Paper Moon London

Paper Moon opened in Milan's fashion district in 1977, founded by Pio Galligani and Enrica Del Rosso, and spent five decades becoming the room Milanese regulars return to rather than the one they try once. Its first UK outpost arrived in September 2023, inside the Old War Office on Whitehall, and it has kept faith with the original: classical Italian cooking, done properly, with very little reinvention.

The room reads as Milan rather than Westminster. Olive trees rise out of the floor, tall windows run the length of one wall, and a circular marble bar sits at the centre of the restaurant under a coffered ceiling, ringed with stools and backed by gilded arches. Three semi-private spaces open off it. Salone is the main dining room, seating 43 beneath a wall of framed photographs. The Lounge takes 20 beside the courtyard windows and can be combined with Salone. The Vino Lounge holds 20 in a quieter corner hung with painted plates. In warmer months the tables spread out into the OWO's courtyard.

For private events the restaurant lets exclusively for up to 80 seated, and the garden-facing dining room carries its own bar and a DJ booth, so the pace of the evening is the host's to set. The crowd is a Whitehall one, which is part of the appeal: political staffers and creatives at lunch, a looser and later room once the bar takes over.