Excellent food – terrible service

My wife and I had decided to visit this Strada for pre-show dinner prior to going to the Royal Albert Hall. In terms of location this worked perfectly as it was less than a fifteen minute walk from door to door.

We arrived on time for our 6pm reservation, booked via this site. Unfortunately, despite arriving with printed reservation confirmation in hand, the restaurant had no record of the booking. It was not an issue on the night as the restaurant was half empty but it does not give you confidence that the online booking service will work in future.

Once past this hiccup things started to look up. Menus arrived swiftly and our drinks order was taken. Drinks duly arrived and we ordered the food immediately. The starters (Antipasto Misto and Pomodoro e Pesto – excuse the dodgy Italian!) arrived swiftly and were excellent. Substantial and tasty. Unfortunately this was when things started to go downhill.

It appeared that the serving person responsible for our table had changed in the meantime. Our starters remained on our table for at least 25 minutes after we had finished them with no acknowledgment from the serving staff. Eventually I stopped a passing waiter to enquire as to where our main courses were. He went off to investigate, a miserable looking girl cleared our plates, and we waited. No apology was given.

The main courses arrived about 5 minutes later – a Parma ham pizza and vegetable risotto. Both were piping hot and of a good size and quality – fresh and tasty.

When we had finished I asked for the bill and the restaurant had already added a 12.5% service charge. I thought this was appalling. We would have given a small tip (proportionate to the level of service) but as they had added it automatically and as it was such a large tip (we were only two people having starters and main course) I asked for it to be removed. Rather than discreetly doing so the waiter concerned (another different one!) completed the transaction on his… More