Luca
Daniel Willis and Johnny Smith opened Luca in 2016 as the Italian counterpart to The Clove Club and called the cooking Britalian, meaning Italian technique run on British produce.
Why go
Robert Chambers leads the kitchen, coming from The Ledbury and the RAC Club, and the Britalian premise shows on the plate rather than in the marketing: woodpigeon-sausage ragu, pheasant Milanese, Orkney scallops, Hebridean lamb, Cornish turbot. Michelin holds it at one star in the Guide Great Britain & Ireland 2026 and describes expertly rendered Italian food, which is satisfyingly robust yet effortlessly easy to eat
(MICHELIN). The frontage on St John Street is small enough to walk past; behind it sit a counter bar, a tall back room with floor-to-ceiling windows, and a walled terrace under a retractable roof. Corkage is £50 a bottle for up to two bottles, which is a real number if you have something worth carrying in.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Parmesan fries first. Time Out calls them
gossamer-light and greaseless fingers of cheese, destined to become a Luca trademark.
2 Then a pasta, since that is where the British-ingredient game gets played hardest. - Avoid: booking the dining room if the bill is the constraint. The bar serves an express menu at lunch and seats parties of up to four.
What locals & experts say
- Time Out (4/5, Tom Howells): the menu is
trad-rustic and occasionally finicky, this is upscale country comfort food,
about £130 for two with drinks and service.2 - Harden's (2026 survey):
dish after dish of gorgeous and inventive modern Italian cooking,
food rated 4 out of 5, £105 a head, in adeceptively large
room with aromantic hidden back terrace.
3 - MICHELIN Guide (2026, One Star): the inspector on the room,
there's something about Luca that makes it feel like a proper grown-up restaurant, largely because the relaxed clientele just know they're going to be well looked after.
1
Good to know
- Timing: kitchen noon to 2pm and 5.30pm to 10pm, Monday to Saturday. Closed Sunday. The bar opens at noon for drinks.
- Booking: online for parties up to six in the dining room, up to four in the bar. Reservations office answers weekdays 10am to 5pm.
- Price: £105 a head in the 2026 Harden's survey. Corkage £50 per bottle, two bottles maximum.
- Dietary: no gluten-free, celiac or vegan statement is published by the venue, so call ahead rather than assume.
- Access: wheelchair accessible, five minutes from Farringdon.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Michelin, but on the affordable side" REAL.
Verdict
should-visit — Luca is worth the detour. A starred kitchen doing handmade pasta on British game and shellfish is a specific idea, executed for ten years, and the Parmesan fries are a dish people cross town for. It stops short of a trek because the cooking sits inside a well-drawn tradition rather than inventing one, and Time Out's own reviewer found the plates familiar.