Restaurant in London, United Kingdom
Wood-fired Italian worth booking ahead.
Two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmand awards and a 4.4 Google rating from nearly 3,000 reviews confirm that Manteca on Curtain Road is one of Shoreditch's most consistent ££ bets. The wood-fired Italian kitchen changes its menu daily, hand-rolls its pasta, and cures its own charcuterie in-house. Book a week ahead for weekends; weekday lunch is easier and calmer.
At the ££ price point, Manteca on Curtain Road delivers a wood-fired Italian experience that punches well above its bracket. Two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmand awards (2024 and 2025) and back-to-back appearances on the Opinionated About Dining Casual Europe ranking confirm this is not accidental — the kitchen is disciplined, the sourcing is serious, and the pricing is genuinely kind. If you want bold, produce-led Italian cooking without the ££££ outlay of somewhere like Luca, book Manteca.
The menu at Manteca is built around a wood-fired oven and an in-house salumeria, and the combination shapes every decision the kitchen makes. Menus shift multiple times a day based on what the chefs want to cook and what the suppliers deliver, which keeps the repertoire from calcifying into the familiar tropes of mid-range Italian dining in London. Hand-rolled pasta is a consistent anchor — dishes like tonnarelli with brown crab cacio e pepe or fazzoletti with duck-fat pangrattato have appeared on the menu, though the kitchen's day-by-day approach means no specific dish is guaranteed. What is consistent is the flavour register: high, direct, wood-scented, unapologetic.
The salumeria downstairs is worth the detour before you sit , refrigerated cabinets of house-cured charcuterie set the tone and function as an effective appetiser for what follows. Italian wines on tap from £5.50 a glass make this a venue where the drinks bill stays manageable even if you drink freely. Sommelier Emily Acha-Derrington oversees a list of around 200 bottles, with sections labelled 'down the rabbit hole' for those who want to explore beyond the mainstream. The minimal-waste approach throughout , beef fat in the fudge, artichoke scraps in the house cynar , signals a kitchen with a philosophy that goes beyond the plate and reduces what might otherwise feel like gimmickry to something quietly coherent.
Timing matters at Manteca. Frequent queues outside the Curtain Road entrance are a fixture at peak hours, particularly on Friday and Saturday evenings. For a special occasion where you want to arrive calmly and take your time, a weekday lunch is the better call , the room is operational Monday through Sunday, 12–3 pm and 5:30–11 pm, but the midweek lunch slot is markedly less pressured than weekend evenings. If your priority is the full energy of the room at its most alive, Saturday dinner is the occasion, but factor in that the experience will be loud and closely packed. The ground floor counter, which overlooks the open kitchen, is the seat of choice for anyone who wants to watch the wood-fired oven in action.
Manteca is a strong choice for a celebratory dinner when the occasion calls for a relaxed, convivial atmosphere rather than formality. The sharing format , dishes designed to come to the table together rather than in strict sequence , makes it more suited to a birthday dinner with friends or an informal work celebration than a proposal or a hushed anniversary dinner. The noise level is significant, particularly after 9 pm, and service is described as temperamentally variable: warm and engaged on good nights, occasionally glum. For a special occasion where service consistency matters as much as the food, that variability is worth factoring in.
For groups, the sharing menu format works in your favour: more people at the table means more dishes, which is precisely how Manteca is designed to be eaten. The downstairs space, with its charcuterie cabinets and separate atmosphere, is worth investigating for larger parties who want some separation from the main-floor buzz. Contact the restaurant directly to explore group options, as seat count and private arrangement data is not publicly confirmed. For private dining where a dedicated room and a curated service experience are non-negotiable, venues such as Bocca di Lupo or Bancone may offer more structured options. Manteca's strength is its energy and the quality of the food, not the formality of its setup.
Against its direct Italian peers in London, Manteca sits at the more casual, high-energy end. Luca offers a more polished, quieter room at a higher price and is the better call when the occasion demands composure. Artusi in Peckham and Archway cover similar ££ territory in different postcodes. Bocca di Lupo offers a broader regional Italian repertoire and a more structured group dining setup if that is the priority. For pasta as the specific focal point, Bancone is the sharper comparison , tighter menu, equally strong execution, slightly less noise.
Reservations: Book ahead; the restaurant fills consistently, especially weekends. Walk-ins are possible but the queues outside confirm demand is real. Budget: ££ , generous by London Italian standards, with wine by the glass from £5.50. Hours: Monday–Sunday, 12–3 pm and 5:30–11 pm. Address: 49–51 Curtain Rd, London EC2A 3PT. Booking difficulty: Easy to moderate , book a week or two ahead for weekends, less notice needed for weekday lunch.
