White truffle feels even more exclusive this year, with money tight and most restaurants seeking to become more accessible, not less. Still, white truffle exists, and it is a melodic and beautiful thing. For those who can afford it (and, honestly, some restaurateurs seek to render it as affordable as possible each year) it is one of life’s greatest pleasures.
This season, there’s a little less ado and fewer restaurants are offering white truffle menus. But it is around and below we’ve rounded up the best of 2025’s offerings.
Truffles are tubers, or edible spores, that grow underground and once harvested, quickly lose their flavour, hence the expense. The cheaper black truffle has an earthy, mushroomy flavour and grows well throughout western Europe and Australia; the pungent white truffle, synonymous with Alba in northern Italy, smells and tastes like nothing else on earth, which is why chefs make such a song and dance about its arrival every autumn.
The famous French gourmet Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin called white truffles “the diamonds of the kitchen” and they can fetch circa £3,000 per kilo at the autumn truffle market in Alba in Piedmont. Perhaps even more when there are shortages.
And how best to eat it? “I adore white truffles, the first whiff of that magical scent sends my knees to jelly,” says chef Theo Randall. “It’s all about the aroma, so it’s important to cook something that complements the truffle rather than overpowers it. I tend to go with the classic ‘tajarin’, which is a very egg-yolk rich pasta from Piedmont, tossed in butter and then served with finely sliced truffles on top. It’s important to slice the truffles at the table so you get the full aroma and immediate taste.”
And while white truffle is an increasingly rare find in the woods around Alba — some chefs believe the finest specimens now come from Croatia — here are the best restaurants to go on a truffle hunt in London. Sniff them out, but be quick: the season ends in January.
Danny Elwes
The much-loved cheese shop and supplier La Fromagerie is to host a special festive white truffle dinner on December 8, for £140 a head. Head chef Alassandro Grano is sourcing his white truffles from Umbria and will shave them on the likes of zuppa imperiale (beef and chicken broth topped with baked semolina and parmesan), a classic risotto bianco, and Yorkshire beef fillet with fondant potato and Swiss chard.
Murano
Murano restaurant in Mayfair, Angela Hartnett’s Michelin-starred flagship, is to host a white truffle dinner on November 6. The event will celebrate the restaurant’s long-standing relationship with truffle supplier Meera Cortesi and will feature a special menu put together by Hartnett and her team. A glass of champagne and canapes are to precede a five-course dinner — dishes include tagliatelle and Cornish chicken with aligot and cavolo nero — with “generous servings of the season’s very first and best white truffles”. Tickets are £395 per head.
The Townhouse at the Kensington
Kensington hotel
Isabela Tavares-Vas, the executive chef at the Townhouse restaurant at the Kensington hotel, has designed a truffle menu to celebrate this year’s season. Throughout October are dishes such as mushroom and truffle arancini, beef fillet carpaccio with parmesan, macaroni cheese, wild mushroom risotto, truffle fettuccine, and chicken Milanese with white truffle sauce. Most of these will be made with black truffle, possibly even oil — the white truffle sauce suggests as much — but there will be daily specials and the option to add shaved white truffle when available.
Sale e Pepe
Knightsbridge Italian stalwart Sale e Pepe has been a staple of west London since the ‘70s and has welcomed a host of celebrity guests in its time. This season, the restaurant is hosting a special white truffle dinner on October 22. Menu highlights include linguine with white Alba truffle, beef fillet with red wine sauce and black truffle, and vanilla semifreddo with strawberries and… more truffle. The menu is £150 per head without wine.
Press handout
Jacob Kenedy’s regional Italian menu naturally finds space for the most famous ingredient from Piedmont but what is more unusual is that the chef encourages diners to bring their own truffle to his Soho restaurant. Should a truffle auction somehow elude you en route, Kenedy’s Gelupo ice-cream shop over the road providentially sells white truffles for less than the price of restaurant mark-ups to be cleaned at Bocca and shaved over dishes marked up with a ‘T’ on the menu. Given the food at Kenedy’s restaurant is so good, it’s an agreeable way to enjoy truffle without being chucked out of your house.
Pastaio
Pastaio is best known for its signature white truffle and 30 egg yolk tagliolini, a dish that has returned to the restaurant’s menu each autumn since 2017. Served with parmesan and a generous serving of white truffle, the dish is available as soon as the first box of white truffles arrives and the truffle is always sold at market price. It is one of the best and most affordable ways to enjoy the delicacy in London. Owner Stevie Parle has long strove to ensure his restaurants are accessible, and here is another way in which he does so.
Huge disappointment: Cipriani in Mayfair is criticised in the poll of London diners which highlights complaints over restaurant staff rushing customers
The old-school Italian restaurant always offers white truffle when in season and will again be adding it to timeless classics such as tagliarini, risotto and pizza. Prices haven’t been made available yet this year, nor is there an exact menu, but rest assured, the restaurant has white truffle for anyone in the mood.
