Jamie's Italian Canary Wharf

very friendly and attentive service, we had antipasta to start , was very nice indeed, i had a ravioli special, filled with ricotta and italian meat with beatroot was excellent, my friend had seafood pasta was very tasty aswell, panacotta for dessert was ok, but still nice. overall was very good, buzzy atmosphere and not expensive at all, would go back..liked the fact we were offered tap water instead of overpriced bottled water, nice touch.

We love Italian food. Actually, we love any food, but a couple of weeks ago we were in the mood for some Italian, so we popped into Jamie's Italian at Canary Wharf for a spot of lunch.

We arrived just after 1pm and the place was packed. By the looks of things, Jamie's has become a daily fix for hundreds of corporate junkies. We were lucky enough to get a table straight away, which is a good thing, because I was starving (and I get real grumpy when I'm hungry…)

Although the service was just slightly faster than a sluggish tortoise, the food was pretty amazing. I only remembered to take photos of our “nibbles” & was so ravenous by the time our secondi arrived, I devoured my pasta before anyone could say Buon Appetito!

We have been back to Jamie's recently for dinner, and once again left there with happy, full bellies, completely satisfied. The food at Jamie's is absolutely divine, it's only the service that lets the team down every time…

The menu is rustic and not to be compared to your average Italian restaurant, for example they don't serve pizza! But don't fret, you can still get the old classics like Spaghetti Bolognese, Carbonara and Arrabiata. We will be moving to Canary Wharf in a couple of weeks time and I am fairly certain that Jamie's is going to be at the top of our new list of hangouts.

Jamie's Italian… after all the excitement of an new celeb opening in the Wharf, this was unfortunately a disappointment.

The interior is nice, with a big wooden entrance and busy canteen feel. However I have to agree with all the other reviews – the non-booking policy is ridiculous. I am not sure if this was intended to be fashionable, but it is just irritating! The only other place that I regularly visit that has this policy is far more worth the wait (Ping Pong! lol)

The food is sincerely average. I visited with a friend who had eaten here before and didnt mind indulging my desire to try this place out. He was smart and ordered a burger. It doesnt look good when the best plate at the table is the non-themed food. The risotto dish we shared as a starter was decent but nothing spectacular. One might expect some vibrant flavours when a reputation is at stake. And my pasta dish … again, I could have done this at home.

The service was also slightly prickly. The waiter was a very metro/camp snob, who perhaps hasnt yet received his Ritz Carlton customer service training! There is a slight difference in educating diners on ‘how’ the courses in an Italian menu work and making people feel idiotic if they are well aware ‘how’ it works but choose not to follow it. I really dont believe in being forced to take an experience!

The prices are fine, although I feel more like this place would do better without the Jamie label, a booking system and lower prices. It would then probably thrive. It would possibly be the Byron burger of Italian in the Wharf (decent food, no fuss or expectations!) There are much better independent Italian eateries out there.

Unfortunately I know that although I admire Jamie's philanthropic ideals, I will not be investing to eat here again.

I was just going to update my reviews and then as I clicked on to Jamies I saw the previous comments. Enough said Jamie… you,ve cocked up big time with this one son !… It's a shambles…I dont get this wait / inability to book a table lark. …As a cook how can you employ people who really can't cook a plain pasta dish ?…and let's be honest ..that is what ALL the pasta dishes are here…PLAIN ! ..Service is hit and miss. If you are caught in a busy period your food will sit under the heating lamp… Servings aren't that big…ambience isn't all that … and to cap it all … It's not that good value for money. Don,t go down the Ramsey route and get too big for your boots J !

Feeling completely drained after being lucky enough to have had tickets for the Nadal/Murray battle at the O2, we could not face the endless queues that constitute dining at the arena after an event, and instead jumped the tube one stop to Canary Wharf. After a bit of a hunt (don't follow the subterranean signs – stick to street level and head towards Waitrose instead!) we eventually discovered Jamie's. Although the restaurant was pretty packed we were offered a table on the condition that we were there just over an hour – this suited us so we were seated immediately. Our waitress was attentive but not overly hurried even given our limited table time. We shared a starter of bruschetta topped with crab, chili and lemon and although it looked like some sort of shop bought sandwich spread, tastewise it could not have been further from such a comparison. The initial fresh crab taste morphed into a slow warm burn as the chili kicked in – absolutely on the spot to take away the chill of the day. For mains we both had the scallop and squid ink angel hair pasta, which although a bit “gloopy” in parts was utterly delicious. My friend, who is a keen cook and uses Jamie's recipies a lot, was finally convinced of his suggestion of leaving some of the cooking juices in the serving bowl – it did keep the somewhat generous helping warm and moist until the last mouthful. Whilst I would not aim to go here again for a “proper” night out, for a relatively quick meal at the end of shopping on the Wharf, or indeed, to avoid the tedious queues at the restaurants within the O2 either before or after an event, this really will stay on my list and be recommended to others.

