Latium
our review
It’s not often we find a restaurant that’s all but flawless, but Latium ticks most of the boxes. The room is stylish without being overbearing, there are no really bad tables, the prices are extremely good and the food top notch. Staff are both informed and informative and service is smooth and professional.
Tasty little amuses of deep-fried rice balls, together with puff pastry nibbles oven baked with tomato paste, gave way to a plate of good quality olives including large green examples that had a unique mellow flavour. Breads came in three varieties and with some excellent olive oil boasting a deep peppery bite and strong fruity overtones.
A starter of buffalo mozzarella with grilled courgette slices and oven-dried tomatoes showed what can be done with simple, decent, ingredients. The mozzarella, so often a tasteless ball of putty in Italian restaurants, was here field-fresh with a gorgeous wet centre. Its flavour was well brought out by the floppy courgette slices cosily warm from the griddle. The wife’s wild sea bass carpaccio being raw needed to be made from very fresh fish indeed, which happily it was, and the accompanying blood orange’s acidic juices did a good job of delicately ‘cooking’ the fish.
A separate menu of all raviolis was too tempting to ignore so we didn’t. A selection of fish raviolis, each a different colour with a different filling was rather pretty and clever and while I didn’t get to actually try any, it was clearly well enjoyed. My crab tortelli with rocket sauce was mostly successful; the little envelope shaped pastas packed with crabmeat were neat and tiny with the rocket’s peppery bite contrasting in a well-balanced way. I say mostly successful because there were small shards of crab shell in the filling, not enough to cause any real problems but they did crunch a bit and made each bite a form of Russian roulette for the teeth. I did love the thin garlicky broth around the tortelli though and was glad of the supplied spoon so I could greedily ladle it all up.
Having ordered pan-fried fillet of sea bass with Swiss chard, shellfish sauce and oyster raviolo, I was disappointed to have to surrender it to the wife after just a few bites. She had ordered the grilled fillet of beef wrapped with courgettes and pancetta with wild chicory and a parmesan tuille, but realised pretty quickly that she was going to be too full to do it justice. So I took over. The beef was very fine; nicely rare in the centre and the parmesan biscuits melded on the tongue to give a rich mix of flavours. The sea bass was from my few tastes quite excellent with crispy skin and in a fantastic light sauce packed with flavours. I still begrudge her for stealing it off me actually. Our wine, a Merlot Rosso del Frusinate was the sommelier’s suggestion and it went with all the dishes well.
Finally a Rum Baba which I got all excited about, imagining the deliciously decadent puds of my youth, but this was a bit of a let down. There wasn’t any of that rum essence or even real rum flavour, and the cream looked suspiciously like squirty cream from a can. Ah well.
All in all Latium delivers in spades and it’s no wonder it is always so busy. Kitchen and front of house are clearly well into their groove and it all runs like clockwork. How they do it at such a reasonable price is a mystery, but I hope they don’t ever stop.
N.H. - March 2007
your comments review this restaurant and win a bottle of champagne
was there again a couple of weeks ago, I knew the dining room was undergoing a facelift, and was curious to see. The most remarkable feature in my mind being the separate chef's table, and the opened view to the hectic workings of the kitchen.
The food was simply smashing! The menu looked really enticing, though it will probably have changed by now. I had as starter a special consisting of panfried seabass with artichokes and seabass bottarga, a stunner. Next, home made rigatoni with wild board ragout, and to finish on the game side, a duck's breast, the most succulent you can imagine with a most crispy skin, and the tastiest of reductions. To finish, they have this intriguing selection of sweet ravioli, in three versions, as interesting as they are good.
As usual the service was attentive though relaxed, making it a very enjoyable evening: Thumbs up on all levels!
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paola
Overall rating 
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Friday, March 28, 2008
Went to Latium for lunch on Valentines Day. We arrived late, behind the main groups, with the restaurant full. So the service was a little slow - but at least the Head Waiter apologised for it, and as we were in no rush, it was fine.
The food was divine. I had kidneys and my wife had the sea bream. Well prepared, well presented and heavenly to eat.
Highly recommended.
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Iain Herbertson
Overall rating 
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Thursday, March 06, 2008
As mentioned by others there are lots of nice touches at this restaurant, pleasant atmosphere, friendly staff, excellent bread basket and hors d'oevres and great chocolates with coffee making a pudding unnecessary.
However, I found my main of poached beef lacking in flavour and the crab tortelli in rocket sauce while the crab tortelli were delicious the rcoket sauce was thin and tasteless. My husband had the pork belly which was absolutely lovely and crab tagliatelle starter which was rather bland. There is a good choice of reasonably priced wine.
