Luca

Luca is a glorious, gorgeous Italian restaurant in Clerkenwell, with a sprawling dining room that was built for tiny Valentino bags and huge lobster taglierini spending sprees on black cards. So much about this place is about style—red leather banquettes destined for Vogue editors, beautiful, bulbous scallops served on pristine seashells, and a courtyard that's a vacation wedding Pinterest post waiting to happen. But for a meal at Luca that’s about style, substance, and worth the spend, sit at the classy front bar with an aperitivo in one hand and the unmissable parmesan fries in the other.

photo credit: Luca

photo credit: Joe Woodhouse

photo credit: Luca

photo credit: Rob Greig

These pseudo cheese churros are under a tenner and it would be easy to overlook them as cheesy chips with an ego, but we’d recognise their distinctive nutty flavour, deep-fried crust, and melting, rich centre with our eyes closed. This is what Luca does best: seemingly simple but perfected dishes. Resist the siren call of the so-so secondi and accept that the wine list is best treated as an aspirational novella you forgo for a classic Negroni. Order with a proud nonna mentality for the best things here—comforting pork sausage ragù rigatoni, warm bread with glugs of virgin olive oil, and one of London’s best tiramisus.

Food Rundown

video credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley

Parmesan Fries

Fries? No. What we have here is a plate of cheesy chips that went to finishing school and became the confident, churro-forward snack they were always meant to be.

photo credit: Rob Greig

Roast Orkney Scallops With Jerusalem Artichoke And ‘Nduja

These scallops told us that they winter in Orkney but they summer in Capri, and have a PT on speed dial. That’s how they got so pretty and so hench that you will give them an intrigued, suspicious fork prod to check it is, in fact, a mollusc. The ‘nduja cuts through the creaminess like some kind of spicy Italian tree surgeon. A strong contender for best scallops in London.

Rigatoni With Pork Sausage Ragu, Tomato, Anchovy, And Mint

Sweet, al dente, a touch of briny saltiness—this is the kind of satisfying classic you want to pat on the back for not getting involved in any trendy funny business. It’s been on Luca’s menu for many years and we hope it always will be.

video credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley

Taglierini Of Cornish Lobster, Datterini Tomatoes And Basil

Nothing says ‘best wishes to my overdraft’ quite like a £46 plate of pasta. The generous chunks of sweet, soft lobster and the al dente taglierini—think spaghetti but a whisper thicker—is primed for some satisfying fork-twirling. Still, for the spend, we’d want something life-altering.

photo credit: Heidi Lauth Beasley

Tart Of Summer Vegetables, Soy Stracciatella And Aubergine Caponata

A tragedy. Like watching Pavarotti sing The Birdie Song. The one-note sweet flavours are amateur hour while the plating is something we would only applaud if it was the outcome of a Junior MasterChef challenge. It’s crying out for more of a salty flourish.

photo credit: Anton Rodriguez

Tiramisu

And just like that, we’re back in Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma territory. Its oval gemstone looks might give tiramisu traditionalists cause for concern, but it delivers on creaminess, moist sponge, and enough of a caffeine hit to make you question whether a little insomnia might be on the cards.