Cent Anni Wimbledon Review – Italian in Wimbledon Village

Collage ofpictures from Cent Anni-Interior, Risotto & lemon tart

It’s no secret that I spend a fair amount of time in central London enjoying the culinary delights this city has to offer, all in the name of research for this website, of course.

However, I’ve spent most of my life in South West London, so when I keep hearing good things about a relatively local restaurant, it’s an opportunity not to be missed. The restaurant in question is Cent Anni, in the heart of Wimbledon Village.

Wimbledon Village is close to my heart, and somewhere I’ve been drawn to for as long as I can remember. It’s best described as a charming London village: a lovely mix of independent shops, restaurants and, of course, great pubs. On its doorstep is Wimbledon Common, the perfect place to walk off a good lunch. If you’ve not been, the village is about a 15-minute walk from Wimbledon Station. I should warn you that it’s uphill, but coming back is a doddle. And if walking isn’t your idea of fun, there are plenty of buses to take you up the hill.

Anyhow, enough of that; back to Cent Anni. The name is Italian for ‘a hundred years’, as in the toast cent’anni!, wishing you a hundred years of good health, and the restaurant describes itself as modern Italian. With the locals singing its praises, it was time to go and see whether this really was the local gem I’d been promised.

About Cent Anni Wimbledon

Cent Anni opened in 2019 at 33 High Street, on the site that was once home to Cau, and is the work of Glasgow-born restaurateur Raymond de Fazio. Ray has been part of the London restaurant scene since 1986, including a decade at Circus Circus, where he rose to Operations Director and worked on names such as Morton’s Club on Berkeley Square, before striking out on his own with Café Med and the Med Kitchen brand. Cent Anni seats around 100 and is open for lunch and dinner seven days a week.

The Wimbledon original has clearly been doing something right. In early 2026, Ray gave his Café Med in St John’s Wood, a neighbourhood stalwart on Loudoun Road for a quarter of a century, a refresh and relaunched it as a second Cent Anni, with a new Italian menu, an updated interior and an expansive front terrace.

The Decor

There are two dining areas. The front room, where we had lunch, looks out onto the High Street, with olive-green leather chairs and a glass-fronted wall of wine. Through the back, under a big skylight, is the main dining room with the open kitchen, booth seating and some larger tables, handy if you’re coming as a group. I suspect the front does the heavy lifting at lunchtime, while the back fills up come the evening.

The Menu and Set Lunch at Cent Anni

We ordered from the main menu, but before I dive into what we ate, I should mention that Cent Anni has one of the best set lunch menus I’ve seen. Most set lunches offer two or three choices per course; when we visited, Cent Anni boasted no fewer than seven starters and seven mains, plus five desserts. Even better, two courses would set you back £20 and three £24. Incredible value for money.

The main menu features everything you want to see when you walk into an Italian restaurant: plenty of classics, a large range of starters, mains, pasta and pizza, and of course, zucchini fritti. This is my litmus test for the quality of the fare you’re about to be served. If the fritti isn’t lightly battered or, worse, is greasy, grey clouds form in my world.

What We Ate

Zucchini Fritti – The Litmus Test

For the table (two of us at this point, soon to be three) we ordered the zucchini fritti, and I’m pleased to report there were no clouds in my world. The fritti was perfect: crisp batter and plenty of flavour from the courgettes, served with a simple lemon mayonnaise, which I enjoyed.

Zucchini Fritti in a wire basket served with lemon mayo

Starters

The fritti was soon joined by our starters. I chose the arancini, while my wife went for her favourite, grilled asparagus with Parmesan shavings and balsamic. Classic choices, which I have to say is the norm for us when eating Italian, and that’s with at least another ten options to choose from, including an interesting-sounding pear carpaccio.

Classics they may have been, but both were well presented and, more importantly, well cooked.

Starters at Cent Anni -Asparagus with parmasen and balsamicalso also arancini

Mains

For mains, simplicity was again the key. My wife chose another favourite, the crayfish and white wine risotto, while I went for the Parmesan-crusted chicken with linguine, cherry tomatoes and spring onions.

At this stage we were joined by our friend, a third diner, who had popped in for a quick lunch, which turned into three courses, and why not indeed? She chose the tagliolini carbonara, which looked fantastic: a bowl of tagliolini in a rich egg and pecorino sauce, topped with pancetta. I should mention that at Cent Anni, all the pasta is fresh and handmade.

I had no idea how my chicken would be served, but as you can see from the picture, it arrived escalope-style with the linguine on the side. The chicken was moist, and the crust was indeed full of Parmesan.

Tagliolini carbonara in a large white bowl

The final dish of our trio of mains was the risotto. I love cooking risotto, and I know how easy it is to overcook; the rice needs a little bite, otherwise it turns mushy. This was perfectly cooked, and I liked that the crayfish were cut into small pieces, so every forkful gave you both rice and crayfish. I’ve made a note of that for the next time I cook my prawn risotto.

Desserts

Was there room for dessert? Well, of course there was. Two lemon tarts arrived, along with a healthy portion of tiramisu.

I was sitting alongside a lemon tart connoisseur, and it received a well-earned nod of approval. I’m not in the Premier League of lemon tart tasting, but I like my tart to be tart, if that makes sense. It should be bursting with lemon, enough to make you pull that face you pull when you eat something sour, and this one got a big thumbs-up from me.

I must confess I didn’t taste the tiramisu, partly because it didn’t stay on the plate long enough, but I’m reliably informed it was good.

Final Thoughts on Cent Anni Wimbledon

Cent Anni isn’t trying to reinvent Italian cooking, and nor should it. What it does is take the classics, the dishes you actually want to eat, and cook them properly: fresh handmade pasta, a risotto with just the right bite, and zucchini fritti that kept the clouds well away. Add a set lunch that, when we visited, was about as good value as you’ll find, and it’s easy to see why the locals keep talking about it.

A word, too, on the service. David, the GM, and the rest of the team were on point from start to finish and made everybody feel welcome. No wonder Cent Anni has such a loyal following.

If you’re looking for an Italian restaurant in Wimbledon Village, perhaps after a walk on the Common or before that easy stroll back down the hill, Cent Anni is well worth booking. I’ll certainly be back, if only to work my way through the rest of those starters; that pear carpaccio has my name on it. And if you’re after Italian closer to the centre of town, take a look at our guide to Italian Restaurants in Mayfair.