Cecconi's City of London at The Ned

Cecconi’s in The City has the unique advantage of being found within the Ned which means guests are treated to the wider buzz of the hotel. Live music trickles up and over the partition while an expertly trained front-of-house team shuttle up and down the rows of tightly packed, cloth-clad tables. It’s a transportive experience which nearly makes you feel like you’ve boarded a flight somewhere altogether more exciting than the financial district.

The menu will be familiar to anyone who has eaten in one of Cecconi’s sister restaurants around the world (there are siblings in Berlin, Barcelona, and Miami, to name just a few): light bites of cicchetti and salads, tartares and carpaccios as well as indulgent Italian staples of the veal Milanese and lobster spaghetti ilk.

It’s the cooking that’s the surprise. And in a good way. It might be predictable but everything’s delicious in its own sort of solidly unadventurous way. A comfort food feast of Italian familiarity. A generous pile of zucchini fritti comes puffed up in crisp batter, and while the aubergine parmigiana isn’t going to change your world, it gives off a satisfying cheese pull in amongst layers of tangy tomato and soft aubergine. If you can resist the allure of the aforementioned lobster spaghetti kudos to you, but if you give in to the £35 price tag you’ll be well rewarded. It’s a tangle of al dente strands evenly coated in sweet tomato sauce with a good kick of chilli and a crowning of generously portioned lobster meat. The inevitable wiped-clean plate makes it hard to complain about the price in retrospect.

After a breadbasket and the likelihood of a carb-heavy main it might be tempting to skip sweets. Don’t do that. Instead, embrace la dolce vita with a boozy tiramisu or a plate of profiteroles finished with hot chocolate sauce at the table. If there’s time to linger, take it all in while making your way through the extremely good cocktail list.

When The Ned, a hotel and dining destination which is a short stroll from Bank tube station, opened in 2017 elegant Italian Cecconi’s was the only restaurant brand to take up residence there which already had a presence in the capital. 

Cecconi’s is owned by the wildly popular Soho House Group, who are also the team behind The Ned. The high-end Italian not only has a handful of sites in London, including in Mayfair and Shoreditch, but also boasts outposts in other glamorous locations such as Miami Beach, West Hollywood, Barcelona and Istanbul. 

Cecconi’s City of London is found on the ground floor of The Ned, among the hotel’s conclave of restaurants. The dining room follows the same 1930s aesthetic as the rest of the hotel, featuring cosy banquette seating, art-deco light fixtures and stunning verdite columns dotted around the space. It is also clear that this is one of the higher-end offerings at The Ned, evidenced by white tablecloths and staff donning blazers and waistcoats who demonstrate an impressive knowledge of the menu.  

Speaking of the menu, it is an all-day affair, which encompasses breakfast, lunch, brunch and dinner. The a la carte follows the traditional four-course Italian format and is a celebration of comfort food, often given luxe updates. You can begin with cicchetti such as black cabbage arancini, before moving on to starters proper such as calamari fritti served with a lemon aioli.  

From the pasta dishes, guests can tuck into the likes of crab ravioli and a decadent lobster linguine, while your main might see sea bass with lentils and green sauce or veal Milanese pepped up with lemon salt and sage. 

You can round things off with classic Italian desserts such as tiramisu, while Cecconi’s comprehensive list of mostly European wines is also worth exploring.