Langosteria, the glitzy Italian seafood restaurant favoured by celebrities including Rihanna, Naomi Campbell, Leonardo DiCaprio and the Beckhams, has opened its latest outpost inside the OWO, the £1.4 billion development in Whitehall. The question is whether it can give the venue a culinary boost after mixed reviews of some of its other restaurants.
A Milanese Success Story
Enrico Buonocore founded Langosteria in Milan in 2007, initially as a small, unknown restaurant where he served as host, runner and sommelier. Today, he presides over a group of nine restaurants and wears tailored suits from Italy's most glamorous fashion houses. The London venue follows two other outposts outside Italy, in Paris and St Moritz.
At a lunch in Milan on day one, Buonocore oversaw a menu including tuna carpaccio with his signature sauce, a seafood salad of crayfish, squid and tiger prawns, a saffron-imbued seafood risotto made with lobster stock, and a theatrical tiramisu presented in a glass cylinder.
Glitz and Italian Charm
Langosteria is a glitzy, expensive brand, with meals often exceeding £200 per head. Each restaurant is softly nautical, featuring marble, travertine, lacquer and rich upholstery. At the Milan outpost in the fashion district, diners enjoy Prince Alfonso cocktails at the bar before dinner, and celebrities such as Giorgio Armani, Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana are regulars.
Buonocore said: "London is a great city, and a great city for restaurants. We have wanted to come here for a long time. We thought carefully about where to go. The OWO is an iconic building. I love the history." He emphasised the importance of impressing locals first.
A New Chapter at the OWO
Langosteria's arrival comes after several restaurants at the OWO received negative reviews. In 2023, the former Standard critic Jimi Famurewa said of Mauro Colagreco's restaurant: "High on cost, low on laughs, you'll leave bored and broke." That same year, Jay Rayner, then of the Observer, called Café Lapérouse "dismal" and "expensive", noting he had to "cadge" bread from the next table; it closed in January 2025. No critic has reviewed a restaurant at the venue since Giles Coren went to Kioku in 2024.
The venture is overseen by Michele Biassoni, who joined the group as executive chef in 2020 before becoming head of operations. Speciality ingredients are flown in from around the globe. Shalini Hinduja, on behalf of the Hinduja Group, which owns the OWO, said: "Langosteria enhances everything we set out to achieve here — a vibrant community where homeowners, hotel guests and visitors share in the very best of global hospitality, now with another extraordinary restaurant at its heart."
