C London (formerly Cipriani)

Well, what can I say, I do not think I have given such poor scores to any other restaurant! I almost feel bad but Cipriani has made it impossible to give any higher rating. We had to wait for half an hour for our table, despite making reservation, The maitre de was almost never anywhere near the front desk and have had better food in Italian street cafes!

I love going out for dinner and we normally go to different places because there are so many good choices in London but when they asked me “where would you like to go for mother's day” I answered without much thought, “Cipriani”.
The food is great, it is italian home food, you could actually eat here without getting tired of it; the wines are great and the service…what can we say… there are as funny and charming as italians can be. They'll never say no to anything, they will always work out the way to make everybody happy, even finding a table when the restaurant is totally full. The atmosphere is buzzy, lively, colourful and quite weird sometimes, you get to see many rich people from different nationalities pile together in one room. In my view it's fun. The downside…the price…it's difficult to justify the number when the bill comes but… I still come back. Must have: the signature merengue cake, a sponge cake with merengue and cream, simple but extremely delicious; the veal milanese, my favourite, is amazing. MB

This is without a doubt the worst meal i have had in london. Do not go here if you like food.
The food was inedible. The starter (easiest thing to do in most peoples opinion) was prosciutto and mozarella. They put the plate in front of me, and 3 others, which looked like a pile of what looked like the contents of a pack of wafer ham from sainsbury's, and underneath the mass of ham was a hard ball of cheap mozzarella. We all asked the waiter what the dish was as we had asked for prosciutto and this was just a pile of ham. He muffled something saying it was prosciutto, to which the people we were dining with said we have eaten prosciutto many times and this is not it.
The waiter did not care and walked away. So 3 plates of packet ham and a hard ball of mozzarella came to £80 (just for the starter).
My main course inedible, at this point when the waiter again asked me ‘you did not like’ to which i was so gobsmacked by what this place was serving as ‘food’ i just shook my head. I was with 7 other people who were visiting London for the weekend and had heard of this place and wanted to go.
By this point we had all had enough, everyones food was very bad and no one will ever go back again or tell anyone to go near the place.
To add insult to injury, the waiters charged over £100 more on the bill. We checked it as we were told this happens regularly at Ciprianis ‘C’. If you have more money than taste, you will like this restaurant.
I gave it 2 for atmosphere as at least we were not eating in an empty restaurant, although i am stunned to see how this is possible. This was not a one off incident, i have had the same feedback from at least 7 other people about this restaurant who have visited it in the last few weeks.

DREADFULL!! If you would like to WASTE your money and time, go ahead !!!

I'm glad I came here to see what all the fuss was about…I'm not if I would choose to come back if I'm completey honest.

The wine by the glass came in what looked like a small beaker and wasn't very cold…The food was honestly just a little over average. I say little over because I really liked the breadsticks!

We got looked after very well but I think the same would not apply if I came again with different company.

The atmosphere was good – nice and busy…informal but still quite classy if that makes sense!

There are nicer Italians out there!

Food shocking, really bad and certainly not italian, my pasta was overcooked, too overpriced, atmosphere noisy but busy and elegant clientele, just eat before you go, and smile at the paparazi on the way in.

I dined here once years ago when it first opened as Cipriani and I was sufficiently put off by their failing standards to stay well clear of the restaurant again. Sadly for me on this occasion, I was invited by a client and had no alternative but to accept graciously. I think deep down I probably believed that a lot can change in 5 or so years, but oh how wrong I was.

Accustomed to dining in some of London's best restaurants, I expect service and food of the highest standard in obscenely priced celeb-magnet joints like this. I'm no celebrity, but I believe that in life, you should get what you paid for. The service was beyond incompetent, you'd find better food at ‘Spaghetti House’ and the whole pretentious vibe of this place was exhausting. My poor host was riddled with embarassment whilst I smiled and reassured him that it was ok. Needless to say, I cut the meal short and took him for a drink at Claridges instead, where we were treated with the kind of courtesy you would apply to paying customers.

