This upscale Italian institution is always crowded and the tables are jammed too close together, but everyone still adores the glorious spread of regional Italian small plates found here. Located off Theaterland's Shaftesbury Avenue, the famous trattoria offers magnificent peasant-based pasta, stews, fritti, salumi, and raw crudi, spanning from Naples to the Veneto. Try the fine Romani fried sage leaves with anchovy, the salt-baked fossil fish from Lazio, or roast suckling pig from northern Italy's Emilia-Romagna.

Dine at the bar and you’re in for a fun time – especially if you sit by the window, watching celebs swan into the clamorous dining room. The ever-changing menu celebrates the best of artisan regional cooking in diverse ways, while enticing cocktails and impressive all-Italian wines also make an impact. Time Out tip: Keep the Italian vibes going with a post dinner trip to Gelupo just across the road, a late night (well, until 11pm) gelato parlour that also does booze.

Honestly, hand us a mic, set a beat, and we can perform the most majestic spoken word performance about Bocca Di Lupo. This relaxed spot in Soho serves such great Italian food that it’s impossible to leave here without discussing the orecchiette you just had. Open for over 15 years, everything from the food, to the staff, to the laid-back feel, make this place a London classic that’ll work just as well for an anniversary meal as for dinner with the whole family.

Italian counter-top restaurant Bocca di Lupo, tucked away down one of Soho’s quieter streets, was one of the first to run with small plates when it opened to much acclaim in 2008. Now something of a Soho stalwart, it’s still one of the most exciting places to eat Italian food, thanks to its diverse menu inspired by all 20 of Italy’s regions. The small plate system means you can sample something from each section/region of the menu, too.

I found myself thinking of the food back in London: the rugged sausages and the deep-fried sage leaves with anchovy at Bocca di Lupo, the seafood fregola at Sartoria, the pasta dishes at Locanda Locatelli, Padella and Theo Randall. The same happened in Barcelona: lots of serviceable tapas; nothing as good as those at Barrafina, Sabor or José Pizarro. Unless I wanted to join the queue for Cal Pep.

While the rest of the menu at BDL changes frequently, this Jacob Kenedy original is a constant. The few times it has been swapped out, the guest outcry brought it back pretty quickly for fear of an outside revolt. It's walking that balance between salty (pecorino) and sweet (pomegranate), but has that drop of decadence (truffle), so it's a showstopper.

Focusing on regional dishes, including those from Puglia, Rome, Tuscany and Calabria, Bocca Di Lupo is a top choice of traditional Italian restaurants in London - with its popularity showing no signs of slowing down. Celebrities visit regularly, the space is always buzzing and the menu changes on a regular basis so no two visits are the same, while a list of exclusively Italian wines backs up the already delicious food. Pre-booking a table here is a must, so you can get your lips around Roman anchovy-stuffed sage leaf fritti, Venetian Amberjack carpaccio with orange and rosemary oil, and lemon and rosemary chicken scaloppine inspired by 'Mamma'.

Under the skilful eye of chef-patron Jacob Kenedy, Bocca di Lupo has been a haven of outstanding Italian food in Soho for 15 years. Relaxed yet cut-above special, the trattoria turns out dish after dish of the finest Italian regional cooking without pretension – every ingredient is treated with respect. Highlight dishes include: stuffed courgette flowers (when in season); sardines with sweet-sharp Sicilian flavours; spaghetti with crab; pappardelle with venison ragu; bream in a ‘sarcophagus of salt’; and what we reckon is the best gelato you’ll taste in London – enjoy it at Bocca or stumble across the road to sister establishment Gelupo.

Serving stripped-down, authentic regional Italian cuisine, Bocca Di Lupo is a buzzing family-run trattoria in the centre of Soho. The sharing-style menu – characterised as a phrasebook of the 20 core dialects of Italian cuisine – changes twice daily to accommodate for seasonality, and everything that can be homemade, from pasta and bread to salame and gelato, is made in-house, with the rest of the restaurant’s produce sourced directly from Italy. Wines are meticulously selected and exclusively Italian (what else would you expect?), ranging from familiar favourites to little-known gems.

Bocca Di Lupo (along with its ice cream shop Gelupo that sits opposite) has been a Soho institution for regional Italian cooking and wine since its 2008 opening. Friendly and knowledgeable Italian staff will help you navigate the impressive seven sections (from fritti to grill) of the somehow still concise menu – a tour of Italian regions and specialities, the daily changing offering adapts with the seasons, too. Go sharing with six to seven plates between two, or go with a classic starter and main, with most dishes available in both small or larger sizes to suit your choice.

Best Italian restaurant for: a dateDish to order: sea-bream carpaccio with orange and rosemary. If you can, bag a couple of spots at the marble-topped counter of this smart and shiny hotspot and then eat your way through Italy's most delicious regional dishes. The option of small or large portions means they are made for sharing; kick off with home-cured beef, pecorino and rocket from Tuscany, followed by anchovy-stuffed sage leaves from Rome, Calabrian orecchiette with 'nduja from Calabria and sea bream with zesty gremolata from Puglia.

