Dishes on restaurant table with wine and drinks.

About Us

 Take an immersive journey into the captivating cultural heritage of Sicily, where every dish tells a story, and every bite is a taste of Mediterranean history.

 

 

Welcome to our ‘Cucina’ -our kitchen- where Executive Chef Alfio Laudani takes his Catania roots and marries them with the freshest of quality sourced ingredients, creating seasonal menus of familial Italian flavours.

Say Hello to Alfio

Head Chef Alfio grew up in Nicolosi, a small town just outside Catania at the base of Mount Etna. Surrounded by food and restaurants from a young age, Alfio learnt to cook traditional Sicilian dishes from his chef-restauranteur father in his restaurants on the Catania coast.

 

After 17 years in London cooking in top Modern European and Fine Dining restaurants, Alfio goes back to his roots at Sotto Cucina & Bar, with a menu of traditional Sicilian dishes and family recipes created with quality British ingredients.

 

At Sotto, Alfio hopes to give guests a true feeling of Sicily, from the warm hospitality through to the authentic menu of Sicilian flavours.

Welcome to our ‘Cucina’

At Sotto Cucina & Bar, typically Sicilian flavours marries the influence of Alfio’s food-centred upbringing in the Catania region of Sicily with his seventeen years cooking in top London restaurants .

 

Freshness and quality of ingredients are at the heart of the menu and produce is wherever possible locally sourced in the UK. Our menu boasts a variety of Assaggini and antipasti perfect to share as small plates whilst sipping a cocktail or two.

Experience Sicily, Stay Local

Our restaurant has the charm of Sicilian trattorias, combining rustic elegance with contemporary art.

 

Inspired by the rich history and vibrant energy of Sicily, Sotto is a
sanctuary from the East London Street scene above – with charming industrial interiors ladened with textural and botanical installations, inspiring wall art and feature murals from local London based street artists.

Art at Sotto

Sotto Cucina & Bar provides a space for new art and artists to display their work. To celebrate our opening, Sotto has commissioned a series of sustainable artworks from students at Norwich university.

 

All the artwork has been created with a sustainability ethos. The frames have been created from recycled wood and the pieces range from watercolour prints to hanging silk pieces.

Our Supplier Partners

Our menu of contemporary takes on Sicilian dishes focuses on quality British ingredients.

Learn more about our trusted supplier partners below.

    La Fauxmagerie

    La Fauxmagerie, the UK’s first plant-based cheesemonger. Together with their suppliers, they create some of the UK’s most delicious, decadent and inspired plant-based cheeses fit for the finest cheese board. Whether you are looking for alternatives to dairy for ethical or health reasons, or whether you are simply looking for your next culinary adventure, they’ve got you covered.

    Located close to our restaurant, you will find them in Cheshire Street, just off Brick Lane, and you can indulge in their wide variety of plant-based cheeses. They have cheeses for every purpose: melting, grating, spreading, relishing and devouring! They also offer a range of plant-based preserves, breads, and accoutrements to add the perfect final touches to your cheese banquet.

    Olives et Al

    In 1992, inspired by adventure (and as an alternative honeymoon), the owners and founders of Olives et Al, Giles and Annie Henschel, spent a year journeying across the Mediterranean, North Africa and Middle East on two motorbikes collecting recipes everywhere they went from the farmers, growers and producers, they met along the way. Since then, they’ve been faithfully re-creating those recipes, and many more gathered over the years, using traditional methods and the most appropriate ingredients.

    We’ve partnered with them to bring a fantastic range of top quality and award-winning products to our menus and deli bar. For every purchase we make with Olive et Al, they are committed to planting a tree.

    O’Shea Butchers

    Darragh O’Shea is an eighth-generation butcher and along with his wife, Fiona, and their four children, Alfie, Findlay, Erin and Lottie, they proudly run West Mains Farm in Tullibardine, Perthshire, Scotland. West Mains Farm has been in Fiona’s family for over 100 years, and they are honoured to be the third generation to farm here.

    They focus on native beef breeds such as Angus, Shorthorn and Hereford. Their pigs are rare breed Tamworth’s and Large Blacks and for lamb they farm hardy sheep breeds such as Cheviots.

