San Carlo Cicchetti (Restaurant)

Top 10 things you need to know about San Carlo Cicchetti, Piccadilly:

1) The West End restaurant takes bookings. Table for one? Table for two, three, or four? Large group booking? No problem. San Carlo Cicchetti is a Central London restaurant that not only takes bookings but doesn’t rush people out the door faster than you can say Macdonalds Drive-thru.

2) Celebrity chef Aldo Zilli is the restaurant group’s Chef Consilere.

3) Small plates are in. Like seemingly every other London restaurant, Cicchetti has also fallen prey to the small plate mania that grips many a trendy restaurant.

4) But unlike many hipster restaurants that seemingly serve small plates for no other reason than because it gives license to charge punters more for less food, Cicchetti actually means small dishes, which are typically served in Venetian bars.

5) The restaurant recommends five to six dishes between two people. Our waiter says two per person. We order seven, plus bread and olives. Stuffed.

6) The cheesy dishes are sublime. The smell of our truffle and Pecorino ravioli wafts over to us before the dish even hits the table. And we’re not just talking truffle oil here: a generous 50p-sized truffle shaving shows this dish means business. Apparently this is the dish repeat diners always go back to. At £10.70, it’s one of the pricier plates but the buttery sauce and velvety truffle justify it. Gnocchi Gorgonzola is a cheese squared triumph: gnocchi coated in oozy Gorgonzola, held in a crisp parmesan basket.

7) The duck salad (balsamic vinegar, pancetta and apples together create an intoxicating jus) and lobster risotto are also pretty rad.

8) Much of the produce comes from Italy. Lemons, zucchini and tomatoes are Milan market musts.  

9) It’s got antlers. Not huntsman lodge-type stag heads, but chic antler light fittings. Alongside the marble top tables, yellow leather seats and a bar practically groaning under the weight of (brandy, wine, martini) glasses, the decor says “we may have a wood fired pizza oven at the back and rustic strings of chillies but we are NOT a Pizza Express”.

10) It’s not trendy. No bearded, multi-tattooed waiters or mismatched crockery at Cicchetti and, OK, the atmosphere is a little bit Piccadilly Circus rush hour, but it is located right on Piccadilly Circus and the food’s great so that’s the main thing. Right? ...read more