Restaurant overview: Tortello, London’s latest trattoria

Tortello likes to type itself as a ‘trattoria’; a phrase which, to me, conjures a picture of unassuming doorways tucked into secluded corners of the Trastevere, modestly adorned, staffed maybe by an aged couple with broad, wizened smiles, serving easy however drool-inducing meals.

At first look, Tortello is just not that. Nestled in London’s Royal Lancaster Lodge overlooking Hyde Park’s Italian gardens, it is a up to date setup from high to backside, bedecked principally in trendy, calming shades of sage inexperienced. An open kitchen, the place an industrious crew of cooks busy themselves with the vital work of crafting recent, hand-made pasta, appears out onto a multi-level unfold of marble desk tops.

There are retro nods, too. If you happen to enter by way of the physique of the lodge, as I did, relatively than from the primary entrance off Hyde Park, you’ll cross an enormous print inviting you to ‘mangia bene, ridi spesso’ (eat properly, snicker usually), in addition to a pistachio inexperienced classic Fiat 500. You’re in Italy now, capiche?

However whereas that is no modest Roman ‘mama e papa’ eatery, Tortello delivers the place IT issues. There may be real care taken over each the company – who’re diligently attended to by charming, personable workers – and the elements. The pasta is crafted from yolks laid by chickens the restaurant retains in a farm outdoors London, together with flour sourced from specialist Italian mills.