London’s Favourite Pasta Restaurant Is Officially Opening in Shoreditch

Padella — London’s favourite fresh pasta restaurant and sister to Trullo, the essential restaurant and Islington neighbourhood spot — has confirmed it will open a second restaurant: on Phipp Street, in Shoreditch. After rumours that the fresh pasta specialists from Borough Market would open in east London, it is now confirmed that the restaurant, which is owned by chef Tim Siadatan and front-of-house Jordan Frieda, will arrive early 2020. It will also house Padella’s bakery and open for lunch and dinner seven days a week.

Padella opened on the edge of Borough Market in London Bridge in 2016, a restaurant which was among the first in the capital to harness the power of Instagram, influencers, and so-called “long-tail” coverage that came off the back of both. It helped that it served excellent — some of the city’s best — fresh pasta, and didn’t charge over the odds. Three and a half years on, there’s still a queue outside every lunchtime and evening; indeed, it presaged a whole wave of fresh pasta-focused restaurant openings in London.

It serves critically acclaimed handmade pastas such as pici cacio e pepe, pappardelle with beef shin ragu, and tagliarini with new season olive oil and Parmesan.

A short statement from a spokesperson this weekend confirmed the opening:

Padella will be opening a second site on Phipp Street in London’s Shoreditch in early 2020. Padella will continue to serve simple and affordable pasta dishes and will be moving their existing bakery to the site.

The restaurant will not, as previously assumed, open inside co-working office space, Workspace The Frames, but next door to it, on the corner of Phipp Street and Scrutton Street. Photos of the site as it stands, can be seen below. According to a report in the Hackney Citizen, Padella will not be permitted to generate queues outside this premises, something a representative for the restaurant said at a licensing meeting was “a mark of [its] success [in Borough Market].” However, restaurants with significant demand in London now get around physical queues with technology: apps, like Walk In, allow front-of-house teams to manage so-called “virtual” queues, sending guests a text when their table is available.

Adam Coghlan

The restaurant scene in this particular area of Shoreditch, which nudges into Old Street, has changed dramatically in the last two years. Since Luca Dusi opened Passione Vino in 2013 and Selin Kiazim opened Oklava in 2015, they’ve been joined by Leroy, St Leonard’s, Gloria, Pachamama East, Nobu, Passo, Red Rooster, and Nuala, which closed and will soon be replaced by Richard Corrigan’s Daffodil Mulligan.

More soon.