L'Anima

Cecilia

Probably the worst restaurant in London and definitely the worst Italian. Never mind waiting an hour for my cold starter; the main dish dish was simply inedible – I have never seen a parmigiana come without tomato sauce, and the mozzarella being substituted by something that tasted like Domino's cheddar. Never ordered a desert, for obvious reasons. Credit to the staff for offering to change the dish, but unfortunately the damage was done by then – we just wanted out.

Great lunch on many levels

I had a business lunch there on wed, the menu was interesting one of us ate from the set menu and the other from the lunch menu. The service was very good attentive but not intrusive, the venue was spotless but not sterile ( lots of atmosphere) and the food was very good. i did nt want a heavy lunch as i needed to go back to work, So my choices were flavoufull and cooked to perfection. i will be back for sure

best italian in the city

always a great experience!

Probably the best food quality on the city and one of the best Italian food in London

My first time at l’anima, but certainly not the last.

I know several other reviews have knocked the service – personally I found absolutely no reason to complain about it. Everyone was really polite, there were no mistakes, you didn’t sit with an empty plate or glass, there wasn’t any ferocious up-selling, no long or uneven waits between courses, the bill arrived without having to be chased: in short everything you could want and on a par with the best I’ve had anywhere.

The atmosphere is reasonable, but not great. Its one of those places where 95% of the customers are in suits on their way home from work – as I was. The tables are decently spaced, everything is immaculate, if a touch bland and unadventurous, the main gripe was noise – you can’t pick out particular words from surrounding tables, just a general din. We did mention this to the waitress who told us that “everyone says that”.

Value is fairly good, though I think that does depend a little on the choices you make as there are a few main courses at over £30, which I still tend to regard as the preserve of a Mayfair postcode and a Michelin star, but there are some quite good set menu options as well. I paid the bill and 3 people, 3 courses, wine, 2 bottles of water and a couple of glasses of prosecco came to just over £225, or around £75 per head.

Food is very nicely presented, very fresh and in a novelty for much of London arrives when it’s actually still hot as opposed to merely warm. I ate fettuccini with mushrooms and black truffles to start, followed by pork belly with mash and honey and paprika sauce and had lemon zeppola to finish (it’s a choux bun type of arrangement filled with lemony custard). Everything was perfectly pleasant and I think the main or probably only negative was it was just a bit bland – there were no strong flavours or real bite, it just felt a little like the chef had played just a bit too safe.

Having had a few disasters elsewhere recently I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the whole experience and will definitely be returning.

Someone once described this restaurant as the gastronomic equivalent of a “Bugatti”. These kinds of comparisons work with me… So we went. And I must concur – the setting is very impressive and it goes well with the City. Also the food is nice. The southern Italian / Sicilian concept is good but a bit confusing: what they offer here is high-end rustic food. Don't get me wrong, this could work (like at “La Poule au Pot”) but here it doesn't and the results are dishes with an identity crises which are neither rustic nor very high end (apart from the price tag). However, none of this matters as the service is decent enough for the City and it is refreshingly “European” compared to other City eateries of this type.

This must be the best Italian restaurant in London at the moment (sorry Mr Locatelli), tucked away behind Liverpool Street station, it's well worth the trip from the West End. The menu contains a number of unusual dishes and the cooking is terrific. Ocaisionally the boorish behaviour of the local ‘City boys’ pervades the otherwise calm atmosphere.

It is perhaps unfair that, after four or five faultless visits to L’Anima over the last few years, I chose this one to write about. Maybe it was the timing; we went late one Wednesday evening, post theatre when the restaurant was thinning out. We were the last to be fed and the table of three ladies-what-cocktail over the far side of the room had been (and continued to be) properly lubricated. Maybe it was just a one-off. Maybe it is just that it is not as good as I remember it.

The room has always been the least interesting part of the restaurant: it is a cavern. High ceilings, a big wall of glass with stark, hard stone floor. In other words, it is not gezellig; you don’t get a warm and cuddly feeling when you walk in. It is harsh. It is hard. You get the shrieking of the cocktail table amplified across the other side of the room. (If you have the private room, you need to keep the door closed, as the noise seems to be funnelled through the doorway, as if through a sonic magnifier, making it quite impossible to hear your neighbour). Given that this is the City, and that Deals are no doubt being Done, it seems an odd set-up.

