The restaurant
Manicomio is an Italian restaurant on Duke of York Square, with a dining room inside and a large terrace on the square itself. The kitchen works around fresh pasta made in house and seasonal produce, in a style closer to a modern Italian dining room than a trattoria. It has been on the square since 2003, which makes it one of the longest-standing restaurants on the square.
The name
"Manicomio" means madhouse in Italian, and it refers to the building rather than the kitchen. The restaurant occupies part of the Grade II listed former Royal Military Asylum, built in 1801 as a school for the orphaned children of soldiers.
Good to know
The terrace is the reason to book in warm weather, and it fills quickly on Saturdays when the food market runs on the track beside the square. The business grew out of Machiavelli, an artisan Italian food import company started in 1997, and there is a second Manicomio in the City.
