Sicilian Luce e Limoni is that rarest of things: a really good Italian restaurant in London

Restaurant Review:
Luce e Limoni, 93 Gray's Inn Road
Marco Polo on the River, Riverside Quarter, Wandsworth

London is full of Italian restaurants, but few in the moderate range (between £30 and £50 per person for three courses, wine and coffee) are worth a special effort.

Granted, I'm a tough critic.  With Italian heritage dictating most of what came out of our family kitchen, this is what I first learned to cook and is my default cuisine.  I don't see the point of dining at a place that presents the same dishes I can whip up myself, but with less quality.  Thus, though I adore Italian food, you'll find fewer Italian restaurants on this blog than those of other cuisines.  In England, they're rarely worth the effort.

The past week offered two more London attempts to change that opinion.  Luce e Limoni wins my full approbation.  Marco Polo is middling, only worth the trip for al fresco dining.

Luce e Limoni is not just Italian.  It's properly Sicilian.  The menu was drenched with regional favourites:  fennel, arancini, pasta con Norma, swordfish, cassata, cannoli.  Plus plenty of Sicilian wines.  We suspected we were in for a treat and the first tastes confirmed it.

I started with thin slices of air-dried tuna circling a salad studded with new season baby artichokes.  Beautiful.  (And, in fact, such an inspiration I re-created the dish for a dinner party two days later, finally inspired in how to use the dried tuna we brought back from Barcelona.)  A flavoursome spaghetti with lobster followed, though it was a hard choice from a menu filled with delight.  I would have liked to have dined in the proper Italian way, having a smaller pasta course before the main so I could taste more.  But we were trying to restrain ourselves.  Finally a plate of pinkie-length cannoli to share.  Crisp, fresh, creamy, sweet but not overly so.

The decor here complements the food, evoking a feeling of sun-drenched Italy without going over the top.  Tile floors, lots of crystal chandeliers of varying heights used as a decorative element, botanical prints on the walls.  Add a charming Italian waitress who could advise with insight on both the menu and the wine list and we were very, very happy.

The only drawback of the place is location.  It's on a stretch of Gray's Inn Road that's high in traffic and low in charm, about five minute's walk north from Chancery Lane tube station.  It's not a place I ever pass on my usual journeys around London, but it's absolutely worth a special trip.

Marco Polo is only worth the trip if the sun is out.  Occupying the Thames-side corner of a modern apartment building in the newly-completed Riverside Quarter between Wandsworth and Putney, it has an enviable position overlooking a wooded stretch of the river and expansive terraces to take advantage of it.  The outdoor footprint, in fact, is probably double that of the main restaurant and outdoor heaters were much in evidence.  Clearly, the owners are playing on al fresco dining as their hook.

The food is fine, though nothing special.  The menu comprises basics you'd see at any Italian place,
with no nods to seasonality or regional specialities.  I suspect there are few, if any, Italians in the kitchen.  Pan seared scallops on a broad bean puree lacked flavour, swordfish was well cooked but the sauce too buttery.  The honey and almond torta was probably the best part of the meal but comically bad service when trying to procure coffee rather ruined that course.  (The rest of the service had been passable but rather slow and industrial, as a team bustled about trying to serve a very large, very crowded patio.)

So Luce e Limoni that wins this contest hands down, and immediately jumps to the top of my very short list of Italian restaurants in London worth a journey.