Pasta Week: Ten Tables, No Restraint
By
yvette legge
on
20th October 2026
From hearty bowls of pappardelle at Carmelina's to Legare's spaghetti with clams, Yvette Legge rounds up some of the best spots in London ahead of World Pasta Day.
National Pasta Day falls on 17 October; World Pasta Day follows on the 25th. Strictly speaking, the first is an American observance, but London has never needed much encouragement to book another Italian. Eight days gives us a respectable window for crab-filled ravioli, slow-cooked ragù and truffle, with ten restaurants to work through and several shapes to learn beyond penne. There are regional specialists, neighbourhood favourites and new arrivals, so consider this your diary for the week. Leave some space between appointments.
Opening on 19 October, in time for World Pasta Day, Carmelina’s serves langoustine tortelloni, buffalo ricotta ravioli with black truffle, and broad pappardelle ribbons with braised veal shin. Vintage Italian interiors supply the setting; downstairs bar Carla’s supplies the after-dinner detour. The menu rewards decisive people and severely inconveniences anyone who wants to try their partner’s dinner.
Osteria Vibrato, Soho
The menu names each dish’s Italian region, useful for anyone whose grasp of the country is largely airport-based. Daily-rolled pasta includes fine Piedmontese tajarin with hen, chicken livers and sage, butter-and-sage agnolotti parcels, and twisted Sicilian busiate with pesto. There’s considerably more to Italy than your regular carbonara order.
Legare, Shad Thames
Legare’s recent menu includes ox cheek ravioli with roast meat sauce and tagliatelle with Scottish girolles, golden wild mushrooms, and Marsala wine. Pasta is made daily, using seasonal British produce. Order spaghetti with clams if you’re wearing black. If you’re wearing white, that’s between you and your dry cleaner.
Hausu, Peckham
At Hausu, Holly Middleton Joseph brings Italian influences together with Asian flavours and her Chinese and Trinidadian roots. Crab fazzoletti means broad, thin pasta sheets, named after handkerchiefs. A vintage hi-fi handles the music. Beside Peckham Rye station, it’s unusually well placed for telling someone you’re “just leaving”.
Bocconcino Soho
Bocconcino Soho’s pasta includes rigatoni carbonara and broad pappardelle ribbons with wild mushrooms and stracciatella (burrata’s creamy filling). Pasta is hand-rolled in-house, while the Great Marlborough Street address makes it an easy West End booking. An ambitious detour for anyone who claimed they were only coming into town for one errand.
TOZI, Victoria
TOZI’s Big Five serves a different regional pasta Tuesday to Saturday: sausage orecchiette, the little ear-shaped pasta, seafood with Sardinian pasta pearls, and Saturday carbonara among them. Each sharing dish is £50 for three to five guests. Five makes financial sense. Three makes dietary sense. Closed Sundays; book for 17 October.
Juno, Olympia
Opening on 16 October, Juno serves crab linguine with chilli and cherry tomatoes, plus tomato-and-mozzarella paccheri, large tubes whose name derives from a Neapolitan word for “slap”. Tuesdays bring beef-shin lasagne with béchamel and Parmesan. A considerably better use of layers than another autumn wardrobe.
Nipotina, Mayfair
Nipotina’s October menu pairs large paccheri tubes with pistachio pesto and Luganega pork sausage, and mafalde ribbons with beef-and-veal ragù. Crab linguine brings chilli and parsley; a large egg ravioli comes with porcini mushrooms, sage and butter. Four persuasive arguments against announcing that you’re “not that hungry”.
Cecconi’s at The Ned, City of London
Cecconi’s at The Ned keeps its crab ravioli in tomato and basil, alongside black-truffle agnolotti parcels, cheese-and-pepper tonnarelli and lobster spaghetti with chilli. This is the City branch, at 27 Poultry. Choosing between crab and lobster is the sort of difficult decision for which lunch was invented.
The Italian Greyhound, Marylebone
The Italian Greyhound lists cheese-and-pepper orecchiette with winter truffle alongside Dorset crab tagliolini with lemon and bottarga, cured fish roe. Short-rib-and-Guinness cappelletti, small filled pasta parcels, adds an unexpected stout intervention. The pasta does rather undermine any plans to “just pop in for a drink”.
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