The 24-hour Italian cafe that has anchored Frith Street, Soho, since 1949 — a neon-lit, Formica-tabled, espresso-fuelled room that has served everyone from Francis Bacon to the post-club crowd at 4am without ever changing its formula: strong coffee, Italian sandwiches, and the particular atmosphere of a place that never closes and therefore belongs equally to every hour of the day. The Polledri family has run Bar Italia for three generations, and the decor — Rocky Marciano poster, Italian football pennants, the original Gaggia machine displayed like a religious artefact — has the accumulated authenticity of a room that has been itself for seventy-five years. Across the street from Ronnie Scott's, next door to Hazlitt's hotel, and in the heart of what remains of Italian Soho, Bar Italia is not a cafe in the specialty-coffee sense — it is a cafe in the human sense, a room that exists for the city to use at any hour.
Location
Soho, London
Map
Insider Intel
An espresso at the counter — standing, the way Italians drink it. A cappuccino if you must sit. The panini and focaccia are simple and correct. Do not order a flat white or an oat milk latte — this is not that kind of place, and the Gaggia machine would not forgive you. Late at night, after Ronnie Scott's or after the clubs, the espresso is both medicinal and ceremonial.
There is no best time — that is the point. 3am after a jazz club, 7am before the city wakes, noon when Soho is at its busiest, 6pm when the Italian families who still live in the neighbourhood stop in. Each hour has its own Bar Italia. But if forced to choose: early morning, when the espresso machine is the loudest thing on Frith Street.
Open 24 hours (or nearly — hours can vary slightly). 22 Frith Street, Soho. Leicester Square and Tottenham Court Road tubes. Espresso £2-3, sandwiches £5-8. Counter service — standing at the bar is the authentic move. The Polledri family has run it since 1949. Ronnie Scott's is across the street, Hazlitt's hotel next door. Cash preferred, cards accepted. No wifi, no power outlets, no pretension.