We order: Don't leave without trying the grilled seafood pic 'n' mix with gremolata. For an authentic Italian dining experience made up of big and small plates, Bocca Di Lupo is your place (they also offer the perfect pre-theatre menu, too.) The menu is updated regularly (sometimes twice a day) to ensure everything is as fresh and seasonal as possible, while the restaurant is light and airy. Expect a mixture of pasta and risottos, as well as meat and fish from the grill, as well as fresh salads full of texture and flavour on the side.

With ingredients flown into the country twice a week every week, Bocca di Lupo “might just be Britain’s best Italian”, declared Terry Durack in The Independent in 2009. It was named best restaurant in London by Time Out the same year and later won Best Wine List in Tatler’s 2013 restaurant awards. While it claims to be regional, it should perhaps more accurately be described as multi-regional with dishes picked out from across the length and breadth of Italy, and each dish’s origin clearly marked on the menu.

This perennially popular Italian tapas joint is a soft-lit ‘grammers paradise. The buzzing and sexy ground floor – all terrazzo floor, white walls and twinkling lights – is dominated by a long marble bar, the perfect spot for grazing and gazing into (or storying) the open kitchen. Strewn with candles and flowers, it's ideal for snapping those beautifully plated small bites of Italian deliciousness – don’t miss the truffled radish, celeriac, pomegranate and pecorino salad or the ridiculously good ragu.

The restaurant has since received various awards and accolades for its stripped-down, honest regional Italian cuisine. Despite the slick Soho surroundings, Bocco di Lupo is a family business and likes to think of itself as more of a trattoria than a glamorous restaurant. The kitchen continues to specialise in the obscure and delicious highlights of food and wine from across Italy's 20 regions and almost everything is homemade, from the breads, sausages, salame, pickles and mostarda down to the pasta.

Al dente pasta (the kind that has just the right amount of resistance and bite) is one of the most sensual foods I can think of. Bocca Di Lupo is an Italian restaurant where not only is the pasta al dente but where everything else is cooked with the same sense of scrutiny. The dishes are fine-tuned to perfection with plates of cream of langoustine and red prawn risotto showing off what Bocca Di Lupo does best: regional Italian cooking made with high-quality ingredients.

It’s usually spoken about when discussing the best Italian restaurants in London, but it’s never shouted about with the same fervour as newly opened places with hotshot chefs garnering loads of noise. That’s largely because it doesn’t need it: Jacob Kenedy cut his teeth at Moro before opening Bocca di Lupo in 2008, and deservedly received all the new opening buzz back then. Nearly 15 years on, the restaurant remains reliably wonderful and has a cult following to boot.

The much-loved Soho restaurant are celebrating their re-opening this month by offering month long regional menus along-side the al la carte, available for lunch and throughout the afternoon. They are kicking off September with a menu inspired by the southern island of Sicily with classic Sicilian dishes such as gnocchi alla norma as well as swordfish palerminata and a comforting dish from Palermo with the fish covered in a light crumb of capers and ricotta.

Bocca di Lupo’s bar, where London’s casual-cool counter dining scene came into being, is still one of Soho’s best bets for an impromptu dinner after a drinks date that’s gone better than expected – come between 9.30pm and 11pm and you’ll get a starter, a main and a salad for £15, with dessert and an espresso for £7. A tucked-away table for two, meanwhile, offers an opportunity to eat and drink your way around Italy in a more leisurely (and private) fashion.

This Soho institution freely encourages its guests to BYOT (bring your own truffles), although if you find yourself without, they have plenty available to shave over a perfectly seasoned bucatini cacio e pepe. The Sardinian staple of breadcrumbs adds a little crunch to their spaghetti with bottarga. After you’ve had your fill, head over the road to Gelupo for a scoop of bitter chocolate gelato, which we recommend with a palette-cleansing raspberry sorbet.

What: When you’re about to go to the theatre, sometimes all you really want is a dish that is great and feels special, but can be eaten quickly. Pasta is the ideal thing for this and as Bocca di Lupo is located in the theatre district, it makes sense to give it a visit before you head to your show. On the Bocca di Lupo menu, try classics like tajarin with raw duck egg and Parmesan, with a shaving of white truffle on top to bring it up a notch.

Bocca Di Lupo is one of those Italian monoliths in London that you know exists long before you finally visit. The brainchild of Jacob Kenedy, who co-authored the seminal (and aesthetically pleasing) The Geometry Of Pasta, it serves a menu of grilled food and fritti alongside exceptional pasta. Taking the best bits of every Italian region, the menu offers small and large versions of most dishes, so you can go as broad as you like.

The menu at Bocca di Lupo is said to be a phrasebook in miniature, containing the 20 dialects of Italian cuisine. Make sure to head down with plenty of friends as you can spend all night trying tasty morsels from each other’s plates; whether fried lamb chops from Piedmont, Roman fish, or roast suckling pig with chestnuts, Muscat grapes, white wine and bay leaves from the Emilia-Romagna region. Location: 12 Archer St, W1D 7BB

Self-described as ‘stripped-down, honest regional Italian cuisine’, Bocca Di Lupo is always a treat. They do a roaring trade with their pre-theatre menus, but you’d struggle to beat this restaurant at any time. The counter-dining is much coveted (personally I prefer not to eat at the weird angle this demands, but each to their own) and the paired back aesthetic is stripped down in much the same way as the food.

