Reviews of Zafferano

A lovely long lunch catch-up with a friend and where better in town than Zafferano. The food and service are always impeccable although the bill tends to be on the higher side. The burrata, lobster linguine and tuna steak were fantastic. On a gorgeous day like today you have the option of dining outside to the front of the restaurant. Even though it is adjacent to the pavement it has been made to feel quite private. A big thanks to all the staff both front of house and behind the scenes.

Overall a nice place to have dinner, food menu changes from time to time, we’ve had some great dishes and some average dishes in this place, and I've noticed prices have gone up, matching highend mayfair fine dining prices which is a shame as we used to see this place a neighbourhood restaurant whenever we couldnt be bothered to go through the whole mayfair faf . Will I go again: Yes Food : 8/10 Service : 9/10 Value for money: 6/10 Price: £300 for two

We were celebrating friends ' birthday there. Exquisite cuisine, special take on well-known dishes. Very good! Portions are rather small, though. I took tortellini as a starter and had just 3. I suppose the main has 6. Tuna steak was big and tasty, though. A bit pricey, but nice experience to celebrate something

I have been to Zafferano with 3 of my friends.<br/><br/>I definitely highly recommend this restaurant if you are an Italian food lover. We sit outside, even though it was cold they have strong heaters outside.<br/><br/>We ordered everything in the middle; some charcuterie and cheese , truffle spaghetti and steak. All was absolutely delicious!<br/><br/>The atmosphere inside is more for older people or family dinners.

When people talk about the best Italian restaurants in London, Zafferano almost always comes up. A lot of people rank Zafferano in their top 3/5 Italian restaurants in London, and in 2009 Tatler ranked it the "Most Consistently Excellent Restaurant.”. Zafferano opened in 1995 in Belgravia/ Knightsbridge and is located on a relatively quiet street. I have been to Zeffarano a few times over the years, but this was my first visit in the last four years. During this latest visit, I had quite low expectations when I went there, as I thought it would be overpriced and not very good and very stuck up, being in Knightsbridge, but I was wrong, and I really enjoyed this visit. Zafferano is quite a big restaurant, but because of the way they have divided the interior space into various dining areas, it feels intimate. There is also a bar where you can enjoy a cocktail, like aperol spritz, before your meal. I really liked the menu. It had the typical Italian ingredients you would expect to see in an Italian restaurant, but the dishes and the use of these ingredients was extremely creative, and I saw a lot of dishes and combinations which I had not seen before, which got me very excited. Food is not cheap, with starters being £15 on average and main courses £20, but I would actually argue it is worth it, and there are so many other places in London that charge you more and offer you less interesting and worse quality dishes. As my starter I ordered the Roman chicory salad with anchovy dressing. I spoke to the waiter and he explained that the anchovy dressing would not be too powerful, as I only like the mild anchovy taste, and the Roman chicory would not be too bitter (I was scared of getting the pink bitter chicory which I don’t like at all). We shared this starter with my lunch buddy and it was really nice, just like the waiter had explained, with a pleasant crunchy green chicory and in a very mild but interesting dressing. I had not seen this salad before, and

The place is decent with nothing too good or bad about it. The food here was mixed with some being good and some bad. The crab salad was devoid of any flavors. This place however was much too loud for my liking.<br/>The service however was quite alright, as we asked a few questions regarding the menu, however the answers we got were mediocre. The hostess was rather welcoming and warm.

This Michelin star restaurant in London is a truly deserving place. The food is fabulous with everything cooked to perfection and with all the correct flavors. We had tried pasta with beef which was mind blowing. The meat melts in your mouth and you are left with craving for more. Even more so as the portions are small, not tiny but small. The service is impeccable. it has to be since the prices are steep but not ridiculous.

I recently went to this restaurant and had one of the most amazing Italian meals that I ever had. There was a steady stream of people flowing in and out of the restaurant and I did not face any difficulty in finding a table. The menu had a variety of dishes and the staff was amiable. The wine list was also quite an extensive one and I would highly recommend you all to try this place sometime.

This place is very conveniently located and has some stunning views. The restaurant is quite large with some very comfortable seating space. We recently went there and had a two course meal . For the starters, we had salad which was pretty good and inventive on the chefs part. The main course was also pretty decent and overall, it was a good bet to visit this restaurant.

This restaurant is definitely one of the high end restaurants in London but it comes at a huge price. Our bill amounted to about 200 pounds for two people, however, the food and service made every pound worth it. The tiramisu was easily the highlight of the meal, the best one I have ever tasted. Other patrons seemed to be very affluent and seemed to be spending way more money than me. I had reserved a table as the place can get quite busy, so make sure you do that. Recommended only if you have a lot of money to spare.

