Randall and Cafe Murano among them — where the kitchen is serious but the format is more relaxed. The star count is a useful filter for the top tier, not the whole story of eating Italian in London.
How much does Italian food cost in London?
The range is enormous. A long lunch at The River Cafe runs £90 to £130 a head before wine, and Murano's tasting menus land in a similar bracket; Luca and Theo Randall sit around £70 to £110. The value end is just as serious: Trullo is a moderate neighbourhood Italian at £35 to £55, and Padella is famously cheap, with most pasta plates around £9 to £14, so a full meal there can come in under £25. London lets you eat Italian at a Michelin tariff or a market-stall one, both done well.
How far ahead should I book Italian restaurants in London?
Plan two to six weeks for the starred rooms. The River Cafe and Murano book up well ahead, especially for weekend lunches and dinners; Luca is a little easier a couple of weeks out. Trullo and Theo Randall take normal reservations a week or two ahead. Padella is the outlier — it runs a walk-in queue and a limited app waitlist rather than full bookings, so go early or late and expect to wait at peak. Cafe Murano is the most flexible. Book the stars first and slot the rest around them.
Which London Italian restaurant is best for a special occasion?
The River Cafe is the grand-occasion choice — a sunlit room on the Thames, a Michelin star, and a long Italian lunch that has marked Londoners' celebrations for decades. Murano suits a refined Mayfair dinner, with Angela Hartnett's tasting menus and polished service. Theo Randall at the InterContinental on Park Lane is the smart hotel-dining pick for a milestone. For something warmer and less formal, Luca in Clerkenwell balances a star with a genuinely fun room. Book the River Cafe for the big one.
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Browse the full London dining guide, compare the global picks in the best Italian worldwide, go to the source in the best Italian in Rome, plan a milestone lunch at The River Cafe, line up an elegant client dinner at Murano, or open the full RFK cuisine index.
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