Where the Chefs Eat asks your favourite chefs for their top restaurants in cities across the world. For this edition, we sit down with Mario Carbone.
The last time I walked into what is now Carbone London, on Grosvenor Square, it was the American Embassy – an imposing building that looms large over one of Central London’s leafiest and prettiest squares. Fast forward nearly 30 years and I’m back, but this time it’s to chat with Mario Carbone, the New York chef behind the 2025 opening. The experience, I’m glad to say, is far less intimidating than when I was here to apply for a student visa in the ’90s. That isn’t to say Carbone isn’t formidable, though. His Carbone in New York opened in 2013 to rave reviews and he’s since opened locations across the States and in Hong Kong, Doha and Riyadh, too. Described by The New York Times as “a fancy red-sauce joint”, he and his team have carved out an impressive corner in the highly competitive Italian American food market, and he is clearly not planning on stopping anytime soon.
We meet in the corner of the enormous London location. Carbone himself is immaculate in chef whites, not a hint of jet lag around his bright eyes. He spends half the year travelling, and he clearly has a militant work ethic. Based between New York and Miami, he was keen to open a British location from the get-go. “When New York was established,” he tells me, “we kind of assumed London would be the next smartest place to open, and we felt it had to be in Mayfair. Eventually this became available, and we thought the fact that it was in the old American embassy building made for a great story. It had the 1960s, JFK vibes and it just worked.” The result is a stunning space that is light and breezy upstairs with an outdoor terrace and a theatrical downstairs area with a fabulous bar and Manhattan flair.
The Italian food market in America is serious business with generations dominating in cities across the States. Carbone admits that the first opening was, initially, “a little nerve-racking because there are so many well-established places that are 75 or 100 years old, serving amazing American Italian food. And they look and feel a lot like Carbone, but this is the food we grew up knowing and loving, and there can always be another great pizzeria, more bagels or another great Italian restaurant. Now that we’re established, hopefully, we are the torchbearer of the next generation.”
