The Times
Charlotte Ivers beat a path to a new neighbourhood Roman osteria co-owned by Theo James, “the handsome 40-year-old Brit you’ll have seen in The Gentlemen, The White Lotus, The Time Traveler’s Wife or the Divergent trilogy”. “The famous face behind it clearly hasn’t hurt publicity-wise,” she said – indeed, it seemed to be the main reason she was here, although co-owner Ed Templeton (of Carousel) was mentioned.
“The food is pretty authentic but they’ve made the recipes a bit lighter to appease fragile London palates”, while the tiramisu has “properly bitter” coffee but remains “sweet and comforting”.
The best dish is the porchetta: “It’s remarkable — the sweetest, juiciest meat surrounded by astonishing crackling. Nobody else in London does porchetta this well.”
Charlotte Ivers - 2025-07-20Evening Standard
David Ellis visited a new Roman restaurant co-founded by Ed Templeton of Carousel and Theo James, “the irrepressibly handsome White Lotus star” whose involvement has generated generous helpings of hype.
Tut tut, warned David, “a celebrity is not the right reason to visit a restaurant (see: all of Berkeley Square)”. Luna is commendably unflashy, but is a she-wolf (‘lupa’ in Italian) “in sheep’s clothing”. It “appears to have been designed by Pinterest… it is following the herd”.
The menu is also generic: “with Carousel’s rotating residencies, and James’s extensive travels, you’d think they’d have done something more interesting than spaghetti in tomato sauce”. Familiar would be fine if the execution was excellent – but too many dishes were either severely underpowered, or over-seasoned. “I left not sure if it was good, bad or just indifferent,” David concluded, adding that chef Naz Hassan would “get it right with time, I think”.
David Ellis - 2025-07-27Evening Standard
David Ellis visited a new Roman restaurant co-founded by Ed Templeton of Carousel and Theo James, “the irrepressibly handsome White Lotus star” whose involvement has generated generous helpings of hype.
Tut tut, warned David, “a celebrity is not the right reason to visit a restaurant (see: all of Berkeley Square)”. Luna is commendably unflashy, but is a she-wolf (‘lupa’ in Italian) “in sheep’s clothing”. It “appears to have been designed by Pinterest… it is following the herd”.
The menu is also generic: “with Carousel’s rotating residencies, and James’s extensive travels, you’d think they’d have done something more interesting than spaghetti in tomato sauce”. Familiar would be fine if the execution was excellent – but too many dishes were either severely underpowered, or over-seasoned. “I left not sure if it was good, bad or just indifferent,” David concluded, adding that chef Naz Hassan would “get it right with time, I think”.
David Ellis - 2025-07-27
