The Lavery

The Lavery opened in April 2025 in a townhouse that was once the residence of Irish painter Sir John Lavery, an official war artist of the First World War. Chef Yohei Furuhashi formerly worked at Toklas, The Italian Greyhound, Petersham Nurseries and Dinings, after lengthier stints at The River Café (nine years) and Alloro (4 years).

The wine list had 36 labels and ranged in price from £32 to £140, with a median price of £59 and an average markup to retail price of 3.3 times, which these days is pretty normal for London. Sample references were Bodegas Gardel Las Mesas Blanco 2023 at £32 for a bottle that you can find in the high street for £13, Marina Romin Aura 2023 at £57 compared to its retail price of £30, and Maison Advinam Bouffonne 2022 at £78 for a wine that will set you back £41 in the high street. For an Italian restaurant, it seemed a little odd there were more Spanish wines than Italian. Corkage was £40. 

Focaccia was made from scratch in the kitchen and, to be honest, was a little dry, flavoured with herbs. Some olive oil for dipping would not have come amiss, as indeed would have been some drizzled over the bread to disguise the dryness. Pappardelle with rabbit (£22) had pasta with pretty good texture, and the rabbit avoided dryness. It notionally had tomatoes, oregano, olives and chilli, though you would have been doing well to detect the chilli (13/20). Burrata (£16) was served with fresh peas, pea shoots, fennel and a little grated bottarga. The burrata was harmless enough, and the peas had adequate flavour though the bottarga did not add much (12/20).

Guinea fowl (£31) was cooked well, and the prosciutto with it was quite crisp and had reasonable flavour. The broad beans were a good pairing with the bird, as were the wilted rainbow chard, along with some nondescript olives and a little lemon (13/20). Monkfish (£36) was cooked accurately and avoided chewiness, served with alubia (white kidney) beans, Marinda tomatoes from Sicily and a mojo verde sauce made with coriander, cumin, garlic, olive oil and vinegar. The tomatoes had quite good flavour and the sauce had a decent amount of garlic flavour (13/20).  

Chocolate mousse (£12) was served with Agen prunes. The mousse had a pleasant texture, made with chocolate from Original Beans, and the prunes had a reasonable flavour, but the olive oil with the chocolate was just odd (12/20). Almond with strawberries with cream (£12) had quite good pastry, and the just in season strawberries were fine (13/20). Coffee was from a company called Hermanos Colombian Coffee Roasters in Walthamstow, a speciality coffee roaster. This was quite good, not at all bitter and had decent acidity.  

Service was friendly, though at one point there was a “who ordered what?” moment, which was less than ideal in a smart restaurant. The bill came to £76 per person, with a single drink each plus corkage. The Lavery was a pleasant enough experience, though even in a currently rather barren Italian restaurant scene in London, there are better places to be found than this. Still, it was pretty busy on this Wednesday evening, so it is clearly finding a local audience.