Locanda Locatelli

Spaghetti with octopus was fantastic; it was one of my favorite meals in a long time. The tart of the day was also very good. And the service was friendly and professional.

Following their renovation after a fire (you should really watch were you drop those cigarette butts) I decided to visit to see if the kitchen was still up to scratch following a necessary hasty departure from the premises by the cooks. The new menu unfortunately was missing some of the favourites I had enjoyed on my last visit which were dishes that I had not seen elsewhere (and haven’t since) such as ox tail ravioli. Given that on my last visit I had been granted a new perspective on Italian food, I entered with high hopes.
Almost as tall as the bread sticks.
Although if they were to be as deep as the bread tin remained to be seen.
The bread is my favourite part of LL. Such a great variety of excellent bread. I do not even know the names of half (actually I don’t know the correct name for any besides the focaccia). Although my lack of such knowledge did not stop me from enjoying the bread.
Linguine all’astice — linguine with lobster, tomato, garlic and chilli. I particularly liked the artfully arranged lobster leg. Just in case you forgot how much effort it was to shell the unwilling donor of the meat. The pasta was cooked al dente and reminded me of what pasta is supposed to taste like, chewy to give you a bit of something to mull over. As compared to my own feeble attempts when I tend to nuke the pasta into soft mashy noodles. The lobster was likewise cooked, excellently retaining bounce combined with abundant taste.
Tagliatelle al ragu di capretto — pasta with kid goat ragu and chilli. The pasta was again a star in the same way as the aforementioned lobster. The goat thankfully seems to be helping me to overcome my trauma of goat related produce. I remember a goat cheese I had one day. It tasted almost as if you licked a goat. The meat in this case had a pleasant gamey flavour (or maybe I am imagining it) as compared to lamb. It must be from kid goats running free and happy under the sky.
Some onion ravioli thing. Words fail me at this point. Yes, I know that is rare, especially if you have met me in person. So my pithy comment here is that it seemed good at least according to my fellow diner who ordered this but it was missing something for me… Oh yes, meat. She seemed to enjoy it though but I cannot really give an objective judgment (although all my opinions are highly subjective obviously, otherwise they wouldn’t be interesting to read).
Fondente di cioccolato bianco, cilege e gelato al croccantion — white chocolate fondant, Morello cherry filling, biscuit crumble and croccantion ice cream. By consensus, this was the best of the desserts. The white chocolate fondant tasted exactly like it sounds. A thin casing barely able to dam in the delicious chocolate tide. The ice cream was good too but the cherry filling seemed a bit overlooked as I stampeded for the chocolate.
Spuma di crema catalane e frutti di bosco — Catalan cream foam with berries and Catalan ice cream. It looks big but it’s just full of air. Kind of like some people I know. It tasted good but lacked body. Then again, that’s what foam is like! I think the person that ordered this came away still feeling a bit hungry.
Tiramisu. This substantial portion was full of one of my fellow diner’s favourite things. Lots of alcohol. Much merriment followed the ingestion of this dish by said person (no names here) as their conversation became more and more disinhibited. Well, I have to thank this lovely little dessert for the uncovering of lots of interesting little tidbits.
Petit fours of marshmallow, almond biscuit and truffle. The truffles were nice but a little drier than I would usually expect. The almond biscuit was very almondy but it was the marshmallow which stole the show. Its inflated size mislead me into thinking it lacked substance but upon biting in I was rewarded for my patience of leaving it last. A lovely light flavour which managed to avoid the sickly sweetness of other marshmallows I knew.
Locanda Locatelli was a very pleasant affair. The restaurant ambiance was lovely and peaceful and the dining room packed. Although you wouldn’t have noticed that from the quick, efficient and unobtrusive service. The dishes were interesting and showed me what good Italian food is really like, all at a fairly affordable price for dinner. Even if some of the dishes were not so much to my liking and the portions a little bit on the small side, the magnificent trove of bread helps to make up for this. A place to remember for a peaceful and enjoyable meal with friends at a fair price.
Dinner was GBP 30 without service and drinks.
A quiet eating ⁷⁄₁₀.
Locanda locatelli
8 Seymour St,
London
W1H 7JZ
See the review with pictures at

Jantar fino, inesquecível, vale o investimento.
Aqui sim come – se muito bem. O top da culinária italiana em uma localização muito privilegiada na cidade.
Levei alguns parentes do Brasil para jantar lá e todos ficaram muito impressionados. Todos conhecedores da boa culinária.
Agende com antecedência, com sorte se consegue uma mesa pra dois na mesma semana.

