Pollini at Ladbroke Hall

London isn’t short of Italian restaurants, but Pollini still manages to feel like a one-off. Tucked inside Ladbroke Hall - a vast Edwardian former Clement-Talbot car showroom - the space feels as much gallery as restaurant. Domed ceilings soar overhead, red-brick arches frame towering windows, and a honeycomb-like light installation by Spanish designer Nacho Carbonell glows above a circular bar. Modern art spills across the walls, part of Ladbroke Hall’s wider mission as a cultural hub, complete with jazz nights and rotating exhibitions. Even by Notting Hill standards, it’s extravagant.

On a Tuesday night the room already hums with energy: birthday tables, date-night couples and plenty of glossy West London regulars. Breezy staff keep things buoyant, arriving with bubbles before Emanuele Pollini’s polished Italian cooking begins to land. This is luxurious comfort food, executed with serious precision: Wagyu carpaccio showing off its marbling; warm, fresh bread made for dunking in good olive oil; and a bright squid salad sharpened with olives and radicchio.

The standard rarely dips. Ingredients are top-drawer - regenerative Cumbrian beef, fish from Brixham - and the kitchen lets them shine. Al dente ribbons of tagliatelle arrive in a joyful tangle with braised lamb ragu. A thick cut of beef fillet arrives rosy all the way through, glossed with a deep, beefy sauce. And when a trio of plump profiteroles lands on the table for pudding, there’s really nothing left to complain about.

There are tiny niggles - a slightly over-set pannacotta, for example - but Pollini’s scale and grandeur easily erase any qualms. Big, bold, glossy and generous, it stands right up there with London’s best luxury restaurants.

Based in North Kensington, not far from Notting Hill, Pollini is an Italian restaurant set in the stunning Grade II-listed Ladbroke Hall. Once an Edwardian car showroom and manufacturing plant, Ladbroke Hall’s remarkable Beaux Arts architectural style infuses even the most casual of lunches with a distinct importance.

Chef Emanuele Pollini, voted best Italian chef by Gambero Rosso magazine in 2020, runs the eponymous restaurant. As a formally trained chef with years of experience working in Michelin-starred restaurants around the world and in Italy, Pollini is now bringing his knowledge of Italian fine dining to North London.

Start off with a drink in the grand hall, below the breathtaking chandelier designed by Vincenzo de Cotiis, which looks like a contemporary interpretation of a tree climbing down from the imposingly high ceiling. 

Pollini’s 20-page list of wines has just about everything guests would expect from an institution which projects such prestige, and with fair pricing. For reds, don’t miss the Tuscan Brunellos nor the great choice of Burgundies.

The menu is organised in traditional Italian fashion: antipasti, primi and secondi - with some fun variations along the way such as the ‘Perche no?’ section of the menu, which translates literally to ‘Why not?’ Dishes include more modern takes on typical Italian flavours - mortadella and black truffle served on a tapioca crisp, for example - down to the classics, like a vitello tonnato, or handmade tagliatelle in a wild boar ragu.

Pollini also hosts dinner and jazz nights on Friday, with special menus on offer for those going to watch live jazz in Ladbroke Hall’s Sunbeam Theatre.