Bancone, London — Fresh Pasta, Michelin Recognition, and the Small Portion Elephant in the Room

Let's talk about Italian restaurants for a second. 

They're everywhere — and there's a reason for that. The food is crowd-pleasing, the concept is universally understood, and crucially, the ingredients are cheap. Flour, water, maybe an egg. That's pasta. Which is why, when a pasta restaurant charges serious money for a modest bowl of it, they'd better make sure that bowl is doing something genuinely special.

Bancone, to its credit, mostly does.

Holding a Michelin Bib Gourmand since 2019, Bancone has built its reputation on fresh, handmade pasta with a modern Italian twist. Its name translates simply as "counter," a nod to the open kitchen counter dining concept at its heart. Now with four locations across London and a fifth on the way, it's become one of the city's go-to pasta destinations. The question is whether it lives up to it.

Signature silk handkerchiefs

🍽️ Food & Drinks

The silk handkerchiefs are the headline act — and rightly so. The signature dish arrives with walnut butter and confit egg yolk, the combination producing something deeply creamy and rich without being heavy. It's quietly brilliant. The carbonara version, which adds pancetta into the mix, edges it for me — that extra hit of smokiness and salt ties the whole dish together and pushes the flavour just a step further. If you're choosing between the two, go carbonara.

£4.5 more for a carbonara version of silk handkerchiefs

The chilli garlic pasta is a simpler proposition but well-executed — clean, aromatic, properly seasoned. Not flashy, just good.

Chilli garlic spaghetti, simple but nicely executed 

The wild mushroom tagliolini in dashi broth with chilli, however, is a firm step in the wrong direction. It reads as an interesting concept — Italian pasta meets Japanese dashi — but the execution just doesn't hold together. The broth turns what should be a pasta dish into something closer to a noodle soup, the flavour combination feels muddled rather than inventive, and the overall result is genuinely confusing on the palate. A big no from us. Stick to the classics.

The dashi tagliolini looks quite bad to be fair

One fair warning the staff themselves will give you upfront: portions are on the smaller side. They're not wrong. For a bowl of pasta — however lovingly made — the plate-to-price ratio will raise an eyebrow or two. The cooking earns its place, but London premium on top of pasta premium does start to add up.

👋 Service

Friendly and genuinely helpful — staff are clearly passionate about the food and happy to talk you through it. The one asterisk: the place runs at full tilt on weekends and the team looked stretched thin. Nobody dropped the ball, but you could see it taking effort. A few more hands on the floor would transform the experience.

✨ Decor & Ambience

 On a busy weekend afternoon the place was absolutely full, loud in the best way, with that particular buzz of a room where everyone's clearly enjoying themselves. The decor is clean, modern and considered. It looks like somewhere that takes itself seriously without taking itself too seriously.

💰 Value

Pasta dishes range from £10 to £19 — reasonable by London standards. But context matters: you are paying central London prices for a bowl of pasta that, however well-made, is smaller than you'd hope. If you arrive hungry, budget for two dishes.

🏁 Verdict - Genuinely excellent fresh pasta with a Michelin stamp to back it up — just go in with eyes open on portion sizes, and maybe order one more dish than you think you need.

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⭐ Ratings

• Food: 4/5 – The silk handkerchiefs carbonara is the real deal; everything is well-seasoned, properly made, and clearly crafted with care.
• Service: 3.75/5 – Warm and enthusiastic, but visibly stretched on busy weekend service — more staff would make a meaningful difference.
• Decor: 4/5 – Lively, modern, and the open kitchen gives the room a genuine energy that most pasta spots can't match.
• Value: 3.5/5 – Fair for London and Michelin-endorsed on value, but small portions mean the bill creeps up faster than expected.
• Overall: 4/5 – One of London's best pasta spots, comfortably earning its reputation — just arrive hungry and order accordingly.

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💰 Estimated cost per person: £25–40 (two pasta dishes and drinks; pasta from £9–£17)

📍 Bancone 

Address:  Covent Garden (William IV Street), 

Golden Square (Lower James Street)

 Borough Yards (18 Stoney Street SE1),

Kensington. 

Website: bancone.co.uk