Bocconcino Mayfair restaurant review: you can’t have too much of a good thing

You know you are onto a winner when, after ordering, your waiter advises you that you are going to have to move to a bigger table to accommodate all your food.

This was what happened when The Week Portfolio recently visited Bocconcino in Mayfair to try out the restaurant’s four-course set menu.

Well, it describes itself as four courses – but the first course alone, the one that led to the table switch, would have easily filled us both, such was its generosity.

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Between two of us, my dining partner and I somehow made it through a plate of calamari, a tuna tartare, a beautifully presented beef carpaccio - gently yellow around each edge and streaked with mustard sauce, a burrata served simply with sweet tomatoes and a dollop or two of pesto, an aubergine parmigiana, bread and olives. I would note again, there were only two of us... and this was just the first course.

Next up came pizza. We opted for the vegetarian option to try to delude ourselves that we had made a lighter choice. The whisp thin crust helped us see it off, though the deliciously melting cheese began to slow our progress.

For main course, I somehow found room for a whole Scottish rib eye, while my partner – having protested that she really couldn’t – found that once her ravioli was presented to her, she really could.

Roiling and delirious, we completed the four courses with a tiramisu. Shared, mind you, we are not monsters.

For quality, variety and – let’s face it – quantity, Bocconcino's four-course menu simply can’t be beaten. The restaurant also offers a seven-course affair; consider yourself warned.

Bocconcino Mayfair, 19 Berkeley St, W1J 8ED; bocconcinorestaurant.co.uk

Arion McNicoll is a freelance writer at The Week Digital and was previously the UK website’s editor. He has also held senior editorial roles at CNN, The Times and The Sunday Times. Along with his writing work, he co-hosts “Today in History with The Retrospectors”, Rethink Audio’s flagship daily podcast, and is a regular panellist (and occasional stand-in host) on “The Week Unwrapped”. He is also a judge for The Publisher Podcast Awards.