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| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| manteca | Italian | Manteca is a busy, vibrant Italian-inspired wood-fired restaurant in Shoreditch. Sommelier and wine buyer Emily Acha-Derrington heads up the wine list of around 200 or so bottles that gives a hefty no...; Certain restaurants make you feel like you’ve made the right decision as soon as you walk in the door – and manteca is one of them. It’s always busy, always full of life and always run with a calm confidence that allows everyone to relax. The Italian menu is also something that’ll always excite; its dishes are designed for sharing and every one of them comes with flavour turned up to the max, whether it’s the whole wood-roasted John Dory, the ’nduja steamed mussels, or the malloreddus with pork and fennel ragu. Be sure to check out their in-house pasta workshop and their salumeria.; Frequent queues stretching out of the door are testament to the daily popularity of this trendy modern Italian, which is marked by an ornamental boar's head suspended above the entrance. Manteca is that sort of place, a Shoreditch resource named boldly after a variety of fat – lard, to be precise. Ground floor seats offers views into the open kitchen, while downstairs refrigerated cabinets of home-cured charcuterie whet the appetite (salumi and prosciutto are tip-top and not to be missed). An infectious buzz animates the whole restaurant, augmented by piped tunes that some may find passably funky. The kitchen is deadly serious about sourcing from the best suppliers, menus often change several times a day, and the chefs have the autonomy to put new dishes together on the fly. The result is a much less formulaic repertoire than is often the Italian case. A plate of line-caught sea bass crudo dressed with green strawberries was a seasonal treat on our most recent visit, while a dramatic swoop of rich, silky duck liver parfait was served with black date jam and a pile of craggy chargrilled bread. Hand-rolled pasta stars in fazzoletti with duck-fat pangrattato or tonnarelli with brown crab cacio e pepe, ahead of mains from the wood-fired oven – perhaps John Dory, plaice or a premium cut of longhorn beef. Finish with a doorstop helping of almond cake with stone-fruit and vanilla gelato. A minimal-waste approach sees some of the beef fat turning up in the fudge with coffee, while the copiously unusable bits of globe artichoke might eventually find their way into the house cynar liqueur. Service is temperamentally patchy – mostly hail-fellow, occasionally glum. However, eminently kind pricing earns the places bonus points, especially as Italian wines on tap start at £5.50 a glass. Adventurous imbibers, meanwhile, should home in the sections of the list entitled ‘down the rabbit hole’.; Opinionated About Dining Casual in Europe Ranked #308 (2025); Michelin Bib Gourmand (2025); Opinionated About Dining Casual in Europe Ranked #433 (2024); Michelin Bib Gourmand (2024) | Easy | — |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | Modern British | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | Contemporary European, French | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | Modern French | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| The Ledbury | Modern European, Modern Cuisine | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | Modern British, Traditional British | Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
Side-by-side comparison to help you decide where to book.
Luca in Clerkenwell is the closest like-for-like comparison — higher price point, quieter room, similar Italian focus. Padella in Borough Market undercuts Manteca on price but has no reservations and a shorter menu. For a more polished experience with a bigger budget, Bancone or Murano step up the formality without Manteca's wood-fired energy. Manteca wins on the combination of Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition, in-house salumeria, and ££ pricing.
Manteca does not operate a fixed tasting menu format — the kitchen runs a sharing-style à la carte built around the wood-fired oven and in-house charcuterie. If you want a set tasting progression, this is not your venue. If you prefer grazing across pasta, charcuterie, and wood-fired mains at ££ prices, the format works well for two or more.
Go hungry and go with at least one other person — the menu at 49-51 Curtain Road is designed for sharing, and you want to cover pasta, charcuterie from the in-house salumeria, and something from the wood-fired oven. Menus change frequently, sometimes multiple times a day, so don't arrive with a fixed dish in mind. The boar's head above the entrance marks the door; queues outside at peak times are normal.
Book at least a week ahead for weekday dinners; two weeks minimum for Friday and Saturday evenings. Walk-ins are possible, particularly at lunch or early evening, but the queues that regularly form outside confirm the restaurant fills consistently. Manteca holds two consecutive Michelin Bib Gourmand awards (2024 and 2025), so demand is not slowing.
The menu leans heavily on meat, charcuterie, and seafood from the wood-fired oven, so it is not a natural fit for vegetarians or vegans. The kitchen changes the menu regularly and sources from quality suppliers, which suggests flexibility, but specific dietary accommodation is not documented in available venue information — check the venue's official channels before booking if this is a concern.
At ££, yes — consistently. Two Michelin Bib Gourmand awards (2024 and 2025) recognise good food at moderate prices, and the Italian wines on tap start at £5.50 a glass. Against comparable London Italians at the same price bracket, Manteca's in-house salumeria, wood-fired cooking, and a wine list of around 200 bottles make the value case straightforwardly strong.
Yes, if the occasion suits a convivial, high-energy room rather than a formal dinner. The sharing format and lively atmosphere at Curtain Road work well for birthdays or celebratory meals with a group, but if the occasion calls for quiet conversation and tablecloth formality, somewhere like Luca or The Ledbury is a better fit. Manteca's ££ pricing also means you can spend freely on wine without the bill becoming painful.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
