16 Jun 2026
Do the shadows of Darcy’s and Thompson’s hang over the new restaurant now occupying their former Hatfield Road premises? James Cameron went along to find out…
I always take it as a personal failure if a restaurant comes and goes in St Albans before I have a chance to visit it. Never knowing how good PizzAyos is, for example, fills me with a sense of loss and wasted potential.
A similar fate seemed to have overtaken the Elysium Bistro, which appeared in November last year, and was gone again by April. I was therefore determined not to let its replacement, Limoncello, slip through my fingers.
One of the reasons I couldn’t bring myself to visit the Elysium Bistro during its brief tenure is that it occupies the site (as, obviously, does Limoncello) of Thompson’s. This was for years my stock answer to what my favourite St Albans restaurant was, bringing fine dining, a passion for food and top quality customer service to our city. In fact, I had only just managed to stop myself calling it Darcy’s by the time the sad news of its demise came through.
These were awfully big shoes to fill, then, and it was with slight trepidation that I crossed the threshold. It was an unnerving experience to begin with, like visiting new neighbours. The bare bones of the place is the same, and you can’t help but think of the delightful pre-dinner cocktails you’ve had in this room, or the many fine courses you’ve eaten over there (assuming your previous neighbours were generous gourmet chefs).
We were given a very warm welcome by the new proprietor, though, and they have created a lovely environment in the place. It is decked out in earthy olive tones, with crockery in brown or avocado which gave everything a bit of a 1970s vibe.
Limoncello, as you might expect from the name, is an Italian restaurant with pizza, pasta and other main options. Prices seemed fairly expensive, with starters coming in around £15 and mains at £20, but that is possibly just the way things are these days.
We were given lovely chilled water in a wine bottle, just what was needed on the still swelteringly hot day, however the beer we ordered (they have the usual suspects, Morretti and Peroni) was served luke-warm. We were the first ones there on a Tuesday night, so did not have to wait long for our starters.
First came a large bowl of big juicy olives. These were fantastic, the finest ones we’ve had outside of the Mediterranean. The portion was also very generous, so much so that I almost became olived out.
Next along were some very golden Arancini balls. These were advertised as featuring a beef ragu inside, but it was not readily apparent and the flavours of the balls themselves were pretty muted. They were served on some lovely fresh rocket, though, and with a delightful artichoke dip. Again I was impressed with the quantity of balls given, and each one was too large to fit into the dip pot.
Mains also arrived quickly, slightly too quick as we were still eating our starters and my plate was whisked away with the remainder of my beloved artichoke dip (I managed to salvage my last arancini though).
There were a couple of vegan options for both starters and mains, and my dining companion had gone for the Vegetariana Pizza. Any pizza can be prepared with vegan cheese, a nice touch, but having had bad experiences with this before she played it safe and went cheese-free which was also happily accommodated.
The pizza when it came then was, unsurprisingly, very dry. The base was more reminiscent of a cracker and we really could have done with a serrated edged knife to get through it. Despite all this it was a pleasant pizza, the vegetables were fresh-tasting and the tomato sauce was nice and sweet.
I went for the Chicken and Chilli Risotto, a dish I rarely get to eat at home as the children are not fans of the texture. Here it was very moist, in the true Italian style, although the grains did lack the authentic remaining bite.
There was a nice underlying chilli heat, but here the flavour kind of stopped. A great risotto should be absolutely stuffed with richness, whereas this seemed content with being quite pleasant.
The food was all perfectly acceptable, then, but the service was a bit more of an issue. The site is made up of a number of separate rooms, and when this was Thompson’s this was not a problem as there would be eager and well-trained servers overseeing each room. On our visit to Limoncello there only seemed to be the main couple managing both cooking and service, which must have been very difficult for a team of two but which did mean you could go unattended for long periods of time, and even if you did manage to get some attention then there was a fair chance your order would be forgotten. It got to the point where my only option to track down our missing second drinks was to go into the kitchen, which I drew the line at.
It seems odd to say that the place was understaffed given that there was only one other party there for most of our visit, but there certainly were gaps in the operation. Having said that, we were fully processed in a little over an hour so it was more a case of food and drink being out of sync rather than long delays. At the end of the meal we were presented with a complimentary Limoncello, which was as good as you would hope for given its eponymous nature.
Other than the issues with service, Limoncello does most things right and it is very welcoming with good, solid cooking. There are many fantastic Italian restaurants in St Albans, though, and competition for diners is high. I hope Limoncello can raise their game and get into the realms of the exceptional, otherwise they run the risk of following in the footsteps of their predecessors at this location.
