London is about to taste the real Italy. 🇮🇹🍷
Italy isn't one cuisine; it's twenty.
Each region has its own dialect, wine, and idea of what a Sunday lunch should taste like. From the 1st to the 30th of November 2027, we're bringing that whole mosaic to London with the first-ever Italian Restaurant Festival.
Why settle for "Italian" when you can taste Piemonte, or Sicilia, or Campania?
Picture the contrast: in Piemonte, hand-pinched agnolotti del plin and beef braised for hours in Barolo — slow food from the foothills of the Alps. A thousand kilometres south in Sicilia, three thousand years of Greek, Arab and Norman rule still show up on the plate, in sweet-and-sour caponata and pasta alla Norma. And in Campania, the birthplace of pizza, a Margherita still has to leave the wood-fired oven in under 90 seconds to count as the real thing.
That's the experience we're building — not "Italian food," but 20 distinct culinary identities, each hosted by a restaurant that actually lives it, paired with the region's own wine, told by the people who grew up on it.
We're selecting independent Italian regional restaurants across London to take part, each one representing a different region and showcasing the real "cucina espressa" behind it.
Our mission?
To fascinate Londoners so deeply that their next dinner in Fulham or Soho becomes the first step of a lifelong journey to Italy. 🍝
Is your restaurant in one of these regions?
Apply to take part 👉 Contact Us — we review applications on a rolling basis until all places are filled.