A worthy rival to east London’s Trullo-ocracy, Dalla has stealthily become one of the city’s most talked-about Italian restaurants. It’s a classy joint; minimal, but with everything in its right place and unfailingly beautiful. Come for the short menu of retro regional dishes, stay for a crowd that wouldn’t seem out of place at LFW’s most oversubscribed afterparties.
Here’s how it happened. First, the hallowed site. This corner perch on Morning Lane has serious Hackney foodie heritage, home to both Peg and Legs before Dalla popped up at the end of 2023. Then, the design. Chicness is shot through the vintage Italian furniture, the second-hand French bistro chairs and crisp, white table covers. It’s no surprise that Dalla looks good – the place is run by Gennaro Leone of Hackney Downs furniture store and studio Spazio Leone. He’s collected these gorgeous bits and pieces over the years, and now finally has a restaurant to show them off in. The chrome vases and midcentury light fittings and tables are all model design specimens, as are the tables, even if they are a little tightly packed (yes, your neighbours will hear your ultra-specific east London gallery gossip).
Unless you are a 85-year-old Napoli nonna, much of the menu will be new to you
Finally, there’s the food. At Dalla, the waiter will calmly and clearly explain every dish, which is handy, because unless you are a 85-year-old Napoli nonna, much of the menu will be new to you. This is not a pizza-slinging pastiche of Ciao Bella or exhaustingly razzle-dazzle Big Mamma production, but rather a backstreet Puglian trattoria frozen in 1973, and all the better for it.
Sticklers for authenticity might baulk when they hear the chef comes from Canada, but Mitchell Damota has got previous when it comes to pasta; he was head chef at Burro e Salvia and also served time at P Franco. And just as the room is filled with vintage Italian goodies, so is his menu. We start with pockets of barbajuan, a deep fried and fulsomely-filled ravioli popular in Liguria. Delightfully salty, it’s so hot that you can only assume it’s been transferred from pan to plate in less than 30 seconds. They’re followed by a colourful, prismatic platter of peperoni and bagna cauda; sloppy slivers of red and yellow pepper swirled into a gloppy anchovy and garlic sauce. This magical, majestic oily mush will stain your shirt and have you wearing the smudge as a badge of honour.
The regularly-changing pasta dishes don’t mess about either. Made daily and in-house, on our visit there’s an immaculately chewy trofie slicked with luminescent parsley presto and formaggio di capra (that’s goats cheese to those of us not raised on Antonioni and Fellini movies). Even better was an otherworldly fieno di canepina with mushroom and sausage. Think of it as tagliatelle on Ozempic, a skinny, long noodle swirled with pungent porcini and chucks of meaty sausage. It’s almost like a ramen, but bobbing in a pool of creamy liquid lardo instead of broth. We have a salad of blushing radicchio, pear and melty gorgonzola that’s just as decadent as the pasta.
How better to end the meal than with a sturdy slab of perfect tiramisu? Dalla isn’t just the most stylish new-ish restaurant in east London, but the most mouthwatering.
The vibe A super chic Hackney dining room, with an equally fashionable crowd.
The food Trad Italian dishes served with fine-dining finesse.
The drink Italian wine by the glass and a handful of perky aperitivo and cocktails.
Time Out tip Skip the secondi and head straight to the primi pasta dishes. Share a couple, so you don’t get jealous.