Set up by founders Enzo Mirto and Elia Sebregondi, Italian kitchen and workshop Officina 00 serves refined plates with a focus on artisanal pasta. Its seasonal menus are built around regional traditional Italian recipes, executed with innovative cooking techniques and elevated twists to bring them up to date. This site in Fitzrovia is the second to open from the duo, who originally launched with a site over on Old Street in Shoreditch.
Head chef Elia brings plenty of new dishes to this second venture, including sourdough bread with whipped truffle parmigiano butter, and ravioli with egg yolk, wild mushrooms and miso butter to start. While its signature pasta dishes feature the likes of pappardelle with beef short rib ragu, burrata and basil, pumpkin gnocchi with brown butter, sage and gorgonzola, and spaghetti with truffle and walnut butter, radicchio and garlic crostini. All its pasta dishes are made in-house daily on the spianatoia, a traditional wooden work-bench said to absorb the humidity of the pasta, giving a unique texture that helps sauces to stick.
This Fitzrovia restaurants also houses its very own smoker, fryer and grill which allows the team to create and develop a broader repertoire of dishes with a wider range of cooking techniques on show. Finally, a concise selection of Italian desserts includes a crunchy tiramisu corretto finished with orange zest and Cointreau.
There are no surprises on the drinks front, which features a reliable selection of Italian house cocktails, including Spritz’, Negronis, a Limoncello Martini and Cold Brew Espresso Martini. While thoughtfully-chosen wines and beers complete the relaxed menu.
Like its Shoreditch site, Officina 00 Fitzrovia maintains its signature colour palette of bottle green and charcoal, but with a slightly more upmarket touch thanks to surfaces rendered in steel and wood. Both counter seating and table and chairs are available for both casual and more formal dining.