Latest opening: Bancone Borough Yards
What: An upmarket pasta restaurant just outside London’s Borough Market. Bancone Borough Yards brings the group - which takes its name from the Italian word for counter - up to a total of three locations joining sites in Covent Garden and Soho. Like its older siblings, the restaurant is focused on fresh pasta dishes which are prepared in front of diners in an open kitchen.
Who: Bancone was founded in Covent Garden by Will Ellner and David Ramsay in 2018 and was part of London’s new wave pasta movement that also saw the emergence of brands including Padella, Lina Stores, Pastaio and Emilia’s Crafted Pasta. The food at Bancone is now overseen by Ben Waugh, who has an impressive find dining CV having headed a number of Gordon Ramsay Group kitchens including that of Pétrus. In 2021, he swapped star-studded fine dining for pasta in a bid to achieve a better work-life balance.
The vibe: Under railway arches, Bancone has a slick, premium look with design details including exposed brickwork, marble-topped tables, leather-shod dining chairs, mauve bar seating and an eclectic selection of pendant lighting. A mezzanine area is used for overflow and also as a PDR.
The food: As you’d expect from a chef of Waugh’s background, the cooking at Bancone is neat and refined. Antipasti dishes include lardo on toast with truffled-honey; burrata, tomato, basil and crispy fregola; and grilled artichoke, romesco and chervil. Pasta dishes, meanwhile, take in mackerel, seaweed butter, paccheri; duck ragù with fazzoletti and crackling; and Bancone’s signature silk handkerchiefs with walnut butter and confit egg yolk. New to the Borough Yards site is a charcoal-grilled pork chop sourced from renowned Borough Market butcher The Ginger Pig served with radicchio, apple, crispy pig skin.
To drink: As one would expect, the wine list is exclusively Italian. Still wines start at £6.50 per glass and £32.50 by the bottle with the 30-odd-bin list topping out at £69 for a 2019 Chianti Rufina Riserva. Bancone is big on Negronis with the classic Italian cocktail flagged on the food menu in three variations (white, classic and orange blossom). Other cocktails include a Fino Martini and a take on the Margarita made with tequila, mezcal, apricot and lime.
And another thing: The launch - which is billed as Bancone’s ‘biggest opening yet’ - is the first since the group raised nearly £1m through an equity-based crowdfund to help fuel its expansion plans. Late last year, Ellner told Restaurant that he was aiming to open ‘a few’ restaurants in the capital this year. Other locations understood to be under consideration include Battersea, Notting Hill, Shoreditch and The City.