As close to perfect and faultless authentic Italian food that I have ever experienced.
The traditional dishes with creative recipes and glamorous décor, make it loved by people from their late twenties, to the other end of the age spectrum.
The service pays close care and attention to the customer and is friendly. They do say the specials a bit like they are learned by rote, but there is do much detail it is impressive that they have learned it at all.
The standards are phenomenal and although this is a top end restaurant, the prices for such standards can be even more expensive elsewhere.
The only let down is that the booking service is a system where customers have to select a button to get to the right department and the big down side is that it is only during office hours. More often than not this has led me to book elsewhere, as most places can be booked outside office hours.

What a shame — once glorious Italian — now just a rip off. Their signature dish of lobster linguini nor fish with side order of zucchini — none if them tastes right any more. This declining taste combined with start to get worn interior… I would say just go elsewhere and don’t waste money here… Simply sad … What happened?!

Definitely one of the best Italian restaurants in London. While I was visiting my dear friend in London, she and her boyfriend took me to this, supposedly, one of Victoria Beckham’s favorite restaurants. The décor was very classy and staff was very pleasant.
Our waiter brought a bread box and a mini-​pizza plate with smile in the beginning. There were many different kind of bread in the box, and I had to try all the bread and rolls. They were delicious, but I had to stop as I didn’t want to be full before ordering a real meal. We ordered a bottle of wine and several appetizers. We ordered Octopus Carpaccio, Salad, and Tomato soup (can’t remember the name). I also had to order Watermelon martini since it was special on that day and looked very cute. It was very delicious.
We ordered Seafood pasta, Seafood risotto, Chicken dish (again, can’t remember the names of the dishes…). The waiter explained about each dish with Italian accent (cute!). The foods were just delicious. We were really enjoying our conversation during dinner, and the waiter commented that we seemed very happy people with the accent (I guess I just loved the Italian accent).
We then had Tiramisu, gelato, Chocolate tart, and cream crape with another baked custard on top (Can’t remember the name… I’m so bad…). We also had cappuccino that was just perfect. The waiter brought a pastry plate along with all the desserts we ordered, and our table was full of sweets that made me very happy.
We stayed for like two hours to finish all the food, and all this time, everyone here, the waiter, the sommelier, and the dessert guy (there was another waiter brought the dessert plate to show us Dolci of that day) were very pleasant.
I will be visiting London again soon, and I would definitely like to come back here again.

Upscale with flavor that matches. The mushroom and truffle gnocchi was a blast of flavor. The John Dory was out of this world — one of the best seafood dishes that I’ve tasted. I’m wasn’t doing the wine selections, but all those were delicious. Top notch service as well.

Their respective dishes were so very amazing. Very appetizing
and full of flavorsI think all their ingredients that they used will surely a
good quality brand. They made it made perfectly delicious Italian dishes. This restaurant wasvery elegant with some very
fascinatingdesign. About the service; it was very nice as well.

Great food although service was patchy. Swapping mistaken fish dishes between 2 plates at the table a definite no-​no.

Gerichte in italienischem Stil gut interpretiert und in einem tollen Ambiente präsentiert. Umfangreiche Weinkarte und perfekter Service. Sicher eine, wenn nicht die ital. Top-​Adresse in London! Toller Abend und tolles Erlebnis!

Simply stated, perfection !
If only I could afford to dine here on a regular basis.

Locanda Locatelli is a nice Italian restaurant in Central London.
The location is very nice and the service is good.
The food is really nice but not really authentic Italian.
Having said this I can recommend this place but give it only 4 Stars because:
1) the food is not really authentic Italian even though the Vitello Tonnato was very nice, it lack a little of the real Italian taste
2) The price it is expensive for what you get

Food was excellent and lived up to expectations. Server left us waiting for 15 min at outset but sommelier graciously intervened and got things back on track (& comped our glasses of wine, which were both excellent). Nice touches, like the lovely dessert plate that came with the check. A lovely place for dinner in Hyde Park.

Classy place. Lots of great pasta dishes to choose from. Loved the atmosphere.
For my main, Linguine all’astice-Linguine with lobster, tomato, garlic and chill. The flavors were amazing.
Tart of the day, coconut topped with fresh raspberry preserves. Out of this world. Also had a taste of the Banana and chocolate rice pudding with black truffle, delicious, and different than you would think, more solid than liquid consistency (if that makes sense) almost like the rice was bound together with some kind of great pudding glue.
Would love to come back to try some more.

