Manteca

Manteca has been on Curtain Road since 2021, making it one of the older names on this list, but it’s still routinely mentioned alongside London’s newer Italian openings because the format it popularised, fire cooked, nose to tail meat alongside hand rolled pasta, has aged well rather than dated. Chris Leach and David Carter run their own butchery on site, breaking down whole carcasses rather than buying in cuts, a decision that shapes most of what ends up on the plate.

The brown butter cacio e pepe is the dish most photographed and most ordered, a rich, simple pasta that’s become something of a signature well beyond the restaurant’s own regulars. Alongside it, the kitchen’s approach to offal and lesser cuts, cooked over fire, gives the menu a rougher, more adventurous edge than most Shoreditch Italians attempt, and the pasta section changes often enough that repeat visits rarely feel repetitive.

The room is small, loud and genuinely crammed most evenings, part of the appeal for some and a real drawback for others. Reviews consistently describe a buzzy, bistro esque atmosphere, and equally consistently note that conversation across the table gets difficult once it fills up, which is most nights from Thursday onwards.

Booking well ahead is close to essential for dinner; walk ins are a gamble at best, particularly at weekends. Given how tightly packed the tables are, it also isn’t the easiest spot for a lingering, unhurried meal, more a place to eat well and move on rather than settle in for the evening.

Still one of the better Italian inspired kitchens in east London for anyone happy to trade elbow room for genuinely good pasta and fire cooked meat, and one of the few places on this list that’s had long enough to prove it wasn’t a passing trend.