Oliveto

This restaurant opens at 7:00p.m for dinner. I knew it has a good reputation so I made a reservation the day before just in case.
We were the first to arrive.(Japanese are always punctual!) It was almost full by around 8:00p.m.
My first impression was that it was more luxury and calm than I had expected from the price.
We ordered the below dishes.
We liked every dish. But there was an issue with the plate of raw sea-​urchins. The bread served with it was over toasted. When we ate it with the bread without knowing that, the tate of uni was overshadowed a lot. That unfortunately spoiled the taste of uni… but otherwise every dish was perfect.
Especially mullet roe pasta, pizza of anchovies and raw beef were our recommendation!!!

One of the best meals my mom and I had in London when we visited. I had pasta and she had pizza and it was incredibly rich and flavorful, we couldn’t have been more pleased.
I will say is that reservations are critical — we had one and boy we were glad we did. You wouldn’t expect such great food because the décor is a bit underwhelming when you arrive, but your tummy will thank you. The only downfall is the service that day, it seemed like they didn’t have enough servers, everyone was sweet and kind and super nice but they seemed a bit stretch. Either way, I’d still return!

One of the best meals I had in London. I was on the hunt to find delicious Italian food & this place satisfied my craving.
My husband & I started with the Calamari Fritti Con Rucola. I’ve had a lot of calamari during my foodie lifetime & this was done so well. The squid was breaded perfectly & was a top a salad with sweet balsamic dressing that pulled the whole appetizer together. Don’t expect a whole platter of calamari. We were happy with the amount we got plus you don’t want to fill up on the appetizer. ;)
I ordered the Tagliatelle Al Prosciutto for my main course, which included cream of Mascarpone cheese & shallots. It was love at first sight when I saw the pasta was wrapped in the prosciutto! It was creamy & the perfect amount of saltiness. I drizzled some of their spicy olive oil on top & it took it to the next level. My husband ordered the Linguine Al Granchio, which was pasta with crab meat. Both dishes were simple, but perfect. For dessert we ordered the Coffee Gelati that came in a gorgeous glass cup. Ice cream & gelato should always be presented this way!
If only we discovered this place sooner during our trip, we would’ve definitely come back. Service was very welcoming & attentive. I think the servers could tell we loved the food because we cleaned the plates. No shame, lol. The dishes were simple, but didn’t lack in flavor. Thank you Oliveto for satisfying our Italian food cravings on a late Friday night!

Very good pasta. For lunch we had tortellini with a sage butter sauce, spaghetti with seafood and kid’s spaghetti with tomato sauce and all the dishes were delicious. Service is good. I would come back again.

My local for a quick and informal bite — tasty food and impeccable service!
A must go if you enjoy Italian food…

I cannot believe I haven’t heard of this place sooner! My friend has been to this place several times and I have a gut feeling that this restaurant holds a special sentiment in his heart. I’m glad he shared this place with me so now I can share this with all Unilocalers.
The first thing I want to stress is to book ahead of time. Even on a Wednesday even, this place is packed. If we had not walked in at 7 (when it opened) I’m sure we would have to wait for table. You can tell why it’s so popular: the food (albeit on the pricier side) is really good.
What we ordered:
–Polpo Con Rucola: Octopus dressed with oil, vinegar and garlic
–Speghetti Ai Ricci Di Mare: Spaghetti with sea urchins, garlic and a touch of chili
–Tagliatelle Al Cozze (special): Fresh tagliatelle with cream of mascarpone cheese, shallots and muscles.
–Tiramisu: Sponge fingers soaked in coffee with marscarpone cream and cocoa
–Gelato allo yoghurt: Sardinian bitter honey frozen yoghurt
From the appetizer to the desserts, it was all amazing. Nothing was amiss, although in hindsight, I wish I ordered a pizza as well. You can tell the people there are passionate about their job and know what they’re doing. The highlight of the evening was when our waitress forgot my glass of wine until we were nearly finished. She apologised and asked if I still wanted it. When we decided it was too late for a glass as we were nearly finish and would rather go to a pub afterwards, she was very understanding and took it off our bill.

Very good italian food. Not a fancy menu, but they have a range of very nice dishes (with or without paste) in addition to excellent pizzas. Visit there regularly and food is always consistently excellent, the wait staff is very friendly. And the deserts are amazing, including the gelato from the affiliate store.
Highly recommend.

