Beso London is an Italian/Spanish restaurant in Covent Garden that was recently won the best London restaurant 2019 at the British Restaurant Awards. Needless to say, we were extremely excited to dine at Beso London.

Beso London is casual with a contemporary elegant design and a very strong affinity for The Beatles. The service was tremendous for us… attentive, helpful, friendly, and prompt. But it seemed lacking at neighbouring tables, as they were fairly exasperated at times.

The food

Starters

The bruschetta mix was really good. The tomatoes were fresh and slightly sweet, the black olives were rich and slight salty, and the anchovies were light and savoury. We enjoyed them all equally.

The calamari was standard. We’ve had better and we’ve had worse. We’re usually not fans of calamari rings, but these were enjoyable. Especially with the rich and creamy chilli and parsley aioli.

Pasta

You can order pasta as a main or starter and we ordered the heart shape ravioli as a starter. The pasta was delicious and perfectly thin, and the filling was simple. The taste was elevated by the rich basil and rocket pesto.

Main Course

We didn’t particularly enjoy the steak. It wasn’t succulent but rather chewy and lacked much flavour. The “chips” were essentially unsalted potato crisps. We weren’t fans of the presentation of the dish either as the salad leaves were just all over the place… too much clutter.

I didn’t really enjoy the black cod either. The cod itself was fresh, but the marinade was so light that it was almost nonexistent. Again, the presentation was all over the place, as the cod was covered with salad leaves.

Dessert

We shared the chocolate Sicilian cannolo. I really enjoyed it. Loved the crunchy pastry and the indulgent and creamy chocolate filling. Shiima, on the other hand, wasn’t a fan of the chocolate filling which was unexpected because she adores chocolate. I was happy to eat two and half of them 😁.

Verdict

Our dinner experience at Beso London was “okay”. Certainly not what you’d expect at the best restaurant in London. The atmosphere was elegant yet relaxing, the food was really good (for us), but the food was mostly “okay”. To be fair, there is a lot more on the menu that looked intriguing on other tables – particularly the octopus, lamb rack, and secreto iberico. We recommend for casual dates, a meal before the theatre, or group dinner (max 8) whether family, friends, or colleagues. Beso London is moderately expensive.

Cuisine: Spanish/Italian
Dress Code: Casual
Shiima & Amen’s Star Dish: Heart Shape Ravioli
Price: £30-£40pp (excluding alcohol)
Rating: 3 out 5

Beso London
190 Shaftesbury Avenue
London WC2H 8JL
Reserve at OpenTable,
Or call 020 3972 8888