Pasta Evangelists, New Oxford Street: Comfort Pasta and the Wrong Door

Pasta is my comfort food. It takes me straight back to Italy, one of my favourite countries, and in particular to a bowl of pasta I ate in Rome that quietly ruined every bowl since. Nothing has matched it. Pasta Evangelists kept coming up as a fresh-pasta spot worth trying, so on a cold afternoon in London I went to see how it would hold up against that memory.

What I did not plan on was walking through the wrong door first.

Pasta Evangelists, New Oxford Street at a Glance
📍 Where · 84 New Oxford Street, London WC1A 1HB. A Franco Manca pizzeria sits right next door at number 82, so glance up at the sign before you sit down.
🍝 Cuisine · Fresh, handmade Italian pasta, made on site every day.
💷 Price · Mid-range. A 12.5% service charge is added to the bill but listed as optional, so you are free to adjust it.
🕙 Hours · Monday to Thursday 11am to midnight, Friday and Saturday 11am to 12:30am, Sunday noon to 11pm.
⭐ Order this · The slow-cooked beef and chianti ragù on rigatoni was the standout, richer than the tomato pastas.
🎓 Pasta Academy · Book a hands-on pasta-making class with an in-house Italian chef and prosecco, ending with the food you made.
🎟️ Booking · Walk-ins are welcome. You can also reserve through the Pasta Evangelists website or TheFork.
🚇 Nearest tube · Tottenham Court Road, a short walk, which makes this an easy pre-theatre dinner in the West End.

The wrong door

I was rushing, and properly hungry, and I went straight into the first welcoming-looking room I saw. It turned out to be Franco Manca, the sourdough pizza place that sits right next door. The greeting was brisk, I was too hungry to think clearly, and I sat down anyway. Then I picked up the menu and it was all pizza, which was the giveaway, because I had come for fresh pasta. I made my excuses and stepped out, walked a few feet to the right, and found the actual Pasta Evangelists.

The difference in welcome was immediate. The staff took us straight away, no booking, no fuss, and the whole room was softer and friendlier. I was glad I had got up and moved.

The room

The dining room is easy to like. The walls are a warm terracotta, there are pothos plants trailing down from the shelves and along the top of the partition, and the lighting is low and golden, helped along by little copper lamps on every table. A long counter runs down one side with bottles, hanging glassware and a coffee machine, and the bentwood chairs and pale banquettes keep it relaxed rather than smart. It was busy by late afternoon and got busier as the evening came on.

It is also brand new. This branch only opened in October 2025, part of the brand’s move from pasta-by-post into proper restaurants, so everything still has that just-opened polish to it.

The food, and the Rome test

We ordered two pasta dishes and two glasses of wine, a Sicilian Grillo and a Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, one white and one red. The pasta is made fresh on site, which is the whole point of the place, and you can tell from the texture of it.

I went for the Amatriciana, listed on the menu as the “Romans’ favourite”, which seemed the honest way to run my own test. It came as long fresh spaghetti in a tomato sauce with pieces of cured pork, red onion and a heap of grated cheese on top. It was good. The pasta had real bite, the sauce was savoury and warming, and on a cold London evening it did exactly what comfort food is supposed to do. Did it beat Rome? No. But I had quietly known it would not, and that is more about Rome than about anything wrong here.

The other bowl was the slow-cooked beef and chianti ragù on rigatoni, and this was the one I would go back for. The beef had been cooked down for hours until it fell apart into the sauce, rich and a little sweet, caught inside the ridged tubes of rigatoni. If the Amatriciana was the sentimental order, this was the better plate of food.

The pasta-making class

One thing I had not expected was the cooking school running alongside the restaurant. At a long table near the back, a group was doing one of the Pasta Academy classes, learning to make fresh pasta from one of the in-house chefs, prosecco in hand, and they were having a brilliant time. By the end they were sitting down to eat what they had made. It looked like a genuinely lovely way to spend an evening in London, and it filled that corner with laughter and clatter, the kind a normal restaurant does not have.

The honest verdict

Pasta Evangelists is good. The room is warm, the staff were kind and quick, the pasta is freshly made and the ragù in particular was worth ordering. It is a polished, growing brand rather than a tiny family trattoria, and it reads that way, but there is nothing wrong with that when the food is this comforting and the welcome is this easy.

It did not topple Rome for me, but I did not need it to. I came in cold and hungry, through the wrong door, and left warm and fed and happy. For pasta as comfort food, that is the whole job done.

Bubbly Tips for Pasta Evangelists, New Oxford Street

• Mind the door. A Franco Manca pizzeria sits right next door on the same stretch, so glance up at the sign before you sit down, unless you fancy pizza by accident as I nearly did.
• You can walk in. We were seated on a busy evening with no reservation, but you can book ahead through their website or TheFork if you would rather not risk it.
• Order the ragù. The slow-cooked beef and chianti ragù on rigatoni was the standout, richer and more satisfying than the tomato pastas.
• Book the Pasta Academy if you want to make your own. The classes run with in-house chefs and prosecco, and the group doing it near us clearly had the best night in the room.
• Check the service charge. A 12.5% charge is added to the bill but listed as optional, so you are free to adjust it.
• Nearest tube is Tottenham Court Road. It is a short walk, which makes this an easy pre-theatre dinner in the West End.
• Go earlier for a calmer table. It was already filling up in the late afternoon and got busier as the evening went on.
• Know that it is new. This branch only opened in October 2025, so it is part of the brand’s first wave of proper restaurants rather than a long-established spot.

Final Thoughts

I will remember this meal as much for the comedy of the wrong door as for the pasta, and honestly that is what makes it mine. The Amatriciana was a sentimental order that was never going to beat Rome, the beef ragù was the quiet winner, and the cooking class going on behind us turned an ordinary dinner into something with a bit more life to it.

Pasta will always be my way back to Italy, and no London bowl is going to replace the one in my memory. But a warm room, fresh pasta and a kind welcome on a cold evening is its own small comfort, and Pasta Evangelists delivered that without any trouble at all. Wrong door and everything.

Until next time!

xoxo,
Bubbly 🎈