Sardo

Had a 3 course meal in December 2011.

Starter was Carpaccio of beef. I've had a lot of these in my time and this was one of the best. Hearty beef flavour with generous shavings of parmesan. 9/10

Main was a whole seabass baked in salt. This was cooked in the salt, presented to me at the table in the salt before the waiter then removed the salt crust leaving a perfect piece of fish below. 8/10

Pudding was the Vanilla panna cotta, which was utterly sensational and probably the best dessert I ate in 2011. For something that sounded so simple on the menu, and looked so simple on the plate, the flavours and textures were remarkable. 9/10.

Went here on the back of some rave reviews, in March 2010.

Good things: good quality food; pleasant lunch-time atmosphere; great wine.

Not so good things:

the size of the portions was quite mean: we chose a starter of fresh anchovies. There were perhaps 4 on the plate. Yes, they were large anchovies, but anchovies are never that large, are they, so 4 of them, at a price of around £9, was a bit much. As for my main – pasta with crab – it was tasty, but it was a bit of a Spot The Crab Meat scenario as again, there was only a tiny amount of it in the dish, flaked into miniscule bits. So this meanness actually spoilt our experience, overall. And I did think it was quite penny-pinching and a little cheeky to have olives on the table when we sat down, un-asked for, and bread brought to us, and then discover at payment time that we were actually being charged £3.50 for the bread and olives. Again, this is just mean. If you're going to charge for bread and olives, let the customer know in advance, so they can eat their fill/decide that they don't want them.

Also, the owner (I presume it was, an older man dressed smartly and supervising the waitresses) did not make any effort to engage with us. Whilst I don't expect to be treated like a long-lost cousin when I visit a restaurant for the first time, I do quite like the man/owner, who is actually serving me, to make a little bit of an effort. I can't actually recall if he even uttered more than the odd, cursory word whilst bringing or collecting our plates, I certainly didn't hear him deliver anything approaching a sentence! He was very detached, and came across as a little uninterested, therefore. My sister had to ask if her wine could be changed, as there was a bit of cork in it, which can of course happen anywhere. He changed it without arguing, but equally, without hardly uttering a word when doing so, no' Oops, sorry about that' or ‘Let me change that for you, sorry about that’.

The prices are reasonable, but be careful, as the wine can really up the price, as can the service charge. Our shared starter, two mains, two glasses of Prosecco and two glasses of wine, plus service, came to £73…£22 for the four glasses of booze, £8 for the service, and £3.50 for the bread and wine going some way towards this.

I wouldn't go back because of the overall mean spirit of the place and the ‘not bothered’ manner of the main man there.