Bancone (Covent Garden)

One plate built six restaurants: thin sheets of fazzoletti under walnut butter with a confit egg yolk on top, which the Infatuation's reviewer summed up in two words, "order this" (The Infatuation).

Why go

Bancone opened here in 2018, a long narrow room off Trafalgar Square with the pasta bench in the window. The Good Food Guide, which makes this branch a Local Gem, describes the signature as "soft, glistening rectangles" of fazzoletti dressed in walnut butter with chopped walnut through it and a golden confit egg yolk on top (ref).

Heidi Lauth Beasley scored the room 8.2 and was specific about where to sit: "The restaurant itself is one long, skinny rectangle with a couple of larger tables at the back, but really to get peak enjoyment out of Bancone, you want to be sat at the bar. From the counter you can watch as one chef boils up some beef shin ravioli, whilst the other preps a panna cotta."

She was equally specific about the weakness, and said it three times. Dishes run "a little heavy on the butter". The beef shin ravioli has great filling and a sauce "a bit too heavy on the butter". The bucatini cacio e pepe is "decent enough, but not particularly memorable". Her practical fix is to work a tomato or fish pasta into the order before dessert.

The guide's own picks beyond the handkerchiefs are the pappardelle with Herdwick hogget and the cappellacci with Cornish crab, opening with a cauliflower salad.

Five Bancones are open now and a sixth is fitting out on Russell Square. This is the first one.

Order this / avoid

• Order: the silk handkerchiefs, first and without discussion. Brown shrimp tagliolini with seaweed butter, which the same reviewer calls excellent. Beef shin ravioli for the filling. The hogget pappardelle or the crab cappellacci if the guide's picks are on.
• Avoid: stacking three butter sauces in a row, since that is the one repeated criticism on record. The cacio e pepe. The tables at the back if a counter seat is going.

What locals & experts say

• Heidi Lauth Beasley, The Infatuation, 5 February 2019, scored 8.2 out of 10: "the silk handkerchiefs (thin sheets of pasta covered in egg yolk and walnut butter) are seriously excellent." And on the dish itself: "The thin sheets of pasta with the thick, nutty sauce is an absolute winner. Order this." The criticism sits in the same piece: "some of the dishes are a little heavy on the butter." ref
• The Good Food Guide, read 1 August 2026, which lists this branch as a Local Gem: a "sleek, handmade pasta specialist" that was "an instant social media hit" on opening in 2018. It names the pappardelle with Herdwick hogget and the cappellacci with Cornish crab. ref
• No chef pick. Searched all 622 records in the London vote graph on 1 August 2026 for this venue and every sibling. Nothing.
• A claim this entry does not carry. The venue's own site says this branch holds a 2026 Michelin Bib Gourmand. The cached Michelin list this project works from contains no Bib Gourmand entries at all, so it can neither confirm nor deny it, and the guide is not fetched. The claim is recorded and it counts for nothing here.

Good to know

• Where: 39 William IV Street, WC2N 4DD, between Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden. Charing Cross is the nearest station.
• Timing: Monday to Wednesday noon to 10pm, Thursday to Saturday noon to 10.30pm, Sunday noon to 9.30pm.
• Booking: advised at peak, through the venue's own system, which asks you to pick the branch. With a table you can be eating within half an hour.
• Where to sit: the counter. There are three of them and the kitchen is fully open.
• Access: the Good Food Guide records wheelchair access, a private dining room, and that the room is family friendly.
• Sites: six. This one at 39 William IV Street is the original. Golden Square is 8-10 Lower James Street W1F 9EL, Borough Yards is Arch 213 Stoney Street SE1 9AD, Kensington is 127a Kensington High Street W8 5SF, City is 7 Princes Street EC2R 8AQ, and Russell Square at 61-66 Russell Square WC1B 5BB is not open yet. Each has its own hygiene record and its own booking link.
• Hygiene: FSA rating 5, Westminster, inspected 23 November 2023, FHRSID 1212849. That is the oldest inspection across the six branches, and the age is stated rather than hidden. ref

Jeff's take (his words)

• Note: none. His saved-places export lists this row as "Bancone Covent Garden" with an empty note. The master list's line "Fresh pasta counter; silk handkerchiefs with walnut butter" came from an earlier enrichment pass, and both halves of it check out.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

should-visit — Worth the detour for one plate, and take a seat at the counter. The silk handkerchiefs are thin sheets of fazzoletti under a thick walnut butter with a confit egg yolk on top, and they are the reason this room went from one site off Trafalgar Square in 2018 to six across London. Heidi Lauth Beasley scored it 8.2 for the Infatuation and her instruction on that dish is one word long: order this. The Good Food Guide makes this branch a Local Gem and names the pappardelle with Herdwick hogget and cappellacci with Cornish crab alongside it. The format is the other half of the argument. You can watch pappardelle being cut through the window from the street, and from the counter inside you are close enough to see one chef drop beef shin ravioli while the other builds a panna cotta. It stops at should-visit for two reasons. The same reviewer who loved the handkerchiefs says three separate times that the sauces run heavy on butter and that the cacio e pepe is unmemorable, which reads as one great idea rather than a deep kitchen. And this is now a six-site group, which puts the burden of proof on edge and value, while nothing scored has been written about this room since February 2019.