Marco Polo

It's a shame that this restaurant has been given such poor reviews below. As I live nearby I enjoyed walking up to this restaurant for a quiet bottle of wine and some pizza with my partner. The prawn entree in white wine sauce was fantastic, and the pizzas were excellent too. If you don't live in the area I'm not sure where you would park neraby, but the restaurant is in a lovely location right on the Thames so worth a visit in the warmer months if you enjoy alfresco dining.

I went with 5 friends for lunch to Marco Polo on Sunday 18th April 2010. The waiting staff were rude and abrupt, they were unhappy to take a drinks order while we waited for all of our friends to arrive, they complained when we wanted to order an antipasto platter while we decided on our main courses, the food and drinks took ages to arrive, the waitresses seemed to be wandering around with people food looking lost while their plates went cold. we certainly seemed to be one of many unhappy customers.

I would not recommend it.

There is not sufficient hyperbole in the English language to describe my utter disappointment with this restaurant.

I have just moved to the Putney area and was looking for a riverside venue to celebrate Mothering Sunday. Our party booked a week in advance and our party was made up of 5 adults. We arrived on time for our booking and decided to sit outside to enjoy the rare sunshine that we are afforded in England.

After being sat down for 20 minutes waiting to order, we overheard another disgruntled party on the table behind us complain that they had been waiting an hour and a half for their meal. When their food did finally arrive, they complained that the food was inadequate and had been left under a heat lamp for some time as their pasta had hardened.

Hoping that we had arrived at the restaurant late enough for this same tardiness not to apply to our meal we eventually ordered food and drink and sat and waited for our drinks to arrive. 30 minutes passed and we tried to ask a passing waitress where our drinks and/or food were. She held up her hands and shooed us away not engaging with us at all.

Eventually a bottle of wine arrived, but no glasses. A further 20 minutes later we were able to stop contemplating ways of opening the bottle of wine with our bare teeth as the waiter arrived with some glasses.

A further 30 minutes later our cold (whereas they should have been served hot) starters arrived. Grateful for something to stave off the hunger pangs, we ate the no-better-than-average cheese-coated fare.

We waited a further 30 minutes hoping for a main course but every time we tried to accost a waiter they shrugged us off and did not respond. When we did go inside and one of our party asked to speak to the manager, the manager insisted that we pay for the food and drink we had consumed and then "we could go"and [kindly] would not charge us for the undelivered main courses or [discretionary] service charge. When we protested that we had not even received the food or even any service to speak of. the manager reacted in a rude and obtuse manner. I have never been treated in this way in a restaurant in my life.

Despite the fact that this could have been my new local, I will never eat here again.