Greek pasta in London deserves a proper day out, and this Sunday gives you the excuse: 25 October is World Pasta Day. Secret London has put it in its weekend list with an Italian menu in Knightsbridge, which is lovely, but if you grew up with a tray of pastitsio cooling on the kitchen counter you know Greece has its own pasta story. Here is how to spend the day eating it, from Bloomsbury to Bayswater, with four Greek List members who cook it well.
Greeks have been eating pasta for a very long time. Hilopites, the little egg pasta squares, were dried on every village roof in late summer. Kritharaki, the rice shaped pasta the Italians call orzo, goes into giouvetsi and into the soupy manestra every yiayia makes when someone has a cold. And then there is pastitsio, the Sunday showpiece, with its tubular pasta, cinnamon scented mince and a thick layer of bechamel that has to be cut with a knife.
The trouble with Greek pasta in London is that it hides. Most Greek restaurants here lead with souvlaki, grilled fish and meze, and the pasta dishes sit quietly further down the menu. So for World Pasta Day we went through the menus of Greek List members and picked four dishes that are actually on the menu this week, with a price next to each so you know what you are walking into. Menus change, so treat the prices as a guide.
Start with the classic. Nostimo in the Brunswick Centre lists a pastitsio at £19, built the traditional way with layers of pasta, beef mince and bechamel, then finished with a goat’s cheese crust that browns in the oven. It is the dish every Greek in London measures against their mother’s version. Order it with a horiatiki and a glass of Greek red and you have the Sunday lunch sorted. The Brunswick Centre is also a short walk from the British Museum, so you can pair it with an afternoon in front of the Parthenon Marbles.
Getting there: Russell Square station (Piccadilly line) is two minutes away. Nostimo opens from 11:30am daily.
Greek stop nearby: Nostimo on Brunswick Centre, Bloomsbury WC1N, a few steps from Russell Square station. Greek taverna cooking with a modern room, good for groups and Sunday lunch.
If pastitsio is the Sunday dish, giouvetsi is the Sunday dish your grandmother made when she wanted to use the clay pot. Opso on Paddington Street does a Chicken Roast Giouvetsi, an oven roasted chicken leg over tomato orzo, listed at £17 on its delivery menu. The orzo soaks up the roasting juices and the tomato, which is the whole point, cooked with the light touch Opso is known for. They also run a couple of fusilli dishes, a beef ragu and a pomodoro, for anyone at the table who wants Italy with a Greek accent.
Getting there: Baker Street (Bakerloo, Jubilee, Metropolitan, Circle and Hammersmith & City lines) or Regent’s Park, both about a seven minute walk. Open all day.
Greek stop nearby: Opso on Paddington Street, Marylebone W1U 5QL. Modern Greek all day restaurant, from brunch to dinner, two minutes from the Hellenic Centre.
Across the road from Opso, Kima is the Greek seafood restaurant where the fish comes out on a display and you choose what you eat. The name means mince in Greek, which is a nice private joke on World Pasta Day, because the one pasta dish on the current menu is a tuna ragu pappardelle with black truffle and aged Cretan graviera, listed at £28. It is the most grown up plate of Greek pasta in London right now and it goes well with a bottle from their Greek wine list. Look out too for the Devon monkfish with trahanas, the fermented wheat and yoghurt pasta most Londoners have never tasted.
Getting there: Same stations as Opso, Baker Street or Regent’s Park. Kima is closed on Mondays and open for Sunday lunch from midday.
Greek stop nearby: Kima on Paddington Street, Marylebone W1U 4HZ. Modern Greek seafood with a daily fish display and a long list of Greek wines.
Cyprus has its own pasta tradition and Halepi on Leinster Terrace has been cooking it since 1966, run by the same Greek Cypriot family the whole time. Among the hot meze you will find ravioles, little pasta pillows filled with halloumi and dried mint and cooked in chicken stock, listed at £15. Every Cypriot family has a story about making them by the hundred before a wedding, and eating them in a dining room hung with hand sewn fabrics feels about right. Follow them with the lamb, which is what Halepi is famous for, or the moussaka if you want to stay in the oven baked family of dishes.
Getting there: Lancaster Gate (Central line) is a four minute walk, Queensway and Paddington are about ten. Open from midday until late, seven days.
Greek stop nearby: Halepi on Leinster Terrace, Bayswater W2 3ET. Greek Cypriot restaurant since 1966, a short walk from Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.
Not every plate of Greek pasta in London has to come from a restaurant. Hilopites with chicken and tomato takes forty minutes and one pot. Manestra, kritharaki simmered in tomato and olive oil with a block of feta crumbled on top, takes twenty. Trahanas soup with a splash of lemon is the fastest way to feel like you are back in Greece on a cold October night. All three pastas sit on the shelves of the Greek supermarkets around the city, and our guide to Greek supermarkets and delis in London tells you where to find them, from Bloomsbury to Green Lanes.
A tip for anyone making pastitsio for the first time in a London kitchen: use the number two pasta if you can find it, salt the bechamel more than you think, and let the tray rest for twenty minutes before cutting. If you want the restaurant version first, our Greek Sunday lunch guide covers the same kitchens in more detail.
World Pasta Day falls on the same Sunday as a busy week for the community. Here are the Greek events in London over the next ten days, all taken from the Greek List events page, the most complete list of Greek events in the UK.
Running a Greek night, a tasting or a talk? Listing an event on Greek List is free and takes five minutes.
Nostimo, Opso, Kima and Halepi are all Greek List members. More than 100,000 Greeks and Cypriots in the UK read Greek List every month, on the site, in the newsletter and in the Ellines sto Londino Facebook group, and Greek List listings rank first on Google. If you run a restaurant, a cafe, a practice or any business that serves the community, a listing puts you in front of the people who are already looking for you.
Where do you go for the best Greek pasta in London? Tell us in the Facebook group Ellines sto Londino, and tag the friend who still thinks pastitsio is lasagne.
