london
Luca
• Italian• Farringdon
About the restaurant
Luca comes from the mind of Isaac McHale, a restaurateur best known as the chef-patron of the fine-dining restaurant The Clove Club at Shoreditch Town Hall. McHale, who rose to prominence as part of a young troupe of London chefs known as the Young Turks, also operates modern bistro Two Lights.
The restaurant is spacious, with draped curtains offsetting exposed brick and comfy booth seating throughout much of the dining room. The addition of a great bar focused on aperitif-style drinks makes it a surefire hit for a celebration or a date night.
The menu is classically Italian in setup, with antipasti, primi piatti of freshly made pasta dishes and larger secondi piatti like rack of lamb, salt-baked celeriac and halibut with porcini mushroom. The bar also served what many claim to be the best negroni in London.
Reviews from the Web
Critic reviews
The Nudge
Taking inspiration from 1950s Italy, awash with sage, marble and brass, the main dining area seats an intimate 60, overlooking a semi-open kitchen and a private courtyard and – most importantly – a pasta-making room, which is, joyously, exactly what it sounds like
The Infatuation
The glorious bar. The endless wine list. The kind of pasta that had you telling everyone you’ve ever known that they ‘seriously need to try the pork sausage ragu at Luca’.
Time Out
This warmth extends to the menu: trad-rustic and occasionally finicky, this is upscale country comfort food – resolutely non-punchy by delicious nonetheless.
The Guardian
The second outing from the team behind the Clove Club is a departure: this time, they’ve come over all Italian. Well, ish. They call it “Britalian
Standard
Luca, the new restaurant from The Clove Club gang, is a beauty. In an early-19th- century listed building in Clerkenwell beside Hat & Mitre Court, the facade painted a Howard Hodgkin black-green above bottle green glazed tiling frames windows with net café curtains hanging from brass rails at half-mast.
- 88 St John St
- EC1M 4EH
- London
- +44 20 3859 3000
- Visit website
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