Casa di Stefano, Mayfair – tried and tasted

David Ellis wishes he'd worked harder at school so he could afford to eat at this upmarket Italian
Dream holiday restaurant: Casa di Stefano
David Ellis @dvh_ellis12 December 2017

There aren’t any huge names behind this upmarket Italian, but they’ve a well-respected team who’ve all put in time across London. General manager is Christophe Dentamare from La Petite Maison, bar manager Vanni Lottino hails from Frescobaldi, and Paolo Parlanti, once of Franco's, Baretto and the Arts Club, heads up the kitchen, where top Italian chef Stefano Stecca (Toto’s, Novikov, Osteria Stecca) consulted on the food.

Style and surrounds

The quiet front door reveals a busy but bright restaurant: to the right, a wide bar stacked to the ceiling with bottles, where the counter is populated with red wine types filling up on snacks and cured meat and giving the enviable impression this is just part of their day-to-day, which made me think I should've worked harder at school or found a rich relative to blackmail or something. To the left, the main restaurant, clean and blue and white – Grecian, actually, but without crumbling finances – all looking like that idyllic restaurant you’ve never actually found on holiday. Outside, when it's sunny, beautiful people lounge with white wine and food they only pretend to eat.

On the menu

The English take on Italian food can be dull: each mouthful the same, exact ratios of carbs and meat, tessellations of flavour which begin to get boring about halfway through the inevitably oversized dish. The upscale Casa di Stefano does not suffer this trouble. They do pasta dishes, of course – the likes of tagliolini with lobster and sweet chilli, or risotto with truffle, not bang average spag bol – but the mains, while all jaw-clenchingly expensive, offer fine, delicate, thought-out cooking.

Glorious: snacks to be grazed over with wine. The olives are especially good

After stupendously fresh olives, we ordered the rack of lamb rare, and my God, was it: it arrived bright red, dressed in a green pistachio jacket, looking like the perfect Christmas decoration. I’d made a mistake, I thought, figuring I didn’t want cold, raw lamb, but it suffered no sogginess, no underdone chewiness, and was hot, and so therefore I’ve concluded the cooking was a magic trick.

My idiot best friend ordered his veal chop Milanese more medium than rare – the waiter let only a half-twitch of disapproval run across his brow – but its pinky goodness wasn’t lost, and nor did the plate’s flavours fight themselves, as it came simply, with just rocket and cherry tomatoes. Mind you, at £39, a potato or some fried gnocchi probably should be thrown in – or another glass of wine, we're not fussy.

Something sweet

Come here for the classics: boundaries are not being pushed. Not sure that’s what they’re into, either, and that’s fine: Pavarotti never sung NWA. Puddings include Tiramisú, Panna cotta, Lemon Tart, a cheese board, sorbets and gelato.

A must: the bar is not to be missed

Liquid libations

The towers of bottles aren’t wasted in the bar: cocktails are strong and precisely put together, and the list is long – lots of summer drinks and Italian classics, a few heavier options once the meal is done. The wine list has plenty on, including a Coravin selection and some decent other choices by the glass. Then there's a vast selection of Italian bottles divided proudly by region, overall the reds a little stronger than whites. Italian wine is always the best choice for Italian food, but there are some extras from France and begrudging, shrug-of-the-shoulders concessions to the rest of the world as well.

Casa di Stefano: The Lowdown

Final flavour: The kind of dishes that, if time machines allowed, you’d try to seduce Audrey Hepburn with after a spin in the Maserati down the Amalfi coast. In real words: proper Italian fare to be washed back with lots of top shelf wine.

At what cost? Lots of it: this is high-end Mayfair and accordingly pricey. It's a neighbour to Brown's hotel, after all. Starters run at around £10 – £15, pasta at around the same, mains run at around £25 upwards, puddings around £8. Wines start at £6.80 per small (really – the old style 125ml) glass, up to £14. Carafes run £25 – £50, weighted toward the steeper end. You won’t find wine under £35 a bottle and the majority run near enough double that, at least.

Visit if you like: Sartoria, Savini, Locanda Locatelli

Follow David Ellis on Twitter @dvh_ellis

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