London has no shortage of sandwich spots, but every so often a place opens that feels less like a café and more like a tiny bit of another city transplanted wholesale. Fulvio's Focacceria, covered by Secret London, is one of those: a dedicated focacceria serving the soft, olive-oil-rich flatbread that Genoa has been perfecting for centuries.
The concept is refreshingly narrow. Instead of a sprawling menu, the focus is focaccia — baked fresh, then filled Genovese-style with quality ingredients. Think thick, pillowy squares with a slightly crisp, salted base, layered with anything from cured meats and cheeses to simple, punchy combinations that let the bread do the talking. It's the kind of food that works as a proper lunch, a mid-shopping snack, or an excuse to wander East London with something warm in your hands.
What makes a focacceria worth seeking out is that Genoese focaccia is genuinely different from the airy, rosemary-flecked version most of us know from Italian chains. The Ligurian original is dimpled, generously oiled and often lightly salted on top, with a texture somewhere between bread and pastry. Done properly, it's a revelation — and it travels badly, which is precisely why having it made fresh in London matters. Even Ligurians will tell you the best focaccia is eaten within sight of the oven.
Shoreditch is a sensible home for it. The area's street-food pedigree and dense lunchtime crowd give a specialist spot like this a fighting chance, and it slots neatly into an afternoon that might otherwise include Brick Lane, Spitalfields Market or a gallery hop around Hoxton. Grab a slice, walk ten minutes in any direction, and you've got a full East London day sorted.
For travellers, this is the sort of find that makes a city break feel less like a checklist. London's dining scene is famously global, but the best new openings increasingly go deep rather than wide — one dish, done with obsessive care, often by someone with a personal connection to it. A focacceria is a perfect example: you're not getting a generic Italian menu, you're getting one region's signature bake served the way it would be in a Ligurian backstreet.
Who is it for? Anyone who cares about bread, anyone planning a day in East London, and anyone tired of paying £8 for a meal-deal sandwich that tastes like cardboard. Go hungry, go at off-peak hours if you can, and expect the popular fillings to sell out by mid-afternoon — that's usually the sign you're in the right place.
Full details on the opening come from Secret London.