Walked into this place randomly and I am so glad I did. The Tartufo pizza is amazing (truffle, ricotta, spinach and egg). The uni pasta was delicious as well, spaghetti cooked perfectly and the uni was very fresh. The waitress was also very friendly and helpful. Loved this place so much, returned two nights later (first and last dinner in London)!

Having lived in the Italian food capital of Roma for a few months, this small yet authentic Italian restaurant in London is truly a delight. Located in either the city of Westminster or Chelsea, this quaint but beautiful neighborhood draws its customers from a lively, but almost regal-​like crowd.
The food at Oliveto was astounding. Beginning with their Mozzarella, I was delighted to say that it was juicy, cold and amazing. The freshness of the mozzarella is always a good way to test the authenticity of an Italian restaurant.
My entrée consisted of their Pizza 4 Stagioni. Italian-​styled pizza is my favorite and this pizza only confirmed that. Nice thin crust, not burnt, but just right. Covered with Sardinian ham, sausages, and more mozzarella (yes, I cannot get enough of it), this pizza was cooked masterfully and my taste buds were thoroughly rewarded.
The staff here are very amicable and are responsive to your needs. Not only that, but they actually refill your tap water glasses pretty consistently, which is a rarity among European restaurants in general. Definitely a gem of an Italian restaurant.
~Carpe Diem~

Oliveto’s poor service, grubby décor and non-​functioning toilet have it very borderline, as do the high prices, but as many others have pointed out the pizzas are both excellent and huge. I would say this is one of the best pizzas I’ve had in London.
Also, whatever the diners next to us were having looked absolutely brilliant — massive portions of extremely fresh and appetising looking food. Wish I had asked what it was. I guess I will now have to sample the entire menu to find out.
My bff spotted AA Gill leaving the establishment — google search has turned up the following from him: «Oliveto, which makes constantly brilliant pizzas that have been feeding my kids for a decade.» So there you go!

Our last night in London and we wanted something close to our flat and a little lighter. Unilocal steered us here and it was perfect! Great service, pleasant, good quality food. Not too heavy. Pizzas are HUGE. You should each order a salad and then share a pizza. Too much for one person. Hubs had a ravioli that he loved. Super cute street with nice shops (although closed by dinnertime). Bookmark this!

Positively the best pizza I have ever had! EVER! And the carpaccio appetizer was pretty good too. Fast service and kind employees. Loved it!

I too agreed with some of the other reviews. The restaurant is very noisy and the waiter was inattentive. The food was good but overpriced. Overall the restaurant was a bit pretentious for what it was.

Tried Oliveto while on vacation in London thanks to Unilocal!The pizza was thin & with anything you want to add to it that was deeeeelicious! Loved the infused olive oils for the bread and even to sprinkle on your pasta. I had a special of the day linguini in garlic with clams YUM!!! The hazelnut & pistachio gelato for dessert was perfect! Great wine, great service, fantastic food!!!

Outstanding! Classic Sardinian cuisine yet young and energetic. We decided to make a meal of appetizers. I had the lentil and carrot soup. It was lovely, but not quite hot enough. I should have sent it back to be heated. My second appetizer was bresaola de tonno. Heaven on earth. Cured and dried tuna, sliced paper thick, draped over perfectly cooked haricots verts and drizzled with a sublime olive oil. Best thing I have put in my mouth in a long time (and I put lots of nice things in my mouth!).
Dear hubby started with buffalo mozzarella with a mound of caponata. Buffalo mozzarella can be tricky, but this was perfect. The caponata was the perfect balance of sweet and sour and still very fresh. His second plate was artichoke with tomato and shrimp. He raved about that too.
Since we had been good with dinner, having just two appetizers each after all, we decided gloom at the dolci menu. We went for the panna cotta with a raspberry coulis. The panna was black with vanilla beans. The coulis was extremely flavorful and, thank the good lord, not too sweet. Perfection.
Service was attentive but not overbearing. Just exactly right.
Plan to go again. Will be hard to not have the same things we had tonight, but we absolutely must try some of the native Sardinian pastas. They look just scrumptious.

Very nice Sardinian fare in a lovely London neighborhood, tucked away right in the center of town. Pizzas are great and the salads are too. The grilled tuna was delicious and the tiramisu and the gelato were superb. Seriously. Desserts should not be missed. The restaurant suffers from only one major problem; it is far too loud and sound reverberates everywhere. Some attention must be given to this and many solutions are available, if management desires (which it should).

Great little restaurant in a quite neighbourhood in London very close to my hotel Doubletree at Victoria Station. The pizza was amassing the veal chop on grilled salad with roasted potato was perfictally cooked and the chocolate geloto was just as good as the best we had in Florience or Roma.