What do you get when you combine the honest and delicious food of an Italian trattoria with the fizzy, sophisticated atmosphere of the London restaurant scene?. Something rather close to perfection – AKA, Soho’s Bocca di Lupo. Whether nibbling on small plates at the bar (highly recommended) or seated at the chef’s table, an evening at Bocca is always fun, just as eating out in town should be.

This absolute institution in Soho serves comforting Italian dishes that taste like the home cooking of my dreams. Almost everything is made in-house and the menu showcases recipes from all different regions of Italy. Their homemade pasta is simply divine, and the fettuccine with chicken gizzard ragu tastes familiar and home-y while being unlike any other pasta dish I’ve ever had.

You can’t for wrong with quality Italian food, so Bocca Di Lupo sounds like a pretty great choice. This classic Italian-style restaurant has it all: juicy grilled meat, fresh seafood, delicious pastas and good wine – what more could you ask for?. This place if very popular, especially in the evenings, so make sure you make a reservation if you’ve decided you want to come here.

For a stripped-back, honest approach to Italian dining, look to Bocco Di Lupo, the Soho favourite created by Jacob Kenedy and Victor Hugo. Despite being a Soho haunt, the restaurant prides itself on being a family business and a small trattoria at heart. Despite being a Soho haunt, the restaurant prides itself on being a family business and a small trattoria at heart.

Over 15 years in business, Jacob Kenedy’s Bocca di Lupo qualifies as a Soho institution. It’s still as fantastic as ever, with the pasta obviously being a particular highlight. All are freshly made in-house and are offered in small or large sizes meaning you can have it as part of a bigger meal or just pop in for a quick pasta and a glass of wine before the theatre.

Bocca di Lupo in Soho is regarded as of the best Italian restaurants in London ever since it opened in 2008. There is nothing extremely fancy about it, nor is it associated with any famous chefs. Instead, the owners of Bocca di Lupo choose to ignore the PR stuff and focus on what matters: offering consistently yummy Italian food!

Bocca Di Lupo is one of those places where you end up wanting to eat a piece of everything—even if you weren’t hungry to begin with. It is a small, humble, family-owned trattoria that cooks with heart and expertise in everything it produces. Respecting traditional regional Italian cuisine, the restaurant has won many awards.

Another Soho institution makes our guide in the form of Bocca di Lupo – a friendly neighbourhood joint that’s cooking puts it high on most people’s lists as one of their favourite London Italian restaurants. It’s also won a lot of official recognition too, jumping to fame almost straight off the starting line.

I've had a few wonderful experiences at Bocca di Lupo, but if one wants something a bit more "luxe" what are the options?. A bit of Googling suggests that the likes of Murano, Artusi, River Café, Bocca and Locanda are all up there. What would the forum say have been the most impressive experiences they've had?

Bocca di Lupo showcases the best of Italy with a menu highlighting the area from which each dish originates. The buzz and the glamour of the restaurant is the perfect pre-theatre dinner location. The menu changes daily offering ‘one-dish’ meals – a small number of dishes all sharing the same main ingredient.

Since it first opened a decade ago, Bocca di Lupo has established itself as a West End landmark. Every dish on the menu is followed by a note describing the Italian region it came from, and the menu is changed twice daily. Before moving on to primi and secondi, start with platters of crude and salumi.

As I stumbled across this charming restaurant on Archer Street in London, I couldn’t help but be intrigued. A passerby told us that this was his favorite place to dine in all of London, and my curiosity was piqued. So, with high expectations and rumbling stomachs, we ventured inside.

Stripped-down Italian expertly conceived and delivered like tapas: This simple, classy conceit—and its chipper buzz, and that long, alluring bar in front of the open kitchen—have made it a mainstay in Soho for over a decade. The menu might be printed twice a day to keep up with the…

Nearby theatres: Sondheim, Leicester Square Theatre, Prince Edward. Bocca Di Lupo takes its roots seriously, using its menu to showcase the 20 main dialects of Italian cuisine. The menu is updated daily and strives to adapt to the seasons in terms of the produce used.

Efficient service and fresh ingredients are the focus at Bocca di Lupo. The extensive menu changes twice a day, demonstrating a commitment to seasonality, and the laid-back bar is perfect for a glass or two from the exclusively Italian wine list.

Chef Jacob Kenedy has ensured that Italian eatery Bocca di Lupo has excelled in two areas: wine and descriptive menus!. Each dish comes with an annotation of its origin so you will be well versed when you come to tucking in.

Bocca di Lupo: Located in Soho, Bocca di Lupo serves regional Italian cuisine with a vibrant atmosphere, featuring a wide range of dishes from different parts of Italy.

The Remus Room at Soho’s Bocca di Lupo can accommodate 12 – 32 seated dining guests and up to 42 for standing receptions..