If you are there regular customer, you will be treated like a master! I have been going here for years now and it has always been an extremely wonderful experience. It is perfect for those lunches with your clients and very elegant even for your first date! Discrete in its taste and location, this place is always a win-win!

A very authentic Italian meal. While they have kept the restaurant very simple and elegant, the food here is the main focus. The dishes are tasty and well presented too. The attention to detailing is commendable. To top it, the quality of the ingredients was great and very fresh. It is essential to make reservations here, as it fills up rather quickly. A must try!

We visited this place on the recommendation of the concierge at our restaurant, and our glad we listened to him. We made our reservation very close to the actual dinner hour, and the staff was very cooperative and helpful. We were greeted very warmly upon arrival, and seated promptly. The service here is flawless, and the food is delicious. We absolutely relished our meals. There are many wines to chose from, and there is a great variety on the food side too. This place comes very highly recommended from my side. It's a brilliant restaurant.

Though the original chef might have moved on to tv stardom,the place is in safe hands of the new chef. The passionate vision of the chefs show through and therefore the food here is excellent.The quality of the food is consistently maintained thanks to attention given to all the ingredients that go into the dishes.In fact in my opinion this restaurant serves the best Italian food in the city. If craving italian ,definitely visit!

In my opinion, the restaurant looks pretty inviting being placed on a sophisticated street but the food wasn't all that amazing. The value for money is also quite low given that the charges don't really match the food served. A major annoyance for me was the wine server, who without permission took a classy wine for tasting, being knowledgeable about wine, i don't really need that.

I had an excellent meal here. The food was simply amazing and delicious. The menu housed some interesting wine. The service was great as well with very helpful staff! As we came after our wedding with out adult children, the restaurant wrote out congratulations on our dessert plates. This for me was a very touching gesture.

I happened to visit this place accidentally on my last visit to the city and was quite thankful to have discovered it. This place offers excellent Italian food and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The staff was quite warm, well-behaved and friendly. The ambience was quite decent and comfortable. I would love to visit this place again when I am on my next trip to this city.

Food 9/10<br/>Service 8/10<br/>Ambiance 8/10<br/>According to my ratings you can easily make out that I have became a fan of this place. The food is going to be so fresh that you will love it.<br/>The only drawback i saw that this place is quite expensive but according to me once in a while it is okay.<br/>Recommended.

We had ordered one bottle of water and were served two without requesting for it. On top of that, we had to pay for three bottles! The waiter seemed to be eagerly waiting for another order of drinks and kept filling our wine glasses. This particular behaviour was quite irritating and not appropriate for a place that never ceases to amaze us with high standards of food. The staff needs to be looked into.

I had the best Italian food and this compliment is coming fro a person who really do not like much places and very choosy . <br/>The food was amazing I had Pan - fried Sea bass and it was very amazing . On my trip $ day trip I managed to come twice here so you can really understand how much I loved this place. <br/>The service was great. <br/>I would recommend this place to everyone. <br/>Keep on doing the good work guys :)

The food here is good with a well tasting starter and mains. The dessert too was delicious. However, the waiter appeared more concerned with refilling my glass with water, so that I would purchase another bottle. The wine I had to forcefully ask him to pour! <br/>The service however is poor keeping in mind the expensive and high bill.

I am absolutely disappointed with the service.My recent visit was my last here ever.The food ordered with the delay of two long hours! This is pretty damaging given that the restaurant was jam packed. I even found differential treatment of locals over the tourists. It used to be a favorite but will never redeem itself.

I, along with a couple of my friends, went to this restaurant. While we were waiting at the bar for a table, the staff served us with some nice cocktails. The staff was quite friendly and warmly welcomed all the customers. The meal was very well-prepared, had all the flavours to it and the staff planned time between all courses to perfection. I will definitely return to this place again.

This place used to offer excellent truffle cakes and desserts.<br/>They were delicious and of course overpriced.<br/>The taste is overwhelming and so sweet that one is always in awe and never forgets the experience.<br/>However, today the quality has deteriorated by a lot.<br/>The staff is well trained and friendly.

The place serves authentic Italian cuisine, which is not very harsh on the pocket. The food is affordable, yet packed with flavors and is an absolute delight. The flavors are balanced very well in the food. The best quality ingredients are used in the food and the quality is consistent. The taste of the dishes is modern and inventive. The wine list is enormous but a bit expensive.

If you love authentic Italian dishes then this place will serve you very well.<br/>The food is amazing and the crowd is also very good.<br/>You can always have a fun time here.<br/>The staff is also very helpful and cheerful. The ambiance is also piece of art.<br/>This place is highly recommend by me.

