About L'Anima
L’Anima opened in June 2008 to critical acclaim. London finally had a southern Italian restaurant with soul, treating guests to a brand new culinary experience whilst making them feel instantly at home. The richness of Italian cuisine lies in its diversity and its heritage of good honest food cooked, from the heart. Renowned for being simple, fresh and bursting with flavours, the food of the south is the soul of Italy and counts for a great part of the history of Italian cuisine; centering around the high quality ingredients that grow on its fertile hills and plains and the treasures found in the sea that surrounds it.
Our Design
Italy is recognised as being a worldwide trendsetter and leader in design. When L’Anima was opened, our aim was to create an environment that oozed serenity, permanence and timeless luxury. L’Anima is a place that appeals to a discerning client base seeking a premium dining experience, without taking the focus away from the real art – the food on the plate.
Claudio Silvestrin’s design for L’Anima intends to give guests the feeling of being in a soulful, expressive place, communicating the emotional qualities of the nourishing, life-giving elements that evolve from water, fire and earth. These elements are beautifully composed in pure, clear, geometric forms, thus bonding abstract symbols with the physical nature of materials.
The natural materials that have been selected – raw, brownish porphyry for the main restaurant walls, limestone travertine for the floor, fine French limestone for the walls in the VIP area, green-toned South American marble, and white leather for the furniture – provide the restaurant with an image of solidity, permanence and timeless luxury.
Through a curved passage of limestone walls, the customer’s perspective is directed towards the wine cellar and the Private Dining Room.
The Private Dining space recalls the cells and refectories of medieval monasteries, where distractions do not exist. The room, with its elegant simplicity and natural materials (limestone, fire and water), is the ideal serene space in which the experience of dining becomes detached from the mundane world.
