When I visited: July 2017

Location: London, near Oxford Circus

Rating in the Michelin Guide: Recommended

Dining Owl Hoot rating: 3/5

What to wear: Men – jeans or nice trousers and a shirt; women – jeans and a smart top or a smart dress

Ambience: Pleasant, informal

Course of the meal: Lemon caprese

If I could change one thing: More attentive service

Review:

I was treated to a 3-course lunch with prosecco at Latima, which is very near Berners Tavern (near Oxford Circus) and features some cool Italian posters on its walls. Latima have obviously worked with the gift company to produce a menu for this purpose, and most of the guests seemed to be having the same menu on the wet Saturday lunchtime when we visited.

We were provided with some nice bread with oil (although there were no olives, despite them being mentioned on the ‘pre-starter’ part of the menu). For a starter, we both went for the burrata salad with endive, which was very tasty. Our mains were pork belly and duck breast – we didn’t feel that these needed sides and it was good to feel full but not too heavy. For dessert, I went for the lemon caprese (which was actually a warm tart served with coconut ice cream) and my companion went for the ice cream selection. We thought that the staff should have explained what the ice cream flavours were as these weren’t listed on the menu – some people don’t like every course to be introduced but when it hasn’t been written down, I think it would be helpful.

After the main menu, we enjoyed some green tea and breakfast tea with petits fours – coconut, lemon, and chocolate truffles.

At first they tried to charge us for the glasses of prosecco on the bill, but when I pointed this out they did correct it. The staff were generally friendly, but I thought they should have been a little more attentive throughout, perhaps offering us more drinks as well as introducing the courses as mentioned above.

I would recommend Latima for a fairly casual Italian lunch if you are in the Oxford Circus area.