Cafe Murano Bermondsey — Restaurant in London

We made an unplanned stop at Café Murano this Wednesday and were pleasantly surprised. The restaurant has a modern, slightly industrial vibe—think warm lighting, exposed materials, and a relaxed but classy atmosphere.

Starters: Octopus, Potato, & Confit Tomato Salad – It was just okay for me. The octopus was tender, but I felt the dish was missing something—maybe a touch more salt, a sprinkle of cheese, or even more olive oil to bring everything together. Cod-Based Starter (Name forgotten) – This one was unique and interesting. The fish had a strong, slightly overpowering flavour, but the bread it came with was adorable and delicious.

Mains: Linguini with Crab, Lemon & Almond Pangrattato – Strong crab flavour, which I liked. There were some crispy flakes on top (likely the almond Pangrattato), but I couldn't quite tell what the flakes were. Were I'd like to find out. The texture added a good contrast, though. Chicken Milanese with Crushed New Potatoes – Out of the three places I’ve tried chicken Milanese in London, this one is the best so far. The chicken was juicy inside, perfectly crispy on the outside—not too much, not too little, just right.

Desserts: Tiramisu – After trying that fresh-made tiramisu near Seven Sisters, I’ve been chasing that experience again. While this one wasn’t quite the same, it was still pretty decent. Ice Cream with Lemon Sorbet – You can select up to 3 scoops; the vanilla ice cream was my favourite. Smooth, creamy, and flavourful.

Drink: We had a glass of Rossj-Bass 2022, a beautifully balanced white wine. It had refreshing notes of citrus and green apple, with just enough creaminess and minerality to complement both the crab linguini and the unique starter. Elegant, smooth, and easy to drink—definitely worth trying if you enjoy Chardonnay with a touch...

Received no response on OpenTable, so perhaps this gets read.

Having dined here before, I was excited to come back post lockdown. Whilst I am understanding of the challenging new environment, there is no excuse for 4 people dining taking 3 hours. Staff were inattentive when it came to ordering and coming to wait our table. Nobody came to tell us our food would be delayed as we sat waiting, even when we asked we were just told it was coming with no explanation. Later overhearing arguments between staff as to why dishes were delayed. We sat for almost 20minutes waiting for bread to go with the buratta starter, being told it was in the oven but yet were then served bread that was clearly not straight from the oven! We then received the wrong mains, which were placed on our table incorrectly and then staff came back to collect and serve to other guests (not sure that's ideal in any circumstance let alone covid). Our wine was corked, and I had to politely tell the server twice that it wouldn't be drinkable, no matter how much more was poured out "to check if it's still corked". After sitting for hours waiting our own table, there was never any acknowledgement that things were not going too well, no apology or recognition; despite us being quite clearly frustrated. The food is great, good value and the wine list also very good. But your service greatly let you down, to the extent that I felt the need to write this. I regularly go out for food and I desperately want the industry to do well and thrive again, especially restaurants I have visited before, but when you have guests returning, looking forward to a first meal out in months, you need to make more...

A great experience at the Bermondsey branch of Cafe Murano. It is a much smaller menu than at their Covent Garden location, but still delicious and lots to choose from. Particularly liked the range of fish they had available, such as hake, swordfish, and red mullet, as well as a seafood pasta and risotto. We shared a range of cicchetti dishes for starters, all which came out very quickly. The focaccia is superb as is the oil it is served with. We also enjoyed the primavera arancini, the salami & mortadella selection, and roasted peppers with anchovies. Fresh and lots of flavour.

For our mains we had the red mullet served in a broth, the seafood risotto (the risotto was a little too al dente for our liking but still very much enjoyable), and the rabbit ragù conchiglioni pasta (also delicious, but I would have loved more sauce, something rich and thick). All very good, beautifully prepared simple Italian dishes. We paired it all with a bottle of the Verdiccio wine which was deep in colour and paired very well.

We managed to find a bit of room for pudding which were too good to pass up! The chocolate semifreddo was excellent with delicious cantucci biscuits, and my guests described the tiramisu as the ‘best tiramisu’ they’d had, and that it had raised the bar for all...