Franco's
The oldest Italian restaurant in London — since 1946 on Jermyn Street. The room on a Tuesday lunch in winter is one of the most particular pleasures the city offers.
Franco's opened on Jermyn Street in 1946, which makes it the oldest Italian restaurant in London, and has been doing classical Italian in the St James's manner ever since: a long, warm room, white tablecloths, a menu of pasta and grilled fish and veal that doesn't need to be anything other than what it is. It has outlived every trend in the city's dining life by being entirely immune to them.
The room on a Tuesday lunch in winter, full of Jermyn Street shoppers and men who have been coming since the 1980s, is one of the most specific and pleasurable experiences London offers. The pasta is right. The fish is right. The tiramisu is better than it needs to be.
Classical Italian — the pasta, the grilled fish, the veal, the tiramisu. Done with the consistency that only 80 years of practice produces.
A long, warm Jermyn Street room — proper tablecloths, attentive service, the particular atmosphere of a restaurant full of regulars who have been coming for years. Old London, unapologetically.
THE PASTA · GRILLED FISH · TIRAMISU
Franco's is one of the most enduring rooms in London — 1946, Jermyn Street, the oldest Italian in the city, and still the right place for a classic lunch. Go in winter when it belongs to the regulars.
Reserve well in advance — this room fills weeks out, especially on weekends.
Ask for a table in the main room and let the pasta and antipasti lead the order.