Lita: Your ‘Abuelita’s’ cooking redefined and reimagined

Mediterranean cuisine on a new level. Forget the overworked tropes of tweezered garnish and under-seasoned artifice. At Lita, Chef Luke Ahearne crafts dishes with the soul of rustic heritage and the precision of haute technique. Here, high-grade produce like their Wildfarmed grains, Devon crab and Aylesbury duck is transformed with a clarity of purpose that’s quietly revolutionary.

Bread arrives first, as it often does in restaurants trying to show their seriousness. But this is not bread as filler. The Wildfarmed sourdough is a chewy, blistered triumph, still warm, its tangy crust cracking open to reveal a gently sour interior. The cultured butter is smoky, tangy and irreproachably rich. It’s a deceptively simple opener that delivers the kind of quiet awe that usually only follows caviar or aged beef – which you will also easily find on the menu at Lita.

And so it begins

Chopped Hereford beef is a dish that could be heavy and leaned into the red-meat machismo like some of the other caveman steaks on the menu. Instead, it dances. Diced to a precise softness and perfumed with Amalfi lemon, it’s bright, mineral, and alive. The shoestring fries, more than just garnish, bring crunch and salt in perfect counterpoint. A kind of posh steak frites in miniature and quite delicious, but I will say nothing too revolutionary.

Then: Sicilian prawns, and a jolt of color and salinity that wakes the palate. A personal favourite of mine. Served raw and sweet as sea candy, they arrive barely dressed—just a glisten of oil, a briny kiss of olives, and the sharp flick of pickled onions. You wish there were more prawns just to mop up the divine sauce.

Now onto the main event: duck ragu and lobster baked rice

What came next was the evening’s crescendo. Strozzapreti, handmade and pleasingly imperfect in its curl, is swathed in a ragu of Aylesbury duck that is all depth and dark velvet. Gamey richness cut with tomato’s gentle acidity, with the sharpness of 36-month Parmesan. The pasta clings lovingly to the sauce and creates a glossy heaven.

And then, just when you thought the kitchen had flexed all its muscle, it sends out lobster baked rice. It arrives steaming with the Devon crab and slivers of cuttlefish tucked like treasure within the grains. There is a luscious, toasted undertone—every bite edged with maillard caramelization. The aioli, served daringly warm, is not a sauce but a statement: creamy, garlicky, necessary. This is comfort food elevated to the divine—a dish that feels both celebratory and primal. You would expect lobster rice to be cooked but not THIS good.

Alongside, a simple dish of roasted red peppers arrives, glistening with olive oil. Charred to perfection, they are deliciously fresh and vibrant—a cooling, smoky counterpoint to the richness of the rice.

A Sweet Farewell

To end, a blood orange sorbet delivered a burst of brightness—refreshing, zesty, and the perfect palate cleanser after the meal’s rich crescendo. A surprise birthday dessert, elegantly plated and joyfully inscribed, rounded off the night with a personal touch that spoke volumes. The staff were warm, thoughtful, and effortlessly accommodating, making the entire experience feel both special and sincerely welcoming.

Lita is not just about food. It’s about a philosophy. One rooted in British produce, yes, but filtered through a lens of European finesse and a generosity of spirit. There’s no need for gimmicks or grandstanding. The ingredients speak. The kitchen listens. A narrative told through bread and beef and brine and butter.

Their menu is constantly evolving. There’s so much more I want to try—and without a doubt, I’d love to go back.

Dinner cost: £150 per person. Worth it.

Link to Lita website: https://litamarylebone.com/

Other Mediterranean restaurants in London recommended by Culture Vulture, reviews may be published in later editions:

• Lisboeta - Fitzrovia

• Ibai - Barbican

• Agora - Borough Market

In the next edition, we will be reviewing Thai food.

2025 Sony World Photography Awards: Winning shots

The winners of the 2024 Sony World Photography Awards are out, and Zed Nelson takes the top prize with “The Anthropocene Illusion”, a haunting photo series that dives into how humans have broken away from the natural world145.

Nelson’s project is named after the Anthropocene, the era where humans are the planet’s main force of change. Leaving behind plastic, concrete, and extinction in our wake. But instead of just showing destruction, Nelson turns his lens on the strange ways we try to reconnect with nature: artificial beaches, manicured parks, zoos, and even “wild” spaces that are carefully stage-managed for our comfort.

Some of the winning shots are shown below:

Nelson’s work is powerful because it exposes our collective self-delusion: we crave connection to nature, but settle for curated, artificial versions—while the true wild slips away.