Why Sartoria Launceston Place is THE restaurant this Christmas

The recent budget added over £3bn of further costs to the restaurant sector each year. Meanwhile, Jamie Oliver announced a return to the London restaurant scene with his ‘Italian’ brand – it’s been a challenging couple of weeks…

More positively, the majority of London restaurants are full this week and my Evolv Collection of venues will be breaking sales and service records concurrently! If you are looking for a moment of la dolce vita in this moment of madness, here are three fantastic Italian restaurants to visit. The challenge, as always, will be securing a table.

Sartoria Launceston Place 

A favourite of Princess Diana, our new opening is the sibling to Sartoria on Savile Row, a revered haunt of generations of designers and tailors. Launceston Place has also become a celebrity hotspot, with Davina, Dame Kelly, Trinny and Twiggy all dining there in recent weeks alongside the likes of Professor Green, Hannah John-Kamen and Laura Whitmore. Hello Magazine has been in quite the flutter.

I was lucky enough to dine at Launceston Place with the Conran family; Lady Victoria, Sebastian and Sophie. All incredibly impressive in their own rights and kindly supporting my efforts to respect the legacy of founder Sir Terence, who would have turned 95 next year.

Over the years, the restaurant has benefited from some great chefs, with Lucas Pfaff and Francesco Mazzei leading the kitchen. But the menu has reached new heights of quality with this new opening, adopting a small plate format by day and a la carte splendour in the evenings.

Begin with a perfect vitello tonnato, followed by calamarata alla pescatora, glorious Sicilian red prawns, clams and mussels. Next I suggest you share a veal Milanese – you will not leave disappointed, particularly if you pair this feast with a bottle of Frescobaldi Pomino Bianco 2024 (£70). Note, this epic venue is also worthy of a return visit on a Sunday to enjoy a porchetta roast!

Carbone

At the new Chancery Rosewood Hotel you will find Carbone, an Italian-American restaurant straight from Greenwich Village, oozing ‘Goodfellas’ nostalgia and 1960s glamour. It feels like a film set, filled with impossibly glamourous guests and handsome waiters wearing velvet bow ties, who navigate trolleys around the beautiful basement restaurant. Splendid cocktails and wines to satisfy enormous budgets are the norm. Opt for the ‘lower’ end of the wine list and you’ll find a Joseph Drouhin ‘Clos Mouches’ 2017 Beaune (£390), which works wonderfully with jumbo shrimp, lobster ravioli and veal marsala.

Portions are huge, which makes the headline grabbing £98 lasagne bianco acceptable, when shared between three (if not quite a bargain). But as in New York, Carbone is the place to be seen; prices are pointless… 

Despite reading some negative reviews, I loved it; the theatre of the venue, the role every member of staff played in delivering a unique experience, an offering which captures escapism at its finest. 

Martinos

A new opening perfectly positioned in under-served Sloane Square. I first met founder Martin Kuczmarski over a decade ago when he was MD of Soho House and we bonded over a love of hospitality. His first solo venture was The Dover in late 2023, a venue that quickly became a Mayfair ‘go to’ for fine Italian-American dining and a great martini.

Like The Dover, Martinos is a haven of dark wood, golden lighting and stylish décor. The centerpiece is a beautiful bar, behind which are white-jacketed cocktail-meisters ready to whisk you to London, New York, Venice and beyond with their decadent cocktails. Staff are on point throughout, creating regulars and discreetly recognising the right faces. Martin was on the floor, expertly working the room.

The inspiration is a 1950s trattoria, with the golden age of Italian restaurants perfectly reimagined for a Belgravian audience. 

Both raw red prawns and the seabass carpaccio were beautifully clean, with minimal intervention beyond olive oil and herbs, allowing the flavour to flourish. Tonno tonnato was an interesting twist on its vitello cousin. Tagliatelle Martinos with its rich short rib ragu is worthy of the signature name and pistachio crepes to finish were a triumph. Wash all this down with a bottle of Santa Barbera staple Au Bon Climat Chardonnay (£95) and you will enjoy a dinner fit for royalty.

Martinos is relatively small but it delivers one of my favorite factors of dining in London: spotting a familiar face across a crowded dining room. On both my visits, I unexpectedly bumped into a friend and shared a Belvedere martini (super dry with a grapefruit twist). Open for breakfast until the early hours, Martinos is a brilliant addition to the London dining scene. I am delighted that Mr Kuczmarski has doubled down.

Heading out of town?

If you’re planning a break from the capital over the festive period, head for Battle, where hospitality hero Joel Williams and chef Neil Armstrong have launched Crafted at Powdermills, a wellness spa hotel full of healthy activity options and sinfully good restaurants and bars. Soho Farm House but much better…