Sartoria, Savile Row

Our review of Mayfair’s Italian institution

Written by Martin Seymour | Editor, The Mayfair Foodie | About Me

There are restaurants you mean to visit and somehow never do. Sartoria has been mine for years. It sits on Savile Row, which happens to be on my walking tour route, so I have gone past it more times than I can reasonably admit — pausing outside, glancing in at the room, telling my guests all about the street, and then walking up the road.

Part of the problem is that I always arrive on the Row with something else to talk about. This is the street that made its name in the nineteenth century dressing prime ministers, generals and the biggest stars of the day, and has been at it ever since. It does not help that number 3 down the road carries a blue plaque marking the Beatles’ last ever live performance, played on the roof in January 1969, and I have never once managed to walk past that either. Tailors’ windows and rooftop concerts are hard to compete with. But you cannot keep walking past a good Italian restaurant indefinitely and still call yourself a food writer.

So today I am walking past those windows thinking about lunch rather than history, which is, in its way, entirely appropriate and long overdue.

What Does Sartoria Mean?

Sartoria is the Italian word for a tailor’s workshop, from sarto, meaning tailor. It is the room where cloth is cut, fitted and finished by hand. On a street that has been doing exactly that for the best part of three hundred years, you would struggle to find a better name for a restaurant.

A Conran Original

That was rather the point. Sartoria was Sir Terence Conran’s, and the idea from the start was Milan brought to Mayfair — the tailoring heritage of the Row on one side, Italian cooking on the other. A complete redesign followed in 2015, so the room you sit in today is David d’Almada’s work rather than Conran’s original, but the thinking behind it has not moved an inch.

What has changed is that Sartoria is no longer a one-off. The restaurant now sits within The Evolv Collection, formerly D&D London, under chief executive Martin Williams, and the name has since been rolled out across the group: Fiume in Battersea was reimagined as Sartoria Battersea, and Sartoria Liverpool Street followed in February 2026. Three at the time of writing. Savile Row remains the flagship, which is either a compliment or a burden depending on how the cooking is going.

The kitchen here is led by head chef Davide Torro.

The Dining Room

My wife and me at Sartoria — Dining Room

On arrival at Sartoria you walk through into the main dining room, and it is an impressive space — one of those rooms where you feel at home almost immediately. Elegant and comfortable, which is exactly the sort of dining room I like. We were shown to our table, where the large leather chairs, almost armchairs, carried on the homely theme.

After our meal I got chatting to our waiter, who mentioned that I had spent the past two hours sitting in Stanley Tucci’s favourite chair. Sartoria has form here. It was the first stop of the London episode of Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy back in 2022 — he came striding down the Row past the tailors, observed that the restaurant’s name is Italian for a tailor’s shop, and sat down to lunch.

As a great admirer of Mr Tucci and of his passion for proper Italian food, I was quietly delighted. And between you and me, I do not much care whether that chair really is his favourite seat in the restaurant. I am telling anybody vaguely interested that it is.

The Menu

The menu is compact and follows the traditional Italian formula: per iniziare, antipasti, primi, secondi, dolci. I like a compact Italian menu. Like good Italian cooking, it pays to keep things simple — well-made food without too many bells and whistles. On the à la carte you will find the Sartoria old favourites: tagliatelle ossobuco, veal milanese and, of course, the much-admired tiramisu. Pleasingly, the menu dips into most regions of Italy rather than settling into one.

By day there is also Piccolo, a modern Italian small plates offering, and for the early birds a breakfast menu during the week and a brunch on Saturdays.

The Food

I have already said the menu is compact, and yet we still managed to be indecisive. We both love Italian food, which complicates matters rather than simplifying them.

Simplicity is the key here, though, and it began with the bread — all too moreish, and served with one of the best balsamic and olive oil combinations I have had in a long time. Trust me, those two are worth the journey into town on their own.

For starters, my wife chose cantaloupe melon with aged, air-dried culatello from Emilia-Romagna. I went classic too, with a Sartoria favourite: carpaccio of fillet, thinly sliced centre-cut beef with rocket, sun-dried tomatoes and Parmesan crisps.

For mains I would have chosen the veal milanese, but it is served for two only-it’s on my list for next time, and my wife had already spotted the tagliolini with lobster. The lady was not for turning. So I went for paccheri with roasted monkfish, pickled fennel and bottarga. Those giant tubes of pasta make paccheri a fine choice for a creamy, butter-rich sauce, the fennel and bottarga brought a different texture and a welcome hit of salt, and the meaty monkfish was the perfect partner. We did at a portion of Zucchine Fritte, something I do every time I go to an Italian restaurant, these were right up there with the best.

lobster tagliolini ordered for the Sartoria restaurant review

Paccheri with roasted monkfish, pickled fennel and bottarga.

You will be pleased to hear that I did get a taste of the lobster tagliolini. The lobster was so sweet, and the rich seafood sauce took you straight to the Mediterranean — another very well-balanced dish. Two bowls of pasta with almost nothing in common, both of them simple, both of them cooked perfectly.

Dessert, and we decided to share. The choice was the coconut and pineapple pannacotta, which we told ourselves would be lighter than the tiramisu, having done rather well out of the first courses and, let us be honest, the bread. The pannacotta was a delight, a small moment of joy in every mouthful, and a fitting way to end our Sartoria experience.

Coconut and pineapple pannacotta from Sartoria Mayfair

Wine and the Aperitivo Bar

On our way out I noticed the Aperitivo Bar filling up, and since Sartoria’s Negronis have a considerable reputation, I rather regretted not being able to stay for one. They take the drink seriously here — there was a Campari partnership running when we visited, with a few house twists alongside the classic. The classic is where I would start, mind. Invented in Florence just after the First World War, so the story goes, when Count Camillo Negroni asked for his Americano with gin in place of the soda. A hundred-odd years later a room full of Mayfair drinkers is ordering it at six o’clock on a Tuesday. Some ideas travel well.

The wine list, as you would expect, showcases Italy. There are a few French bottles too, and, good to see, a decent selection of English sparkling wines.

Service

The service throughout our meal was on point: friendly, attentive and knowledgeable. We felt looked after without anybody being over-fussy. That is a difficult balance to strike, and on our visit they got it spot on.

The Verdict

If you are looking for glass cloches full of smoke, flaming fountains and fireworks, then Sartoria may not be your thing. If, on the other hand, you want authentic Italian cooking done properly, the produce left to speak for itself, in a relaxed room with old-school service, then get yourself down to Savile Row.

Forget the new suit. Take a quick look at the Beatles plaque at number 3, then pull up a comfy chair at number 20. You will not be disappointed.