Back in 2016, the original O’Ver brought a dash of airy south Italian elegance to Borough. This sequel, located in the slickly soulless St James’s Market development just off Haymarket, is a tad fancier: all granite, midcentury furnishings, brass fittings and so on. It’s both handsome and homogenous.
Likewise the menu, with its meticulous but muted takes on trattoria classics and Campanian snacks. A platter of Neapolitan street food was a masterclass in frying, but only a ball of macaroni and mozzarella really landed. O’Ver’s USP is its Mediterranean-seawater-laced dough. Silly, yes, but the rosemary-flecked focaccia and cinque formaggi pizza were fab, and certainly more engaging than a bowl of fussilio pasta in a mundane sauce of Tuscan sausage, porcini and Italian toms.
Three courses plus wine (mercifully downsold by our charming waitress) came to £120, which is understandable for the locale but lunacy for the kind of food you can find done better at neighbourhood joints and pizzerias all over the city. But if that doesn’t bother you – and you fancy something a tad more luxe than Franco Manca – O’ver’s a very sufficiente spot.