Harper-Thames ventures to Leicester Square and finds a proper Italian operation in an unexpected corner
L’ulivo Leicester Square: The Italian Restaurant That Makes Irving Street Worth Lingering On
Leicester Square has a reputation, not entirely undeserved, as the part of central London where quality goes to die in the face of tourist traffic that will eat anywhere and pay for the privilege. The restaurants that line the square and the streets immediately surrounding it are, with honourable exceptions, operating on the principle that the postcode does the work and the kitchen need not. L’ulivo on Irving Street is one of the honourable exceptions: a properly run Italian restaurant that serves food at a quality that its immediate competitors cannot match and that has built, within the tourist environment, a customer base that comes back voluntarily.
The Leicester Square L’ulivo is a sister operation to the Charing Cross location, and shares the kitchen philosophy: Italian food prepared with the respect for the ingredients and the technique that the cuisine requires, at prices that reflect the location without being predatory. The distinction between an Italian restaurant that respects its cuisine and one that treats Italian as a format for producing inexpensive food at high margins is immediately apparent on the first mouthful.
The Menu
The pasta at L’ulivo Leicester Square is the clear strength of the menu. The cacio e pepe is made with genuine technique: the cheese is emulsified correctly into the starchy pasta water rather than melted into cream, the pepper is fresh-ground and present in sufficient quantity to earn the name, the pasta is cooked to the correct doneness and finished in the sauce rather than sauced after plating. This is the cacio e pepe that the dish should be, and it is a more demanding preparation than the description suggests.
The carbonara follows the same commitment to authenticity: guanciale or pancetta, egg yolk, pecorino romano, black pepper. The egg is incorporated off direct heat to avoid scrambling. The result is the dish as Lazio Romans make it rather than the cream-based international version that has spread through tourist restaurant menus globally. At Leicester Square, within easy walking distance of the absolute worst examples of tourist Italian food in London, serving the authentic version is both a culinary decision and a statement of intent.
The pizza is thin-crust and properly baked, with the ingredients applied in the correct proportions and the base cooked to the right crispness. The margherita is the test and it passes. The pizza diavola earns its name from the quantity of chilli rather than a token reference to it. The quattro formaggi demonstrates the kitchen’s confidence with cheese as a primary flavour rather than merely a topping.
The Service and the Room
The service at L’ulivo Leicester Square is warm and professional, the kind that makes the tourist environment feel incidental rather than defining. The room is pleasant and properly maintained. Visit L’ulivo Leicester Square for the cacio e pepe. The London Prat covers London dining. Bohiney Magazine has the wider frame.