I felt the service was too rushed, our olives were whisked away and replaced by the bread before we had finished and the courses came too quickly for comfort. We were dining at 7.45 on a Saturday evening so I guess the table was booked again for later on.
Overall mainly good and fair value for central London
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Woody - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating 
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Went to Latium for a "business" lunch today and came out very impressed. Although there were two or three Christmas parties going on today and despite the restaurant being full, the service was excellent and the food..SUPERB!! Their ravioli dishes are just fantastic!! We both had a three course meal (ending with a delicious Neapolitan cheesecake) and ended up feeling very satisfied indeed. I would definitely recommend this restaurant to any one who likes Italian food. Not cheap, but the divine food and superb service makes it worthwhile.
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JR
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Went to Latium based on the reviews on this website. We were met with a warm welcome when we arrived and showing to our table accordingly. The complimentry breads and hors d'oevres were nice. The menu had a wonderful selection whic made it difficult to decide what to choose. We had 3 courses and each course was out of this world, the flavours, tenderness of the meet, the pork belly meat just melted in the mouth. The Poached beef was very tender and both main courses were washed down with the most smooth red wine that themaitre d' helped us choose. Brilliant Choice! As for the Desert! WOW! To top the wonderful meal off we were served with a free selection of Chocolates which were also to die for! We would highly recommend this Italian Restaurant to anyone that was going to be visiting London. We shall be back again to this wonderful restaurant
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sb - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Monday, October 29, 2007
I make no apology for writing a second review of this place as I chose it for my friend and I to celebrate our joint 40th birthday with our husbands and it was even better than on our first visit last year. As mentioned by everyone, the amuse-bouches, breads and petits fours are a lovely touch and make it feel special. They also don't appear on the bill (not that I saw the bill this time !). We all had the most delicious food. My starter was a courgette flower stuffed with crabmeat with the tiny courgette attached, with asparagus sauce. My friend and I both had the wild sea bass and it was delicately flavoured and cooked to perfection. Like the best Italian food this is simple and reliant on great ingredients but it is also definitely a cut above what you normally get in Italian restaurants. The Maitre d was delighted when I said it was better than any meal we ate in our recent fortnight in Italy ! Latium is a really classy and enjoyable dining experience and I can't think of anyone I wouldn't recommend it to if you can afford £100 for dinner for two.
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IC
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Terrific service and a genuine warm-hearted welcome from the front of house.
Delicious bread,free hors d'oevres,free chocs at the end of yr meal too.
Nice wine choice and inventive menu.So why only 7 out of ten for food?
Well,the execution left a lot to be desired.The tagliatelle were in a watery gruel-either the pasta was not drained properly,or the sauce was not simmered long enough.In fact,all the sauces of our main corses showed the same defect-watery thin and lacking in flavour and texture.This should not be hard to fix with some quality control exerted on what the kitchen is producing.
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C.Elder
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Latium is a really high quality Italian Resturant, i've eaten at the resturant several time. The fresh pasta is amazing, the menu is always changing, the service is fast and not intrusive. Its a lovely and really reliable dinner.
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Edward
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Recently returned from Rome, had an amazing holiday and thought the food couldn't be beat..... how wrong was I. This restaurant is amazing. The food, the service, the manager, the price of what you get is all 10 star.
If you want genuine Italian at real prices, amazing wine list and fab staff, look no further. The best restaurant in central London I have been to for years!! Will go back here again and again
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Joanna Riley
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Saturday, June 30, 2007
I live in London but I spend long periods in Italy for work. Whenever I come back to London, the first thing I do is to book at Latium!
It is a great restaurant where in my opinion Italian cuisine is represented at its best in London (and I have tried most of the best, both in Italy and here), with just the right mix between tradition and creativity, with fantastic colours, clear and balanced flavours and impeccable ingredients at the forefront.
For me chef Maurizio Morelli has been the culinary revelation of the past few years, and no fellow food-lover, Italian or otherwise I have taken to Latium has ever been disappointed. I find his cuisine at least as good as, and sometimes clearly superior to, that of several Michelin starred chefs.
And what a professional and likeable team in the front room. Really the only minor negative thing I can find to say is that the room can get a little noisy, especially when large parties are present. But for such great food, at these prices, treated in this way, it's a truly minor inconvienience to pay!
As an Italian passionate about food, I am proud that this restaurant exists: Long live Latium!
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Man
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Thursday, May 24, 2007