    They have a passion for meat, pure and simple! A passion inherited from Darragh’s late father Dermot O’Shea. They supply only the finest quality meats, ethically sourced from their family farm in Perthshire Scotland and trusted, like-minded suppliers from all over the UK and Ireland. Their lineage in butchery goes back eight generations, and craftsmanship and pedigree are second to none, a tradition we are keen to share.

    Gastronomica

    Are one of the UK’s best-loved Italian food suppliers. They set up London’s first Italian artisan cheese store in Borough Market back in 2000 – and ever since, the team at Gastronomica has remained dedicated to sourcing and importing the finest authentic gastronomic specialties from our beautiful country. 20 years after their launch, they exist to bring sought-after Italian food and drink to chefs and home cooks that value quality stock from best-in-class suppliers.

    As a business, their strength lies not just in finding and showcasing popular Italian staples, but in unearthing unknown talents. We are constantly working with them to support local traders, connecting with the best local companies, that share theirs and our passion for quality produce, this leads them across all of Italy’s major regions sampling everything from the sophisticated cuisines of Piedmont to the best produce from the island of Sicily.

    Cobble Lane Cured

    Are a specialist butchery in Islington, London. They cut, cure, smoke and hang meats supplied by a small selection of high-quality British producers and farmers.

    They started Cobble Lane Cured to make fermented and air-dried products using British meat, drawing on the experience and skills two of their founders had developed over years in the butchery trade. Having worked under some of Europe’s greatest charcutiers in Italy, Germany and Poland, the team brings a knowledge of butchery, curing, smoking and maturation processes that is unmatched in the UK.

    They began with a small range of salami inspired by Italian production methods that Adam had learnt from spending time with salumieri throughout Sardinia and Sicily.

    Why British Charcuterie?

    British meat is exceptional. The British isles offers a rich, diverse stock of breeds, and this makes for a fairer and tastier end product.

    East London Brewing Company

    Established in 2011, the East London Brewing Company is microbrewery passionate about beer and about celebrating brewing as one of the many wonderfully diverse, creative and innovative traditions of East London. The beers they brew explore familiar British classics, such as our Foundation Best Bitter, incorporate twists on classic styles as seen in our Orchid Vanilla Mild and showcase newer styles, such as our Beyond the Tower session IPA.

    Their celebration of East London old and new continues in their close collaboration with other East London businesses. Their logo was letterpress-printed by the London Centre for Book Arts in Hackney Wick, E3. Their labels – with black and white photography demonstrating some of the wonderful texture of East London – were crafted by a local graphic designer. Their annual green-hopped beer is brewed with hops grown in the gardens, pots and allotments of residents of Waltham Forest.

    We hope you enjoy their beer and the fact that in drinking it, you are drinking in a little piece of East London!

    Hackney Gelato

    Born in Italy. Made in London.

    Sam and Enri were born in Italy. Their paths wouldn’t cross for a few decades, but they both grew up with a love of food and making a mess while eating it. Enri trained as a chef back in Italy before moving to London to develop his skills at fine dining restaurants. Sam was working as a chef when they met for the first time in London’s Michelin-starred Locanda Locatelli.

    Dreaming of one day making their own Italian-style gelato, Enri took Sam (and several notepads) to Sicily to meet his Godfather Franco. Franco supplied gelaterias with top-notch ingredients. He introduced them to master gelatieri in Sicily, Calabria and Basilicata. Many questions were asked. Some secrets were shared.

    With a headful of knowledge and a suitcase full of Bronte Pistachios, they came back to London and set to work on making their gelato company a reality. We are proud to partner with these amazing gelateria magicians!

    Wood St Coffee

    Wood St Coffee is an independent café and specialty coffee roaster.

    First bringing REALLY GOOD COFFEE to Walthamstow in 2014, they pride themselves on producing coffee that not only tastes good, but does good too. All of their coffee is ethically sourced through a partnership of importers, working directly with farmers and roasted with care to bring out the best from each process, varietal and region. Owners Clare and Gareth Reid brought specialty coffee to Walthamstow in the summer of 2013, starting out as a weekly stall at Wood Street Indoor Market (hence the name, ‘Wood St Coffee’). In 2015, Gareth met Tim Choi through a mutual friend. With a shared enthusiasm for speciality coffee, the pair joined forces and began roasting together in 2018. We are thrilled to bring this incredible coffee to all our guests.

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