Nonetheless, the food has always been excellent. Up to this time. I don’t know if I have some anti-food vibe that only comes out on my birthday, but it seems that this time of year brings the biggest disappointment to my meals. A few years ago my birthday evening libations were taken at Scotts (like L’Anima, a Square Meal three star); people had been raving about it and I wanted desperately to find a really great fish restaurant in town. I hated it. This year’s 21st was spent at L’Anima. Same thing: if this had been my first visit, I’d never return. It wasn’t so I will give it another chance.

We started with a perfectly adequate plate of ham and the fried courgette flowers. I love this time of year when courgette flowers are in the markets. Stuff with some cheese, dip in a light, tempura batter, fry until golden and sprinkle some sea salt over them. Gorgeous; light, simple, tasty. Here they had been stuffed with mozzarella (a nice touch, lots of stringy cheese to play with), but then dipped in the sort of heavy batter that gives fish and chips a good name. Yes it was crispy, but it overpowered the flowers and was dripping in oil. Instead of some nice absorbent paper to soak the excess up, it was on greaseproof paper. This repels not absorbs. So the oil sat their, glistening up at me; I am sure that it was daring me to say something, but I couldn’t hear it over the cocktail table.

The ham was perfectly pleasant, if the slices were a little on the thick side, accompanied by a few slices of tomato bread. Nice, but not up there with a good Jamon Iberica and pan con tomate.

The mains were better: it was perhaps my fault for going for a second fatty dish, but the pork belly, whilst as nice a piece of the meat as you will get, had rendered less of its fat during its slow roast than I’d have liked and the smears that accompanied it were unidentifiable. Crab linguine was the star mind: the pasta perfectly cooked, the crab given piquancy by the right amount of chilli. This shows what the kitchen can produce and, at these prices, there is no excuse for thinking that we ordered badly: everything should be fantastic.

The sommelier was very helpful, coming up with a lovely Tuscan to complement the meat and fish. Unless you are in a wine bar, however, the wine shouldn’t be the star. The food should.

So we left, a little deflated, a little disappointed. As we passed the cocktail table, I pretty sure I heard one ask: when shall we three meet again in thunder, lightning, or in rain? Well, I don’t know when I will be back. It certainly will not be my birthday next year.

Although it does not live up to its name, (I found it a somewhat soul-less place in terms of the room, the service, ambience and atmosphere), the food is nigh on fautless. I started with the intriguing charcoal scallops with n'djuia whch despite being a more than ample serving, I could have easily eaten over and over again. As this was a lunchtime with work beckoning into the afternoon, I opted for a pasta main course of fidelini with fresh crab – although this did not exactly live up to its “spicy” warning on the menu, it was a beautifully cooked, fresh and tasty dish. For dessert, we both had the pannacotta with coffee spumane and our giggles when two dishes of what can only be described as boob-shaped blancmange arrived, were clearly lost on the waitress. Clearly too young to remember Benny Hill or any of the Carry On's! The dish itself was a wonderful concoction of flavours and soft textures, once the initial hit of espresso wore off.

I would definitely recommend and return to l'Anima but it would be a much better experience if only the staff were just a little bit more friendly rather than perfunctory. We had to ask for everything and although we were not in a particular hurry, it would have been nice to have had a little more attention paid to us, especially given the prices charged.

Surprised and disappointed with this restaurant. The ambience is non-existent and food is not nearly good enough to make up for this inadequacy. I ordered the marsarla and duck risotto and left half on the plate, as it was both lacking in flavour with a very unappealing stodgy texture. Never one not to give a second chance and because the location of this restaurant is so ideal from my business, I tried to arrange a meal for my colleagues. A party of 8 went to a ‘group booking level’ that meant we needed to pre-order our meal and choose from set menus only. Was slightly miffed about this but persevered only to be told that my colleagues barring one or 2 changes had to select the same set menu! I promptly cancelled my order and managed to get a reservation with the Coq D'Argent, which I will add was a very positive dining experience. The reviews for this restaurant are spectacular but I sense that was days gone by…