Have a hankering for Italian? Try Ave Mario for OTT delights from the Boot.
Just want the classics? Then check out our guide to the best restaurants in London.
What's the deal?
Most people who have been to Venice are familiar with one particular scenario: starving and a little lost, you’re lulled into one of the many trattorias lining a main tourist drag. The food is bang average at best, horrible at worst. The proliferation of bad-quality, tourist-pandering restaurants in Italy’s canal city has given it an unfairly bad rap – really, if you know where to look, Venice is home to a tasty food culture that’s totally unique to the city.
Enter cicchetti – essentially small, snacky plates, served speedily and eaten with fingers and toothpicks. This is peak Venetian dining – a casual, highly social way of eating that’s cherished by locals. Cicchetti – a London mini-chain from the San Carlo group – has long been a reliable purveyor of Venetian small plates, with locations in Piccadilly and Covent Garden. Now they’re bringing their bankable dining concept to another tourist hotspot, Knightsbridge.
While San Carlo’s take on Venetian dining is a bit more formal than your average cicchetti joint – normally eat-on-your-feet, bartop affairs – they still have the food and spirit of Venice at their heart. The Knightsbridge location pays homage to Venetian design with colourful, large scale paintings; a profusion of pale Italian marble; and sumptuous wood panelling that lend it the air of a classic piazza pile. The epic scale of the menu also feels very true to the restaurants of Italy – dozens and dozens of dishes are grouped into traditional Italian categories like “fritti”, “insalata”, “pizza”, and “pasta al forno”. Order a plate or two from each section and eat it as it comes. The food is consistently good – “crunch” is a texture that features heavily here thanks to a proliferation of breaded and deep fried dishes. On the drinks menu, it’s Italian wine and cocktails, and it would be wrong not to order a pre-meal spritz. This is a reliable place to come with family, if you need a venue for a large group dinner, or if you want to pretend you’re in la bella venezia for a night.
What should I eat?
The fan favourite of Italian cuisine, arancini, comes Sicily-style – i.e. as little cone-shaped towers stuffed with warming beef ragu. A tasty little meal opener.
A duo of king scallops come gussied up in their undulating shells, rolled in garlicky bread crumbs and splattered in olive oil and herbs.
Though technically more Italian-American than Italian, we’re always happy to see garlic bread on the menu – and this one’s a doozy, pizza-shaped and topped with a thick layer of molten cheese.
Why should I go?
For a safe pair of hands serving Venetian delights.
££££
6 Hans Rd, London SW3 1RX
sancarlo.co.uk