All I can say for ‘C’ London is that the ‘C’ clearly stands for ‘CRAP’. So unless you are a page 3 / WAG wannabee trying to meet a famous face, there are far better places to meet, greet and eat in London. The experience here is so ridiculously bad, it is absolutely laughable.

My boyfriend and I had diner here for his birthday. The service was very good with lots and lots of over attentive waiters but the service was too quick. We were in and out after a three course meal in less than an hour and a quarter. The food was nice but way too expensive for what you were served. The drinks were extremely expensive too. My Kir Royal was almost £ 18 and a small jug of house wine £22. We had a nice time but the bill came to a staggering £180. won't hurry back at these prices. We have been to lots of fab restaurants all over the world but this has to be the most expensive for the offering.

Looked forward to being taken here, to see if it was as bad as reviews indicate. Well, the service was fine, friendly and attentive. However, the food and wine were second rate, and hideously overpriced, as expected. Also chairs uncomfortable. Not even a decent celebrity to look at! I cannot understand why anyone would want to go there, other than to show off, and display their lack of a palate!

The only person who would ever rate this restaurant favourably is someone who does not know what constitutes good food. I was, simply put, shocked by how bad this place was. On my visit I tried three starters and I shall be commenting on two of them. The first one was burrata which was gorgeous but let's face it, burrata always is and that has nothing to do with the restaurant as it does not require any amount of effort or skill on behalf of the chef to taste as good as it does. The cheese was planted in the middle of a plate and was surrounded by Vittoria tomatoes cut in half – and that was over £20. The tomatoes were nowhere near as good as the Sainsbury's Taste The Difference packet for £1.99. The second starter was a plate of thinly cut mortadella which was nice, but again, it was just plain meat on a plate surrounded by gherkins. I personally like mortadella but it is one of the cheapest meats and five slices of it for over £15 is plainly ridiculous. The third starter was a salad for which really, there are no words. My main course was cannelloni filled with something that can only be described as tasting like cat food. It was not simply unremarkable, it was actually bad. Really, really bad. I would not have enjoyed it had i eaten it in a cheap restaurant and I can honestly say that I have had way better culinary experiences in Carluccio's. Dessert was some sort of stodgy Victoria-type sponge covered in meringue (these two don't even go together – you will ask why I ordered it – because I didn't realise what was inside the meringue). The cake was completely dull, the meringue was OK but not better than the one it takes me 5 minutes to whip up at home.

But the worst thing about Cipriani – you would have thought I had covered it, but not quite – was the people…With the exception of a number of Mafia-related-looking-characters who were there on arrival (only someone like that can carry off a light blue three piece suit with flared trousers) and added comedy value…the people who gathered there throughout the course of the evening were the worst of the worse. Pretentious wannabes, Z-class celebrities (we saw you Caprice, you don't need to walk up and down the restaurant every 15 minutes, no-one cares!), people who spend more time looking around to see who else is there than talking to the person they arrived with, girls dressed up in slutty outfits scanning the restaurant for sugar daddies, Eurostrash covered in fur…plainly put a selection of individuals who basically need to get a grip about what actually matters in this life…

All in all, I don't think I need to say that it was an overall awful experience and I have no intention of voluntarily returning under any circumstances! (I don't think this last sentence was necessary really)

This is a highly successful restaurant and a place to be seen. Therein lies the problem ! The food is incredibly poorly presented ,made and delivered. The wine is served in small cheap glasses of inferior quality. One cannot help feeling that this restaurant is taking the p… having said all this,it is frankly irrelevant as the Russians,football wannabees and those desperate to be seen in a ‘Destination’ restaurant' will inevitably keep it packed.
Check this out.. King crab salad was crab and some oil and that was it !. Langoustine Thermidor was langoustines and cream and that was it !..Squid rings were badly battered and deep fried tasteless rubber rings.
Take my advice…never, never ever go there…I won't ever again, under any circumstances

My daughter and I went to the restuarant on Saturday 19th Sept 10. We have both been to the best restauarnts both in London and abroad. We can honestly say we have never been so rudely treated, eaten such awful food, or rather left such awful food and been charged the earth. The waiters were more than rude. When asked if there was brown bread he replied no but that piece looks a bit brown. The restaurant itself is tacky, no taste and no atmosphere. Trust me avoid this one at all costs !!!.

