Bancone Covent Garden

If you're looking for fantastic Italian food in the heart of the West End look no further. We dined here for my wife's birthday and had the most wonderful meal. We'd booked seats at the bar and were offered seats at either the hot or cold kitchen. We chose hot and weren't disappointed. It was really fun and interesting to watch the chefs in action. My wife had one of the signature negronis which was perfect then we had the fried artichoke (10/10 dish best thing I've eaten in a long time) and tuna tartare to start. We followed with the signature silk handkerchiefs with walnuts and a confit egg yolk... Pasta perfection. The atmosphere was warm, staff attentive, friendly and warm and the food was incredible, especially considering the very reasonable price tag. We can't wait to return. Thank you Bancone! (Note: ours cost about £60 each but due to cocktails, truffle and dessert! You could eat and be satisfied much cheaper).

This Italian restaurant serves handmade pasta dishes and I would recommend you to make a reservation especially on the weekend. They have table seats and counter seats that you can choose from when you make a reservation online. They do reserve some tables for walk in customers but you have to be early in order to get a table. We ordered: Pasta fritter just like a fried pasta quite plain to us. Potato sour dough with Ligurian olive oil which was both soft and chewy and tasted better than we expected. Fried artichoke, romesco was unique and it tasted okay. Silk handkerchiefs with walnut butter and confit egg yolk is their signature dish and is the best choice overall. Silk handkerchiefs carbonara was too salty and heavy for us. Spicy pork and nduja ragu tagliatelle was like a standard bolognaise pasta. Squid ink pasta was the second best choice. Overall their prices are reasonable in London but some people may find their portions are too small for them.

From top to bottom, the owners, management, and every staff member here are highly professional. When the doors open, there is already a long line outside, which clearly reflects the strong brand impact built through social media. We were seated at the open-kitchen counter, where we could closely watch the chefs work. From ingredient preparation to plating, everything showed clear professional training and attention to detail. However, there was one moment that made me uncomfortable: when chopping scallions, the chef took them out and cut them directly without washing them first. Since scallions appeared in every dish, the overall flavor felt quite heavy by the end of the meal. It would have been thoughtful to offer chewing gum at checkout. The restroom could also use improvement the hand soap was empty, and overall cleanliness was not well maintained. I noticed the head chef working on the second floor, which is not open to guests, while the first floor was completely full. As for the food, we ordered several dishes. The fried appetizer was quite good. One very important note: if you have a nut allergy, you must inform the staff. Every dish from appetizers and pasta to dessert contains nuts. Aside from these points, everything else met expectations. Overall, it’s a solid experience and definitely worth trying.

We came here for dinner and the overall experience was decent, the staff were friendly checked up on us and asked how was everything- nice atmosphere. The chilli garlic spaghetti was too salty for all our liking, the spicy pork nduja ragù was bland wasn’t even spicy lacked flavour however the silk handerchief with egg yolk and the wild mushroom dishes were nice would totally recommend to try this.