Novikov - Italian Restaurant

Reception Supervisor she is not helpful at all

Decor is gorgeous (especially at Christmas). Food cooked in front of you (fresh pasta etc). Great selection of fish/meat/vegetarian options.

Ambience is amazing as if one is dining in an Italian courtyard and as for the food homegrown truly italian cooked basically italiamðÿ˜Love itðÿ˜ž.

I visited Novikov a few weeks ago with a friend of mine to celebrate my birthday. We had made a booking a few days ago because it was a restaurant suggested by friends and having visited Rextail the week prior, I expected to have a delightful experience. Before I start, I will say the food was delicious, despite the portions being absolutely tiny and not quite enough to fill a grown man. On arriving, we were taken to a seat with our coats still on; no one had offered to take our coats to the cloakroom and I actually had to ask if the restaurant even had a cloakroom. Secondly, I would like to mention that when we were booking, we mentioned that we had specific dietary requirements and the person on the phone assured us that they requirements would be met. On arriving, we decided to double check just to be sure and this time, we were told that our dietary requirements could not be catered to, essentially restricting us to two meat options on the entire menu. Anyway, we did decide to go ahead and order what we could, despite having thoughts of walking out at that point. The waitress who was serving us seemed extremely grumpy and did not seem like someone who wanted to be at the job. There were tiny details as well that were ignored. For example, upon arriving, no one took the effort to pull the chairs out or place the napkin in place or even smile. Throughout the entire meal, we had to fill our glasses ourselves and when the jug was empty, no one came to refill it. The one point we were asked if the meal was okay was once we had finished everything and the waitress arrived to take the meal away. I understand a lot of these details are tiny, but for a restaurant in Mayfair, the bar is set extremely high and the prices we pay for the food and service need to be justified too. On finishing our meal, although my friend mentioned during the reservation that the meal is for a birthday, there was no sign of the staff knowing anything about this. It was an extremely disappointing experience for me and it is such a letdown for a birthday experience and on the way back, my friend who was treating me felt extremely embarrassed having taken me to what she proclaimed was one of the worst restaurant experiences in her life. On e-mailing the manager with a complaint, after one e-mail, she has also not bothered to reply back, which shows that on principle, this is not a restaurant worth visiting.

Yesterday I had a lunch with my friend in Novikov Italian restaurant. The atmosphere is nice and we were greeted by friendly members of staff. We had nice starter, we enjoyed it. The taste was good and service was quick. For the main I ordered lamb cutlets. Lamb is my favorite meat I eat it quit often. So when they delivered it I felt strange smell coming from meat, but thought may be its source or the way they cook. The moment I had a peace in the mouth it became obvious that the lamb was off. It was not about that it cooked not nice the lamb was just OFF. I sent it back to the kitchen and ordered fish instead. What surprised me the most that after servicing the food that could cause the food poison not any single member of staff said even sorry, not offering anything complimentary or just asking how they can apologize. It was not about not to pay the bill or to get anything for free but to have nice customer service. I am very disappointing, will not go there any more. It is big shame as in Moscow this restaurant is very popular and service is immaculate there. Mr Novikov pays much attention to his place so very shame that staff in London branch is so poor

In hindsight would have gone with the set menu.

Novikov is indeed one of London's favourite destination restaurants due to its superb location, terrific buzz, wonderful service (attentive but not servile or pompous) and excellent cuisine. I dined in the Italian restaurant which is perhaps less celebrated than its Asian sister restaurant, but that will change as more customers experience the quality of the food and service here. It is very reassuring that the staff are largely Italian as there is definitely an “Italian” way of doing things and the traditions and nuances of Italy are maintained through the staff. The restaurant itself is quite large, but never cavernous or tunnel like, due to clever interior design which provides both a buzzy, exciting atmosphere, with intimacy in the various banquette and separate dining areas. The visibility of the chefs provides a true Italian trattoria look as well. We took lunch here and the set lunch menu provides an absolutely superb value for money experience with three courses available for £26.00! For London's West End that must be something of a challenge for most restaurants to provide. I began with a delicious salmon tartare which was succulent, moist and very flavoursome. My prima patti of homemade pasta with a ragu sauce was equally delicious. Home made pasta is always superb. My main dish was wonderful grilled mackerel in a Sicilian sauce, with fresh fagioli bianci and a puree of potato. The whole meal was faultless and I was incredulous that a restaurant in Mayfair could offer such a super lunch so competitively and without cutting any corners. Our lunch was accompanied by a fantastic bottle of Lucente 2010, an award winning Super Tuscan wine from the celebrated Luce Estate in Montalcino. This is the introductory wine of this estate but its depth, balance and concentration is more reminiscent of many estates' flagships. The staff were all superb, from the ladies at the reception desk whose elegant and sophisticated beauty sets the tone of this restaurant, to the knowledgeable and helpful but never overbearing or superior waiting staff and sommeliers. All in all an excellent lunch experience and one which I hope to repeat soon!

Me and my friends decided to go to Novikov Italian restaurant for a meal we had a starter which was fantastic then we had t/bone steak which was dreadful extremely tough and no taste, my friend had veal she also did not enjoy it as had exactly the same problem as the T/bone so we could not eat it so we asked one of the waiters to call us the Head chef after about 10 minutes the waiter returns to our table saying that the head chef is extremely busy and could not attend our table but the funny thing was that he was standing looking at us which made us extremely frustrated so we said to the waiter to call us another chef because this is extremely disgusting and unprofessional as we have been to Novikov many months ago and I can guaranty you that the food quality i.e. meat has drastically changed, so the waiter brought another chef to our table, he was very polite, extremely helpful, and knows how to smile unlike the other one, getting back to the point he really tried to provide us with another dish which we then decided to change, so we had fillet of beef which I can definitely say it was delicious. I think that the head chef should try to learn how to SMILE and deal with customers even under pressure, because if he carries on working for Novikov it will definitely affect other customers, customers go to eat at such a wonderful place like Novikov to have a pleasant meal and enjoy the atmosphere.