Sette is the first London offshoot of New York Italian restaurant, Scarpetta, whose kitchen is renowned for its emphasis on bold flavours and enhancing the essence of seasonal ingredients. The signature pastas are all made fresh daily in-house and are paired with the highest quality, locally sourced produce. Bringing la dolce vita – ‘the good life’ – back to the dining room has been the overarching goal since Scarpetta’s inception, and indeed, the parent hospitality group LDV’s acronym of the phrase is as much as mission statement as a brand name.
Scarpetta initially launched in New York City’s Meatpacking District in 2008 to great acclaim. The NYC flagship celebrated its ten-year anniversary in 2018, and in the same year moved to The James Hotel in NYC’s vibrant NoMad District, developing the Scarpetta story.
Following the success of the original concept, Scarpetta has expanded globally, to locations including the oceanfront property at Gurney’s Resort in the Hamptons, as well as The Fontainebleau Miami Beach. Sette, located inside London’s Bvlgari Hotel in Knightsbridge opened in 2019.
With its understated elegance and glamour, the Bvlgari Hotel is the perfect backdrop for Sette, the most on-trend restaurant in Knightsbridge. The Italian hotel brand has a masterful knack of designing the most luxurious of settings without the slightest hint of either ostentation or gaudiness. Sette is effortlessly stylish: with its buttery soft leather banquettes, glossy mahogany wood paneling, chic mirrored walls, and abundant frondescence. The places oozes with subtle sophistication.
Sette serves up Italian food with Manhattan pizzazz. Scarpetta’s signature dishes dot the menu, and our waiters Gabriel and Viviana – both supremely friendly, attentive, and knowledgeable, point out the ones not to be missed. These include pasta Pomodoro (deceptively simple – Sette’s version takes the simple formula of spaghetti, tomato, and basil, and livens it up with some red-pepper infused olive oil, basil and Parmesan cheese. The secret sauce – quite literally – creates a roundness of flavour and nuance of sweetness that amount to pure Mediterranean bliss. My husband and I agreed that it stacked up against any spaghetti al pomodoro we’ve had in Italy.
Other highlights include a creamy, velvety, buttery polenta with morels and preserved truffles that must surely be one of the best, most indulgent things ever to have happen to cornmeal.
There is also an entree of black cod with slow-roasted tomatoes and caramelized fennel that I especially enjoy. It reclaims this fish from all the Nobu clones candying and cloying it with sweet miso, and it gets a more controlled sweetness from the tomatoes, which also provide a counterbalancing acidity. It’s Nobu, Naples style.
The desserts here are exquisite. My husband and I shared the Espresso Budino – a wonderful concoction of salted caramel, chocolate biscotti and hazelnut gelato that was reminiscent of tiramisu, but without the heaviness, due to the absence of mascarpone. The vanilla semifreddo’s silky sweetness was perfectly offset by the tanginess of the mango sorbet and the crunchiness of the coconut crumble.
If you are looking for a slice of la dolce vita in London, look no further than Sette: it will not disappoint.
Ground Floor, 4 Knightsbridge Green, Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7QA