Maybe this restaurant was something good in the past, faraway from now… but I really recommend you to find a sandwich bar or grab a kebab in the street. This restaurant is ridiculous price, terrible service and sorry to say a crowd of Botox and want to be celebrities.
RUN from here…
I would like to comment in the food but doesn’t worth a line…
Good to Cipriani NYC that they manage to get their name out of this place, at least now they can try to recover from their bad financial situation. Now named “C” wich now means the real thing “Crappy” ….

My wife and I thought we would spoil ourselves and eat in Ciprianis. We went on Sunday night and what a total disappointment!! The service was appalling the food was extremely poor and the price was ridiculous. We arrived at 7.20 and we were out by 8.20 spent £140, 00 “for what?”
I thought “fast food” was a quick cheese burger or chip but this is what it was a quick in and out for £140.00??
Don’t even think about going!!

I booked ‘Cipriani’ for my sister's birthday as I was looking for somewhere central that would be easy for everyone to get to. That was the only plus point of the booking. Do not make the mistake of paying through the nose to go here. The food is TERRIBLE, the prices are ridiculous and the service non-existent and for an idea of the atmosphere I'll just mention that we were sitting opposite a roughly 70 year old man with a 20 year old blonde woman wearing sunglasses inside for the whole night.

You could not pay me to go back here. AWFUL! gives Italian's a bad name.

Its quite expensive and very pretentious but is a funny experience and the food is good. Worth going once and not again.

I totally agree with the last review. Food and the whole experience felt like a throw back to the 1970's. This must be the worst meal I have had in a very long time. I had Parma ham and Mozzerella for starters which was OK. For the main course I had monk fish, which was killed by the heavy sauce. Rice (?!) was served as a side dish which was over cooked and tasted like egg fried (unless it was supposed to be egg fried) and the veg was nothing exciting. Wine was served in goblets (is it me!) and the crockery looked as if had been taken from a hotel that closed down 20 years ago. Service was slow and with the exception of the girl at the door the staff were cold and unfriendly. The two friends I was with felt exactly the same. £256 for three including wine!

The place was packed so maybe they look after the regulars and don't care about the infrequent visitors. As a regular visitor to London on business, there are much better restaurants within walking distance.

I have never written a restaurant review on a computer before, but I have never had a worse restaurant experience in my life. I have lived in London for 16 years and have traveled the world and eaten in restaurants from Sydney to New York. I rate London's restaurants as some of the best, but whatever you do DONT go to this one. I too had the same starter as the reviewer above and it was like paying £20 for Marks & Spencer's ham and mozzerella – dreadful and I had the signature dish which was stuck to the plate. Everywhere I looked people were eating flat tuna, meats and pasta which were stuck to the plate. If the restaurant turned upside down, it wouldn't matter because the food is all stuck to the plates. The room was old fashioned, the clientele Euro/Arab/American trash and the staff dress like Tom Hanks in ‘Big’. They constantly push you through and are charmless. When asked whether I wanted coffee, I asked for some ‘peace’ to which the waiter with broken English said ‘some cake’? Needless to say we left and went to Claridges for coffee nearby…we just wanted to get out. £150 was the bill for a jug of average wine, two bellinis which are compulsory and some dreadful food. It's what you get in Venice if you don't know the local places off the tourist routes.