The food here is quite tasty and affordable. It is at an even better value if you get the pizza which is more than enough to feed one mouth, even two and okay, three if you have some kids or everyone is on a diet! I believe they’re known for their pizzas but i couldn’t resist getting the sea urchin pasta — it sounded so fancy! The portion however was very tiny and it tasted primarily like olive oil, so not the most satisfying. And it wasn’t a plentiful of sea urchin meat (see uploaded photo for reference) but then again I’ve never had a sea urchin pasta before so maybe it’s suppose to be dainty servings.
I think this was also the first Italian restaurant that didn’t serve complimentary bread or salad so i was quite hungry at the start and also at the end of the main course. My friends who ordered pizza seemed quite full though. :-) So, I decided to order desert too. I had the chocolate and almond cake which came with a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream. The ice cream is also its own desert item but it’s around the same price, which is why i ordered the cake that came with the bonus ice cream as a side! Cake was a bit bitter and dry though but it was still tasty dark chocolate flavor. It had almond pieces but no almond taste so I think the almonds were really just for the texture.
The service was great because I showed up prematurely to the restaurant thinking my friend made reservations. The owner checked their reservation list and called another its branch restaurant to find my party’s name. When my friends finally arrived, they said they didn’t call in advance — oopsies! However they gladly seated us to an open table and told us that the next party will need the table an hour and a half from now. We were delighted to not have to wait!
Overall a good value restaurant and friendly for a kids, a candle light dinner or just catching up with friends.

Küche:
Gute und frische Qualität (es kann deswegen auch gut mal was nicht mehr vorhanden sein), authentische italienische (sizilianische) Küche. Die Karte ist sowohl italienisch wie auch englisch angeschrieben, das Personal scheint auch italienisch verwurzelt zu sein.
Preis:
Gutes Preis/​Leistungsverhältnis (Tellerüberlappende Pizzen 10−13£). Lediglich mit Extrawünschen auf der Pizza sollte man vorsichtig sein (+Salami: 2£, Büffelmozarella zusätzlich roh obendrauf anstelle nur mitgebacken: +3£)
Ambiente:
Im gut besuchten Restaurant war es relativ laut, was aber auch
verständlich ist, wenn italienisch sprechende Leute mit ihrer eher
lauteren Aussprache dieses Restaurant zu schätzen scheinen. Vom Platz her eher etwas eng, aber in dieser Preisklasse völlig im normalen Bereich.
Personal:
Obwohl das Restaurant sehr gut besucht war, blieb das Personal stets freundlich und sehr zuvorkommend.
Sonstiges:
Eine Reservation empfiehlt sich (bei unserem Besuch war das Restaurant bis auf den letzten Platz ausgebucht, konnten uns aber noch einen Tisch 30 Minuten später reservieren lassen).

Great italian food. I had the gnocchi, which was fantastic. My friends had the sardinian spaghetti and spaghetti with sea urchin. I know, this place is known for their pizza, but we were really craving pasta! We all liked our dishes, altho the sardinian spaghetti was a bit too fishy.
Service was good as well, we had three people and they actually had to move a couple one table over to fit us (whoops to the couple!), which was really nice (of both parties).

There are two Italian restaurants within a stone’s of each other throw near the corner of Ebury and Elizabeth street. One was absolutely empty, a server inside pacing anxiously about, doing her best to restrain herself from running out, grabbing us by the wrists, and pulling us inside as we pursued the very expensive menu.
And then there was Oliveto, absolutely packed to the gills, with only one two-​top table available at 8pm on Thursday night.
Telling? A bit. Needless to say, we chose Oliveto and were not disappointed.
Starting with the carrot, potato and rosemary soup, we discovered that they had entire wine sections devoted to Sardinia. And entire food sections devoted to Sardinia. And entire pizza menus devoted to, you guessed it, Sardinia.
About half way through our perfectly cooked crab linguine and buffalo mozzarella pizza, we spotted the table to our left devouring cuttlefish with squid ink glaze, and to our right rocking some sea urchin pasta. It only took us a few more painstakingly dense minutes to realise that… hey, this must be a Sardinian restaurant! (I promise, I was the only blond one in the group…)
I would highly recommend this spot for a easy authentic Italian meal out, a smokin’ cheap date (relatively,) or a quick dinner either pre or post show if you’re in Victoria. A bit on the pretentious side, but with food this good, I can’t blame them!