[UPDATE-2014]<br/><br/>After a long interlude with just an acting head chef after Andy Needham’s departure, Daniele Camera took over the kitchen here in September 2014. He was formerly head chef of Alloro and is from Turin. He came to London after his studies and worked initially at a long-defunct restaurant in Beauchamp Place, and then at The Capital Hotel under Eric Chavot before moving to Alloro.<br/><br/>The dining room at Zafferano is large, with a further room at the back and additional seating at the bar and outside in decent weather. At capacity the room can comfortably seat 140 diners, and on a busy night the restaurant will get through more covers that this.<br/><br/>The wine list is extensive, mostly Italian but with a small selection of labels from around the world; even from Armenia in one case. The 350 odd labels are slanted heavily towards the high end, reflecting the Belgravia location and customers. The median price of a bottle of wine is £110, ranging from £25 to £4,800 in price. The average mark-up is an egregious 3.5 times retail price, one of the highest in London, with prices as aggressive for many of the top wines as the cheaper ones. Chateau Ausone 2006 retails at £486, yet was listed here at £2,290 (plus service of course). Pinot Grigio San Michele Apiano 2012 was £53 for a wine that retails at £13, Cresaso Corvina, Zenato 2007 was a relatively palatable £85 for a wine that you can find in a shop for £41, but Antinori Tignello 2006 was a sky-high £260 for a wine that will set you back £75 retail.<br/><br/>Salad of endive, goat cheese and walnuts was dressed with balsamic vinegar. This is a very simple dish, and the endive was crisp and slightly bitter as it should be, the dressing a nice balance to this, the goat cheese adding richness (14/20). Crab and avocado with fresh tomato dressing was a classic combination, the avocado ripe, the crab fresh, the tomato having good flavour (15/20). <br/><br/>Tagliolini with white truffles from Tuscany featured perfect, buttery pasta with lovely texture, topped with a generous shaving of truffle. This is a tricky dish to mark, being as simple as it is, yet it is hard to see how it could be made a great deal better (17/20). Obviously you should expect to pay a hefty supplement for white truffles, the world’s costliest fungus – this dish was £60, but at least they were generous with the truffle. <br/><br/>Desserts did not maintain the standard of the savoury courses. Rum baba with pistachio ice cream was tolerably moist but lacked rum, and the pistachio was not a perfect foil (13/20). Apple tarte tatin had nicely made pastry and the fruit provided enough tartness, but it was not hot enough when it was delivered (13/20).<br/><br/>Service was very slick this evening. I had not been for some time and did not recognise most of the waiting staff, but topping up was excellent and the waiters friendly. The bill, with good wine and two white truffle dishes, came to a hefty £173 a head. If you shared a modest bottle of wine and avoided the truffles then a more normal bill might be £90 a head. This is hardly cheap, but the overall experience was very enjoyable and the cooking, desserts aside, very good. The restaurant had been drifting along for some time in the absence of a proper head chef after Andy Needham left, and it is good to see a sense of direction now. Although the kitchen is not yet firing on all cylinders, hopefully this will improve as Mr Camera settles in. Certainly the savoury dishes tonight were of a high standard.<br/><br/>---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br/>[2013]<br/><br/>This is the first meal I have eaten at Zafferano following the departure of its long-term head chef. Pea soup with bacon was enjoyable, though the flavour of the peas could have been deeper (15/20). Spring vegetable salad with bagna cauda was not as carefully presented as it used to be, and I preferred the dressing of previous versions of this dish, though the salad elements were certainly good (15/20). Spaghetti with pork cheek and pecorino was a hearty, simple dish that was very enjoyable, the pasta excellent, the sauce full of flavour (16/20). Tagliatelle with morels was less good; although the morels were fine and the texture of the pasta was excellent, the addition of an asparagus sauce just distracted from the dish and unbalanced the flavours slightly (15/20). Monkfish with walnut and caper sauce was nicely cooked, the seasoning on the bold side (5/10). Iberico pork chop had good flavour, though the mash and spinach with it was quite salty, even for me (5/10). Petit fours actually were better than I recall, with a new pastry chef making some lovely moist rum baba, and soft fruit jellies with plenty of flavour (16/20). <br/><br/>The loss of the Michelin star seems to have been a self-fulfilling prophesy. I did not see any deterioration in food prior to the loss of the star, but the demotion caused the head chef to leave. The management have responded by increasing the number of covers, packing tables in tighter and reducing seating times e.g. by removing the canapé stage of the meal. This additional pressure on the kitchen seems to have caused a slight slip in standards, though ingredients are of the same level. This is still very good food, and the service is as polished as ever, but the food is not quite as good as it once was.