Locanda Locatelli is located at the Churchill Hyatt Regency Hotel and is right off the Marble Arch central line. The restaurant notifies you when you make the reservation that you have a 2 hour time slot. Not sure if they will haggle you if you exceed it but the food comes in a timely manner so it is a pretty efficient meal. The staff was very friendly and welcoming and the ambiance is modern and relaxed.
They start you out with a giant bowl of various breads as well as their home made bread sticks. One of the breads that they provide is filled with melty cheese and ham!
We ordered two dishes that had black truffles and boy are they generous with the truffle shavings! The cheesecake was deconstructed and oh so smooth and creamy. I loved the amaretto biscotti! I could have eaten a whole bowl of these things.
Green bean salad, potato, shallot dressing, summer black truffle
Sardines with Crostini and Greens
Homemade potato e mushroom dumplings, black truffle
Homemade pasta with kid goat ragù, chilli
Cherry Gelato
Cheesecake with vanilla, violet jelly and strawberry sorbet
Amaretto Biscotti, Truffles, and Gelee

This was truly a delicious meal. Ambience and wait staff are both great, and the food is amazing.
For the price, however, everything has to be perfect, and there was a pasta special that my dining partner ordered that just *completely* overdid the peas. Such a shame, because I really truly wanted to give this place five stars and I hope it was just a blip in an otherwise remarkable establishment.

fantastic! Excellent service. Showed up without a reservation on a Friday night, seated within ½ hour. My friend had chicken, and said it was the most tender he’d had in a long time. I had a very good salad and sole. Recommended wine matched well. Sorbetti were amazing. Use your head though if you go to an expensive restaurant like this. Go in the later part of the evening.

Though I’m familiar with Giorgio Locatelli from his appearances on TV, I had never eaten at his restaurants. However, my good Unilocal buddy Tirthankar D tempted me with Locanda Locatelli’s truffle menu, which was on offer in February
So, I persuaded my sister to join us for lunch this Sunday. Located on the corner of the Churchill Hyatt Regency Hotel a stone’s throw from Marble Arch Underground station, the restaurant has its own separate public entrance as well as access from the hotel
A first slight disappointment was a sign banning mobile phones and cameras from the restaurant though my rebellious streak did sneak a photo of my main course for my Unilocal review
The restaurant was classy with some very interesting huge curved parabolic mirrors on the wall. The service was efficient throughout though not what I could ever describe as warm. Dishes were announced with a variable degree of detail throughout our meal
As their truffle season was ending, they didn’t have the full truffle tasting menu on offer but we were able to try a few dishes off it
My sister and I had the egg pasta in truffle butter finished with fresh shaved black truffle as a starter dish. It was lovely to have the truffle shaved on at the table — I hope that diners at surrounding tables didn’t think us rude for picking up the truffle pieces which fell on the table! This was a simple but heavenly dish — the egg pasta was rich with egg yolk and enhanced perfectly with the earthy truffle flavour. I do think the simple truffle dishes the most satisfying e.g. in scrambled egg or with pasta because the truffle is allowed to shine
Tirthankar offered us a taste of the ox tongue with green parsley sauce. The tongue was served in thin slices and tasted like a wonderful ham
For main course, my sister and I went for the slow cooked suckling pig served with mashed potato and caramelised Granny Smith apple. Another stunning dish. The pig was so sweet and tender with lovely crisped up skin. The mashed potato was rich and velvety smooth and the apple was a good flavour counterpoint to all the richness
Tirthankar was happy with his powerful full bodied red wine and I had an eye catching red freshly squeezed blood orange juice
Italian isn’t usually my favourite food genre but this was a fantastic meal even if the bill was quite steep at £62 per head for 2 courses and minimal drinks.
Thanks for organising a great lunch, Tirthankar!

