Sorella.

Sorella

The pasta and the focaccia are both made in the building every day, on a menu written the Italian way from cicchetti through to dolci.

Why go

Robin Gill spent years cooking on the Amalfi coast, and Sorella is where that reads most directly. He runs it with Sarah Gill and Daniel Joines, with Ross Mangan as head chef, and it is the sister to Darby's, Bermondsey Larder, Bottle + Rye and Rye by the Water (Sorella). The Dairy, the restaurant that made Gill's name round the corner in Clapham, closed in 2020, which leaves this as his room in the neighbourhood. The kitchen makes its own fresh pasta and its own focaccia daily and builds the menu around seasonal produce from growers it names. The bar is an aperitivo bar in the real sense: seasonal bellinis, americanos, and Vault Vermouth negronis poured from a tap.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the octopus arancini, which Harden's diners have named across three separate editions, one of them calling it "arancini to die for". Then the fresh gnocchi or the pappardelle ragu, and the focaccia, because a kitchen that says it bakes its own bread should be judged on it.
• Avoid: booking this for a conversation. A diner on the same survey page that praises the cooking writes that the noise is quite overwhelming, we could not have a sensible conversation2. And it is shut on Mondays.

What locals & experts say

• Harden's, whose survey polls diners, across editions: A short menu of high quality at this great little Italian off Clapham High Street, with delicious sharing plates inspired by Robin Gill's time on the Amalfi coast. Elsewhere: the neighbourhood Italian restaurant that you always wanted to have, noisy and buzzy in the proper Italian manner, with cooking that is interesting and delicious.2
• The same survey's dissent, which is worth as much as the praise: a diner who ate there twice reports that the noise in the restaurant is quite overwhelming, we could not have a sensible conversation. The acoustics seem to amplify the chatter.2
• On Michelin, the restaurant states on its own about page that it was "Awarded Michelin Bib Gourmand 2019, 2020 & 2021". That is the venue's claim. No independent trade coverage of it was reached, so it is reported here and is deliberately not recorded as a fact in this entry's metadata.
• No chef vote and no bylined critic review found. The London chef votes were searched on 1 August 2026 with nothing for Sorella.

Good to know

• Where: 148 Clapham Manor Street SW4 6BX, off Clapham High Street in Clapham Old Town. Clapham Common or Clapham North.
• Timing: closed Mondays. Lunch and dinner otherwise.
• Booking: recommended, and the survey says the room draws a more-than-local crowd.
• Noise: genuinely loud. Plan the table accordingly.
• Hygiene: the FSA records rating 4, inspected 12 September 2025. Read the components: hygiene 5 and confidence in management 5 are both clean, and structure 10 is what brings it down, which is the building rather than the food, where lower is better.3
• Michelin: deliberately not recorded. Our cached data covers stars only, so it cannot speak to a Bib, and the guide's own site was not fetched. The venue's own Bib claim is in the section above.

Verdict

should-visit — Robin Gill spent years cooking on the Amalfi coast and this is the room where that shows most plainly. He runs it with Sarah Gill and Daniel Joines, the head chef is Ross Mangan, and the menu is written the Italian way, cicchetti through to dolci, with the pasta and the focaccia made in the building every day. Harden's diners have named the octopus arancini in three separate editions, which is about as clear an order signal as a survey produces, and they add fresh gnocchi and pappardelle ragu. The bar takes aperitivo seriously, down to negronis on tap. Two things go against it. The room is loud enough that a diner in the same survey said a sensible conversation was impossible, so bring people you want to eat with rather than talk to. And the Bib Gourmand the restaurant advertises for 2019, 2020 and 2021 is its own claim, which nothing we could reach independently confirms. Closed Mondays.