Manicomio City

Manicomio sits on Duke of York Square in a building that once housed the Royal Military Asylum, which explains the slightly mad name (manicomio is Italian for madhouse) chosen when the restaurant opened here in 2003, well before the square became the shopping destination it is today.

The kitchen keeps things fairly classic: lobster linguine and a black truffle pasta are the dishes that keep regulars coming back, backed by an extensive Italian wine list and a cocktail menu that gets heavy use on the 130 seat terrace in summer. Starters lean on charcuterie and burrata, and the kitchen also runs a full breakfast and brunch service, which turns the square outside into something closer to a continental piazza on a warm Saturday morning.

That terrace, set back from the King’s Road traffic, is the main draw for a lot of diners, giving Manicomio a resort feel that is unusual for central London, and it is often booked out well in advance once the weather turns warm.

The cooking is competent rather than adventurous, and prices sit closer to what you would expect from the Chelsea postcode than from the quality of the pasta itself; a straightforward plate of linguine can cost considerably more here than at an equally good trattoria a mile away, and the wine list mark ups are steep even by central London standards.

It works best as an outdoor lunch spot on a warm day rather than as a destination for serious Italian cooking, and on that measure, with the terrace full and the service moving briskly, it delivers reliably.

Manicomio also has a City branch near the Barbican, which trades on a similar menu but a very different, more corporate lunchtime crowd rather than the shopping and brunch traffic of Duke of York Square. The Chelsea site’s popularity with tourists and shoppers means peak weekend service can feel rushed, with staff managing a high volume of tables rather than lingering over any one, and walk ins without a booking are rarely accommodated once the terrace fills up from midday onwards. Groups celebrating a birthday or work occasion tend to do well here, since the staff are used to managing larger tables on the terrace without losing the pace of service that a smaller central London restaurant might struggle with.