Don't go, even if there are faded stars there which weren't there last night…the Ivy every time.

I and my sister took my father and mother here for his 60th Birthday and we were not disappointed, friends have dismissed this venue, but we really enjoyed it, they do turn tables and it is a rowdy affair but the food is wonderful if not very expensive, we paid well over £600 for 6 diners and that was for a main course and wine.
It is certainly worth a visit once, especially if someone else is paying, we didnt spot any celebritys but it is full of authentic Italians eating so that has to be a good sign of the quality of food!

My boyfriend and I have always wanted to go to Ciprianis, but never been. So last night after walking past again we decided impromptu to see if they had a table and try it for the first time. We will not be going back. Granted we were one of the first in the restaurant and were given a great table in the corner of the main part of the restaurant and when the restaurant did start filling up about 7.30, the atmosphere was great, but apart from that the whole experience was just plain awful.

The menu itself just lists the dishes with no description as to what the dishes actually are – who knows unless you are italian what Veneta chicken is??? I ordered the smoked ham and mozarella to start and my boyfriend the octopus capaccio with borlotti beans. My dish was I can quite honestly say one of the worst starter I have ever eaten in a restaurant. It was basically a small lump of mozarella with a packet of ham thrown on. A child could have done a better job!!! No seasoning, no dressing, no effort involved at all! The octopus carpaccio was no better, indeed it was pretty tastelss. The starters came up within 4 minutes of us ordering. We hadnt even finished drinking our champagne and the waiters were already asking to open our bottle of prosecco we had ordered. We had to actually ask the waiter could we have 15 minutes between the started and the main as we wanted to try and enjoy the meal – we were not in a drive through!!!

Main course was probably worse if possible. I had the chicken veneta, which was very questionable chicken pieces in tomatoe sauce – quite awful. My boyfriend had the oven roasted chicken, which he expected to be oven roasted and it just appeared to have been thrown in a pan with again some very questionable sauce – and for the record more berlotti beans!!! No greens with it or potatoes or anything. Was really awful.

Having cleared our plates, two waiters then came over pushing plates of desserts in our faces – panettoni panettoni madam??? Ummm no thanks – looks as dry as a bone and I really dont want it shoved in my face thank you!!! We declined on both desert and coffee and because the meal had been delivered so quick still had over half a bottle of our wine to drink, so we sat and took in the atmosphere.

I think the interior is lovely, but the seats are very low and its hard to get in and out of the tables easily. There are far too many waiters on show and they are quite rude and pretentious and do stare a lot – although the matire d' was quite charming and welcoming when we arrived – but I think this was just lucky as like I said it was empty when we first arrived at the restaurant.

The price of the whole experience for a glass of champagne, two starters and mains, plus a bottle of their prosecco was £90 each. Complete waste of money and overall totally disappointing. The restaurant does score points for the atmosphere and the interior, but really why does this place do so well??? Purely down to hype and the fact that we always see Madonna and the likes of Kelly Brook or Kim Cattrall having dinner there and we want to experience a taste of something that appears to be top notch! You would go to Ciprianis for the atmosphere, although the chairs are a bit chipped and worn and could do with a touch up – and I didnt like the shiny tablecloths that they have for the first two courses, but with regard to the food – seriously, save your money and go somewhere that you know is going to be good. Ciprianis is totally overhyped and bad value for money and they really seriously need Heston to come in and sort that menu out!!!

OMG!! . One word dreadful!!!
We arrived and they told us to stand at the bar to get out of the way whilst they could get us our table together..very rude!!
The decor was awful really old fashioned with wine glasses and place settings that really had seen better days..We ordered various bottles of white wine which were all screw top, I ordered sea bass, it looked like soup swimming in so much oil. The dish was very bland and my roasted veg had brussel sprouts in it? My friend ordered pasta and looked like a starter dish..for the prices it was a complete joke…

I know people who go there only to see what the fuss is all about..personally i would rather go to burger king!