They have some extremely strange rules governing their business – for example, they don't take same day lunch reservations after 10:30 and I personally don't understand the logic behind this. This is prejudicial against people who plan their day and favours the walk-in guests. In addition, reservations can only be amended between 09:00 – 17:30 which is fine for a lunch reservation, but a problem if you are trying to change an evening reservation. It all seems rather controlling and certainly doesn't favour any potential clients or anyone for that matter.

Please note, I have not eaten at this restaurant, so the ratings above, apart from overall and service, do not apply.

The table service is the only acceptable thing I can mention of Jamie's. The pasta dish I ordered was dry as if been standing on a hotplate for too long, lacked flavour (which I suspect explains the very over seasoning), and certainly overpriced. Being my guest's treat I did not want to complain so I cannot say how they would have handled my complaint if I had done so. This is of course after standing out in the rain in a queue waiting to be seated, you cannot book unless there are “eight or more”

I work in Canary Wharf and have never been remotely tempted to return

This place fits pretty squarely in the Cafe Rouge bracket. On a busy Saturday night the service was very pleasant and reasonably quick. The food is a different story. My chicken had clearly been cooked earlier and warmed up – tough and tasteless. Others in the party said the pasta was Ok if unexciting. The house wine is perfectly acceptable.

As a refuelling stop it's fine, as a hen party destination it seemed to be doing a good trade, just don't expect pukka Italian food.

Due to previous reviews we were not expecting much but decided to give it a go and we were pleasantly suprised. We decided to visit on a Saturday at 6.30pm and were promptly showed to our table. Our waitress Jenni was so friendly and attentive as well as being knowledgable about the ingredients and produce that was being used. For the starters we enjoyed the Seasonal meat antipasti plank. Loved the freshness and zinginess of the coleslaw and the mozerella was so soft it just melted in your mouth. For starters we both decided to stick to the traditional bolognese and sausage pappardelle – comforting and yummy! The atmosphere was buzzing (we loved the green chairs!). Overall we really enjoyed our experience at Jaime's Italian and look forward to visiting again shortly!

Apart from the maitre'd, who did his best to temper our expectations with the waiting time (the possible 1.75hr wait turned out to be, thankfully, only around half an hour in the end), the service at the restaurant was absolutely abysmal, from inattentive (bar staff chatted with each other whilst we waited almost ten minutes to be served – incidentally, there was no one else waiting to be served) to unknowledgeable (had no idea when trying to identify what they were serving, gratis on account of us waiting for a table, was the very basic and humble mortadella). Usual complaints on this thread about empty tables despite long wait times were definitely a problem we encountered.

It has to be said that the maitre'd was very knowledgeable when it came to advising on wine pairing (for our mains – not normally the job of a maitre'd, we know, but he seemed like the only person who was switched on) as we wanted to have some wine whilst we waited for our table.

The food fared better. We had starters of truffle tagliatelle (very tasty), crispy squid (a classic done very well) and truffle salami (this was ok – we've had better, although admittedly we're used to the ‘good stuff’ from tuscany). For mains, I had the lamb chops lollipop which wasn't too bad – the herbs that came the dish were especially tasty, but the portions were small. I expected this so it didn't bother me, but if you're after a hearty portion, keep this in mind.

My wife had the fish in a bag, and that was brilliant. Having nicked a bit to try, I can report that the steamed sea bass was very succulent and tasty, having absorbed all the juicy flavours from the accompanying shellfish (mussels and clams).

All in all, the food was worth the wait but I don't think we'll be back again. Sorry Jamie, we really like you, but you need to sort out your staff…except for the maitre'd who should definitely keep his job!