A Guide to Italian Dining in Covent Garden
Two Ways to Experience Italian Sharing in the West End
Covent Garden brings together dining, shopping and some of London’s best-known theatres within a few streets of one another.
For Italian dining in Covent Garden, San Carlo offers two distinct experiences: Fumo on St Martin’s Lane and Cicchetti on Wellington Street.
Both centre around Italian dishes made for sharing, but each has its own character. Fumo takes a contemporary approach through medium-sized plates and a dedicated Lunch & Pre-Theatre Menu, while Cicchetti draws inspiration from the Venetian tradition of sharing several dishes around the table.
Two Italian Restaurants, Two Different Experiences
Lunch in Covent Garden
Two Restaurants, Two Ways to Take Lunch
A day in Covent Garden doesn’t have to revolve around dinner.
Lunch at Fumo
Fumo’s Lunch & Pre-Theatre Menu is available throughout the week, with three dishes for £23.95 from 12pm–9pm every day.
Choose your own combination from a specially selected collection of Fumo dishes, giving you an easy way to stop for lunch on St Martin’s Lane before exploring Covent Garden, Leicester Square and the wider West End.
Lunch at Cicchetti
On Wellington Street, Cicchetti offers its own weekday lunch experience.
The standard lunch menu is available Monday to Friday from 12pm to 5pm, while the restaurant’s current Covent Garden offering promotes three dishes for £23.95.
With the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden Piazza and surrounding shopping streets nearby, it provides a different style of Italian sharing for a daytime visit to the neighbourhood.
Pre-Theatre Dining in Covent Garden
Choose Your Restaurant Around the Show
Few parts of London bring restaurants and theatres together as closely as Covent Garden.
Both Fumo and Cicchetti offer dedicated pre-theatre dining, so the better choice may simply come down to where you’re heading after dinner.
Around St Martin’s Lane
Fumo is particularly well positioned for:
London Coliseum
Duke of York’s Theatre
Noël Coward Theatre
Its Lunch & Pre-Theatre Menu runs until 9pm every day, providing plenty of flexibility around matinee and evening performances.
Around Wellington Street
Cicchetti sits close to:
Royal Opera House
Lyceum Theatre
Theatre Royal Drury Lane
Its dedicated Pre-Theatre Menu offers three dishes for £23.95, making it a convenient option for dining before a performance in this side of Covent Garden.
Italian Sharing, Two Ways
Sharing sits at the heart of both restaurants, but the experience takes a slightly different form.
At Fumo, sharing dishes are freshly prepared and brought to the table as they are ready, encouraging you to build the meal around several flavours rather than following a traditional starter-and-main format. Fumo recommends around four to five dishes as a starting point for two guests dining from the main menu.
At Cicchetti, the inspiration comes from the Venetian tradition of cicchetti. Plates are selected together and shared around the table, creating a sociable way to explore different Italian ingredients and dishes in one sitting.
Two restaurants, two interpretations of Italian sharing, both in the heart of Covent Garden.
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