A London food diary entry on the pasta specialist’s hotel debut, whether growth ruins the things we love, and a genuinely excellent bowl of cacio e pepe
Bancone has opened its sixth London location this month, this time inside The Imperial Hotel in Bloomsbury, a hundred-and-forty-cover space with its own pasta open kitchen and a sixty-cover terrace, and I went along slightly braced to be disappointed by what growth this size usually does to a restaurant I’ve loved since its much smaller original outpost.
Why I Walked In Expecting To Be Let Down
Six locations is a lot for a restaurant that built its reputation on feeling like a proper, intimate neighbourhood pasta spot, and I’ve watched enough beloved small restaurants lose whatever made them special the moment they start expanding into hotels and larger, more corporate footprints.
What Actually Happened Once I Sat Down And Ordered
The bucatini cacio e pepe was, genuinely, just as good as I remembered from years ago at the original site, and the signature silk handkerchiefs with walnut butter and confit egg yolk, now with an added crispy guanciale option, might actually be an improvement on the version I originally fell for.
How This Particular Expansion Feels Different From Other Restaurant Group Scale-Ups I’ve Watched Go Wrong
There’s still an open kitchen, still visible pasta-making rather than some hidden, industrialised production line, and that visible craft seems to be doing real work in keeping the food honest even as the covers multiply considerably beyond the restaurant’s original scale.
What I Actually Thought About The New Terrace Specifically
A genuinely welcome addition, sixty covers of al fresco dining that felt properly considered rather than bolted on as an afterthought, though I’ll admit I mostly went for the pasta rather than the view, priorities being what they are.
Whether I’ll Actually Keep Going Back Now It’s Bigger And More Corporate
Yes, somewhat to my own surprise. I went in fully prepared to write a slightly mournful piece about scale ruining a good thing, and instead I’ve just booked a return visit for next week, guanciale addition very much included this time.