The Dover
Italian restaurant · Mayfair ·
Dimly lit Italian spot with candlelit tables & excellent food
Dimly lit Italian spot with candlelit tables & excellent food
"The Dover is the kind of restaurant that’s so glamorous and pseudo-members’ club exclusive, that you can only hope it ends up taking centre stage in your obituary. While that’s an important thing to consider given the occupational hazards for mafia bosses, The Dover is too fabulous to care. Thanks to the candlelight, béchamel-dripping parmigiana Americanata, and something we’re trademarking as The Dover Gibson Glow, everyone within itsMayfairmahogany walls looks and feels like their third Emmy nomination is in the pipeline. If, of course, the charismatic giant pepper mill that’s being paraded around the room doesn’t beat them to it." - Heidi Lauth Beasley
"The Dover, a sultry, old-school-feeling, Italian spot in Mayfair, is perfect for an exclusive, strictly-tier-one-friends birthday celebration. Although this moody restaurant has a members’ club energy to it, the servers are friendly and any meal here is a laid-back, enjoyable one. Our birthday must-orders are the headline whole dover sole and the chocolate praline plate for dessert." - jake missing, rianne shlebak, sinead cranna, heidi lauth beasley
"A dimly lit, New York-Italian spot that feels like an invite-only members' club, The Dover is all smiles and "buon appetito" from the friendly servers, and excellent flavours from the kitchen. A butter-drenched lobster roll is perfect to start at the chic Mayfair spot, and we’re big fans of the parmigiana “Americanata”. In the candlelit dining room, couples flirt in intimate corners and friends poke their heads around prawn cocktail towers to get a look at someone potentially famous." - jake missing, rianne shlebak, sinead cranna, daisy meager
"The best seat in the house: Any one in the four rounded corners of the Mayfair room. What you’re seeing: Half-melted candles and someone you recognise from TV. It could be the lighting, but it probably isn’t. Dates extend hands across the table, while playing footsie underneath it, and servers float around the room, encouraging diners to order the cheesecake and grinding black pepper onto aubergine parmigiana from a giant mill." - jake missing, sinead cranna, rianne shlebak
"This mysterious Mayfair hot spot hasn’t posted a single photo on its Instagram page since it opened in 2024, and it doesn’t need to. Because news travels fast, and the headline? The Dover is the ultimate place to be. It’s like Soho House took a crash course on how to be cooler, more exclusive, and make great Italian food. We’ve seen celebrities, big and small, cosy up in the bar or tuck away in the dining room. But more importantly, they’ve seen us too. Claudia Winkleman, Pedro Pascal, Gulfstream G700 flyers Moody jazz, R&B, and soul—on vinyl, of course" - heidi lauth beasley, jake missing, rianne shlebak, sinead cranna