READ THE BOOK, SEE THE MOVIE, GET THE T-​SHIRT. We had purchased Locatelli’s book and seen him on the TV: all that was now needed was to ‘get the T-​shirt’, figuratively speaking. La contessa had been through a bit of a rough time healthwise and needed to go into London upon offical business with my accompaniment. Mindful of the L’Oréal slogan Because you’re worth it, aware of her gastronomic prefences and commensurate with her physical need to add a little tonnage, I somewhat exuberantly booked a lunchtime table at the Michelin-​starred Locanda. Immediately upon entry, we were warmly cosseted in the way that the more positive entries here describe. No mobile phones please (hence no photographs), no boringly blinged-​up and screeching women, nor rumbling and boorishly-​bellowing blokes; just serious diners in an elegant and pleasant environment. We were seated and immediately got outside a glass of prosecco while studying the small print (in fact they publish their menu online daily). While contently nibbling the breadsticks that have also been mentioned otherwhere, we reflected that the bread that follows with the olive oil is also worthy of more than a mention in despatches here. We then made our decisions: Hers: Insalata di carciofi e Parmigiano Reggiano
(Salad of raw artichokes and Parmigiano, oil and lemon)
His: Bresaola di manzo al caprino
(Cured beef with goat’s cheese dressing) While la contessa lustfully beamed her way through the artichokes, I savoured the wonderfully fresh taste of the bresaola and longingly thought of the clear Alpine air of Courmayeur or wherever this beautiful kit had come from. I had already made my wine selection, which was a noble Piedmontese Freisa– a very tannin-​rich cousin of the Nebbiolo grape and the like of which one seldom encounters in the UK. I proposed a toast to a nice lady I know in Berlin who translated one of the proprietor’s books into German. In between our private chitchat and discussing the food, I mischievously let my attention wander to the next table, where a-​monotonous-​bore high-​powered businessman was trying to sell a-​fat-​man gentleman of substance some type of ‘networked solution’. I reflected upon the fact that since my days in marketing, little had changed in the basic rules of salesmanship and that this guy was doing it all wrong. La contessa gracefully accepted my comments and the –fat-​man gentleman of substance devoted his attention to his lunch, which did not surprise me. We were then delighted to take delivery of her: Linguine all’ astice
(Linguine with lobster, tomato, garlic and chilli) and my: Rognone di vitello, lenticchie e puré di patate
(Pan fried calf’s kidneys, mashed potato and lentils). I have eaten kidneys in many places but have never been asked to indicate how I would like them cooked. In confusion, I replied medium and so it was that the deed was done. For the first time ever, I enjoyed kidneys without their traditional hint of bodily waste fluid and cooked in a sauce that I can only describe as blissfully appealing. If I were to find fault in any way, it would be in terms of misinformation, since the mashed potatoes were not mashed per se but rather creamed, which was wonderful since I prefer my spuds that way. With a purring, lobsterised contessa and equally content self, we noticed with amusement that the fat man had still not ‘risen to the bait’, but was sensibly confining his dialogue to his plate. We decided to inspect the dolci. We both went for Selezione di gelati e sorbetti which sounds, looks and tastes better than ‘assortment of ice cream’. Upon asking the waiter what one of the dainty sweets served with our coffee was, he immediately packed a few of these tidbits into a small box for later consumption. It was with a feeling of immense contentment that we eventually emerged and oozed off towards the railway station. This place is not inexpensive when you add the wine, but it is worth it, particularly when you consider that there are so many places in Central London that claim the Earth and cost it, but do not really deliver.

Had a fabulous evening with a friend. The champagne cocktails to start with were just super and hit the spot. In terms of food — dont miss the salted cod starter with fresh tomatoes and the chestnut Tagliatelle with porcini and wile mushrooms pasta. Strong flavours — but delicious! The portions are quite generous — I was not able to finish my pasta.
The service as well was excellent. The good thing was that the restaurant was not very noisy and you could actually hold a decent conversation at normal decibel levels.
Would definitely return!

Just took my second visit here as a birthday treat. The place is swish and really feels special. The menu is lovely too. Full of authentic Italian stuff.
But. My partner’s crab linguini was swimming in oil and packed no punch at all. Really weak on flavour. And my mackerel came barely cooked, which for me seems completely the wrong way to cook mackerel. Isn’t the point of mackerel to have a lovely burnished skin? We ordered a side of roast potatoes which were a little leathery. Ordinarily I wouldn’t comment about these things because in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t a bad meal.
However, the meal for two with one mid priced bottle of wine was £200 and I’m afraid for that money I expect far far better from the food.
The menu is very expensive, but it seems you’re paying for the swish setting.
I’m not sure I’ll be going back. Not with the credit crunch anyhow!

I get so excited about this restaurant I never know how to properly begin a review of it. This is definitely in my top 5 all time favorite places, in large part to the food, but to the overall dining experience as well. The best service in the city.
The dining space is elegant, comfortable contemporary, which I think describes Giorgio Locatelli’s Italian menu. He modernizes the Italian palate while staying true to the flavors that make Italian cuisine such a favorite comfort food. Their gnocchi with mushrooms is an all time favorite, as is anything on the autumnal seasonal truffle menu. Everything on the menu is outstanding, all the way to the tempting treats for dessert such as fluffy tiramisu. A celebrated wine list is expected here of course, but the grappa list has an impressive selection as well.
In writing all of this I realize I must go back there tomorrow!