I’d been here in a former life. When this was a great restaurant. When Giorgio Locatelli used to be the chef. When they had a special truffle menu and even the dessert had truffles in it. I remember it well. I will remember very little of this meal, other than that it was overpriced and underwhelming. I have read that the loss of the Michelin star here led to the loss of the chef. I don’t know what it was like before, but on this showing, there will be no stars here in the foreseeable future. Some bread to start: a decent selection but nothing memorable. Apparently they have stopped doing complementary canapés. Meanness, at these prices. The focaccia was quite nice though and fluffy-fresh. A bit salty. Then burrata and tomatoes. It came with something unidentifiable and jellied, scattered around the tomatoes. I tasted the jelly thing a few times. Insipid. I don’t actually know what it was. Translucent, tasteless jelly.

This is one of my favourite Italian restaurants in London. If it were not for the prices, I would frequent this place more often.<br/><br/>I always enjoy all three courses at this place. The wine selection is amazing and even the littlest of things like the balsamic vinegar is the tastiest I have even had. It is so flavourful and rich.<br/><br/>The last time I went I had the risotto as my main. It was one of the best I have had. So rich and creamy. As well as this, I made sure I hadtasters from all the other dishes my friends had ordered. The dessert menu is also worth leaving room for. If you can get a booking on a popular night, it is definitely worth the visit.

We had an Italian friend visiting London and staying nearby so this was recommended to us. We had a great meal and would definitely eat there again. The service was quietly efficient and the food was excellent although our friend (who lives in the USA) thought the portions quite small. We would have no hesitation in recommending this restaurant whether you are eating out for business or pleasure.

Great location, in the heart of Belgravia. Nice restaurant, with a seasonal menu. I had the spaghettini with crab and chilli - very nicely presented, followed by the cherry and almond tart which was delicious. <br/><br/>The service and staff was very good, I was pleasantly surprised at their attentiveness. Well worth another visit.

Nice ambience and location with a great menu. The food is rich and authentic and you would enjoy the whole experience. I tried the Sea Food Risotto which was a tad less "al dente" but not too bad. The bread was amazing- tasted fresh and the wine pretty good.<br/><br/>I tried the crab cake starters- which were a tad too moist and flaky. For the main, I had the risotto as I said which was 3/5.The Ricotta ice cream was good. <br/><br/>But I guess for the price, the food could have been better. Just a little bit.

Zafferano has been a Knightsbridge local for years, the restaurant group includes many of London's best restaurants, L'oranger, Alloro and Eleven Park Walk are just a few examples. The crowd is a mix of trendy Harrods shoppers and wealthy locals, who jam this spacious restaurant every night (remember to book). It serves authentic Italian dishes as well as those with a modern European flair.

Because let me tell you, food was, if not very experimental, solidly outstanding. Already the bread was superb - all for different varieties and the grissini were so tasty that we had to hold back not to finish the entire bread basket. The menu costs 34.50 for 2 courses, 44.50 for three and 49.50 for four courses. As a starter we tried

A Last Minute Gem. Thanks Urbanspoon!. I went here on a whim, not knowing many restaurants nearby. Thanks to the Urbanspoon app, I found my way and ended up having one of THE most gorgeous Italian meals in my life.<br/>The restaurant was semi-busy, which made me feel comfortable going somewhere I knew nothing of. The menu had a great deal of choice (just like the wine list!) and the staff were very friendly.<br/>I'd highly recommnd this place - date, dinner with friends. All apply.

If ever there was a restaurant synonymous with the term institution, that restaurant could well be Zafferano. Entering its sixteenth year of service, it is regarded by all of us, as one of the key purveyors of high Italian cuisine, in London. It boasts a fancy postcode, the single macaron from the Bib, as well as about a dozen or so blogposts showering praise upon it. It even has a name - Zafferano for Saffron - that echoes its maturing charm. This restaurant appears to have become impervious to the trendy competition of younger restaurants, yet to establish the sort of loyal patronage that Zafferano has the distinct honour of having. It is about as proper as it gets. As Mr Blyde once put it, Zafferano is indeed an important restaurant not only to indulge yourself, but for a 'rounded' education in classical Italian cuisine (in London (short of a protracted trip to Italy)) to satisfy one's experiences in benchmarking what is supposedly the best the cuisine has to offer (in London). This

After a long interlude with just an acting head chef after Andy Needham’s departure, Daniele Camera took over the kitchen here in September 2014. He was formerly head chef of Alloro and is from Turin. He came to London after his studies and worked initially at a long-defunct restaurant in Beauchamp Place, and then at The Capital Hotel under Eric Chavot before moving to Alloro.<br/>- See more at: http://www.andyhayler.com/restaurant/zafferano#sthash.DFmUXy8u.dpuf