I went with 3 friends to Cipriani. I had high expectations of a restaurant in the Mayfair area. All I can say is I was disappointed. On arrival we were seated, passed menus and drinks orders taken. The tables may as well have been ontop of each other given the proximity to the next one. The hovering of staff was not a pleasant experience and they kept passing our table pouring whatever liquid on the table into glasses, and constantly interupting. The menu is not descriptive, it just gives the dish name not its contents, and a vegitarian freind was very limited by choice. She actually ordered something that would normally be a vegitarian dish that was full of veal. When she mentioned this, the staff looked down their noses at us as if we had made everything stop and cause great difficulty for them. The food arrived far to quickly for my liking. The atmospehere was dull, and over crowded. Not a comfortable place to eat and not somewhere I will be going back to for any reason.

One of our party of 10 goes to Ciprianis from to time to time so to celebrate winning at the races we went to Ciprianis.

Servcie – We were hassled to take our seats and rushed to order so we had to tell the numerous waiters who were buzzing around to go away. The way the waiters spoke to us one would think they were paying for our services. During the meal they made a point of opening and pouring as many bottles of water as possible until they were finally told to stop. At the end of the meal 3 of the group were told that they could not have coffee as the bill (large) had been settled. Eventually we agreed to pay cash for the coffee separately.

Food – run of the mill. I ordered Swordfish. It was fried with some oil on the plate and some green scenery. I like swordfish and was fine – but i was disappointed that they had not made any effort to make it more exciting. The person next to me had ordered a pasta dish which sounded very interesting – it turned out to be a small mound of tagliatelle with a pesto sauce – fine but again nothing special and not what one would expect of a top restaurant. Dessert – all that I saw was meringue based and I love meringue so dessert was great! The lemon meringue pie was very well done.

Atmosphere – there were too many waiters – like gnats they were everywhere!!

Value – For a top restaurant the price is fine. For what you get here it's really disappointing.

Overall – uninteresting food and far too many very important waiters.

Well what can i say! I was mortified at how awful it was! We had dined at Zafferanos the night before which was superb and thought Cipriani would be better! I have dined at Cipriani on a friday lunch time and it was very good-this however was a saturday night and it was a nightmare from start to finish! On arrival we were rushed to our table and menus were thrown at us! We were given very little time to choose and asked for more time! We ordered starters, mains and an expenve bottle or wine! We were constantly aware of 8-10 staff stood behind the table like vultures watching every mouthful of bread and sip of water! I ilke Italian restaurants for their often buzzing atmosphere, this however was off the scale! It was like a processing factory, it isn't remotely customer orientated, its money orientated! The man that night at the reservation desk was constantly looking over at out table whilst gesticulating at staff to clear tables whilst pointing at his watch! Staff were knocking into the back of our chairs and dishes of food were being passed over our heads to other tables! Food was spilt on my friend at the table and staff were rude and arrogant and were visibly taking the mickey out of people. Our starters were average and were removed instantly when finished! I then got up to go to the toilet when i returned after a couple of minutes-my main course was sat on the table going cold! Not exactly the service you expect at this restaurant.
The gnocci was mushy and lacked adequate sauce! The wine was not refilled and we had to ask for more! As i was eating my last mouthfuls the bread basket was whisked away and the tablecloth changed! I was getting more wound up by the minute and had indigestion and felt under pressure to eat up!!! As soon as our plates were lifted off the table, somone was holding a lemon meringue pie infront of me and then a choc torte and something else! At this point i flipped and said, i do not come to an expensive restaurant like this to have 3 courses and a bottle of wine in 30 mins! We were shocked and disgusted! We asked for a break before dessert and we were glared at! They asked if we wanted any more wine!! We said of course we do!!! So they eventually refilled our glasses! Whilst we were trying to digest our main courses which we had literally just swallowed we were aware of staff looking at our table! We were at this time brought some petit fours!!! We saw this as a sign that they wanted us out! We told them that we wanted to order some desserts-when they arrived they asked if we wanted a coffee-we said we might after dessert!!! We were both too wound up to eat our desserts and very upset! We asked to speak to the manager and explained the above and how rushed and harrased we felt! He wasn't exactly apologetic but did sway the bill! He stated they couldn't time when i went to the toilet! I said that they should be more observant and not bring food out when a customer is in the toilet!! He offered to pay for dry cleaning! We were both furious and stressed! We departed and will not be coming back again!! OK you might see a celeb but thats about it! And lets face it most of them wouldn't know quality if it slapped them in the face! If you want to be seen for 30 mins and have food thrown at you by rude disinterested staff this is the place to go! Take some tranquilsers with you!

Cipriani did not disappoint. It has an incredible amount of ‘charisma’ and young or old, you won’t fail to be pulled in to the buzzy atmosphere. This is not to say you won’t be able to enjoy your meal however, just that there is plenty going on around you at all times in what amounts to one very slick operation. Cooking is high quality yet simple and unrepentantly stiffly priced , making a visit here a genuine treat.

This place is a circus, i've never seen such a bunch of misfits in my life.

Food was very average, what i'd expect in Pizza Express and service was a joke… Mains being served practically the same time as starters. Wine very overpriced and average but with a price tag of fine vintage…

Will not be returning…

Cipriani seems to have a little of a schizophrenic reputation – I know people who love it and people who hate it. Strangely enough the people I know who hate it do seem to go back quite frequently; one friend describes it like a bad boyfriend – she may be treated appallingly at times but she keeps going back. Personally I like it and always have, the food while not being overly gastronomic does the trick well. Service-wise I've had off occasions but generally it's ok. Although for the money I spend I should expect perfection every time I go, I always leave with a smile on my face. At the end of the day it's not for everyone – if I want excellent gourmet cuisine I'd go elsewhere – if I want decent food and an amazing, electric atmosphere I go to Cipriani (as long as I don't have to sit in the back!)

It was Christmas so decided to treat ourselves to lunch at Cipriani. What a disappointment, we defintely won't be going back.

The main courses arrived before we had even finished our starters and to be perfectly honest the dishes were not that great. Value for money, definitely not.

The only good thing about our visit was having Bryan “Everything I do for you” Adams sitting two tables away.

I have been to Cipriani many times, most times it was bad, once it was ok. The reason I kept going back was mainly because of other people's curiosity or invitations which I could not refuse. I would describe the food as lazily prepared (some pasta dishes look & taste like they have been pre-cooked and later microwaved), sloppily served and ridiculously overpriced. I don't care if Naomi Campbell is sitting in the same room, I am much more interested as to why the hell my expensive wine has not been decantered and why I am forced to drink it out of cheap small water glasses you might find in a bad pub…Not acceptable!
The meats and fish are mediocre, the pasta incredibly disappointing (although once I had a pappardelle al ragu' dish which was ok and did not taste microwaved), the starters and desserts average and uninteresting. Even the espresso is scandalous, there was no crema on mine and it tasted like starbucks (which means bad). In my opinion the kitchen in Cipriani has no respect for food or their patrons – very unitalian. Most patrons actually seem very pretentious and unknowledgable about food and are much more interested in being seen than eating well. The average patrons age is approximately 94, which makes it perfect for people watching while having a drink at the bar. But definately avoid eating there – Cipriani e' una catastrofe.

I have visited several times over the last few months, each time has been an enjoyable experience. Fabulous atmosphere with outstanding service.

Have been a couple of times and always, I’m afraid, been disappointed. One of those restaurants where it matters where you sit. If you are in the back, it’s like being in a different restaurant and not in a good way. The food is expensive and good if unremarkable. By and large at lunchtime its full of property people, although possibly less so these days. Atmosphere is lively if you are in the main room.