Jamie's Italian Angel

The answer to “where shall we eat tonight?” is so often Jamie's in Angel that we should really have our own sponsored

I popped here to grab a bite before going to Sadler's Wells and maybe I shouldn't have bothered. It was a Tuesday night, the staff place guests in the same areas (for convenience ?) so the atmophere was quite dark and buzzing (whilst other parts of the restaurant were very empty). We ordered bar snacks and they were a little boring. The risotto balls were a tad dry and not lush nor cheesy (the way I like them), the quid was fine and a bit soggy (which I guess doesn't make them fine) and our polenta chips were rubbery. I was expecting a bit better.

When we arrived, there were several empty tables but we were told we had to wait for 20 mins at the bar that had some very average drinks. We eventually waited for over 30 mins. There were still several empty tables when we were shown to ours, yet people waiting at the bar – a cynic might think they were trying to get people to spend money at the bar. The loud music and general noise levels made this unpleasant anyway, but then the food came. Starters of fried squid and mushroom were very average and my fish arrived covered in a terrible pesto & garlic-sauce – it was not edible and that taste of garlic will stay with me for a long time… Two in our party of three could not eat more than a few bites of our food but the waiter showed no sympathy and offered no apology. I guess he is used to these reactions. There are several better Italian restaurants a few minutes walk away on Upper Street where you are treated with respect, can reserve a table and eat very well at very decent prices (e.g. Antonio's) – don't believe the hype that comes with this place. Stay well clear.

What a disappointment, but more fool me for trusting a brand over a restaurant's actual reputation.  The menu got my mouth watering – trevise and gorgonzola salad with the sweetest, stickiest balsamic, anyone? – but it really didn't live up to expectations. Compared with this, for Italian food, I've actually fared much better at Zizzis and Strada. So, onto the food. I can't really criticise the shared antipasti board – they clearly haven't skipped on the quality of ingredients. Buffalo mozzarella was creamy and sweet, San Daniele proscuitto and fennel salami were all absolutely delicious, if a little skimpy in terms of portion size. The mains were dribblingly average. My companion had the wild ragu pasta pipe – the sauce was described as having “slow cooked seasonal game, Barbera wine, tomatoes” but sadly had suffered after being dried up under the hot kitchen lights for about twenty minutes (I'll come onto the service shortly.) And my occobuco and creamy polenta was so heavily salted that even I, ever loath to waste food and extremely greedy to boot, didn't finish it. Service was negligent, with a side dish of disdain. We were asked by the snippy front of house girl to wait for (a totally arbitrary) ten minutes for a table as they were fully booked when we came in – I could see through the window that there were plenty of tables, and given a buzzer to hang onto as we got drinks at the bar. Once the buzzer went off – voila! we were ushered to our table. We waited for 30 minutes for our starter, and 45 for our main. Other diners were served at a similarly glacial pace – and when we asked a passing waiter for another round of drinks, she snapped “You're going to have to ask your own waiter!” Staff were young and attractive, friendly for the most part (our waiter was very sweet) but the dining hall is cavernous and I could see them desperately rushing around trying to get to all their tables. They need to invest more in training – and in actually hiring more – staff for a place that size. Atmosphere wise – fantastically cozy on a snowy evening, and jam packed (although why, exactly, is beyond me.)

I don't like writing bad reviews and I always try to be fair in my restaurant reviews so it is difficult for me to send this out but I think it is important simply because the service we received was beyond diabolical. Last Friday, I arranged a small Christmas dinner at Jamie's Italian in Angel/Islington. I've been to the Covent Garden branch before and wasn't that blown away by it but you can never fairly judge a restaurant based on one visit. Our party was a small 12 top at 3pm in the afternoon. We decided to have an early ‘dinner’ so we can relax and enjoy the night. Let's start with the positives: Atmosphere: I do like this about Jamie's. It was warm and cozy. The restaurant was very big and the decor was very eye catching and atmospheric. The Christmas tree at the entrance really added some festive flare. 8/10 Food: We had the Christmas party menu. The antipastis were not bad. The waiter accidentally dropped a bowl of food on our side but he was very apologetic and brought back another portion as soon as he could. The flavors were balanced, the presentation is satisfying, no complaints there. Most of us had the Porchetta which was beautifully slow roasted and the taste was great. My colleagues who had the chicken and the vegetarian option were all impressed as well. The only thing that let down the food part is the dessert. I can't judge the others but I had the Amaretto chocolate pudding. Mine came..UNCOOKED. I mean, the chef literally plopped the cold pudding onto a place, scooped some ice cream and served it to me. I was pretty sure the pudding was suppose to be warm…anyway, told the waiter, he was apologetic, brought me another one. It was just okay. 7/10 overall Now the bad parts: The hostess. Someone needs to teach that girl the proper way to be a hostess. A hostess is the first person you see when you walk in. She was a. not friendly. b. not smiling and c. down right rude. I arrived a bit early, about 5 minutes early because I wanted to set up the table with some Christmas trinkets. She told me the tables were not ready. Not a single tone of apologies, just 'please take a seat *over there* (pointing at the bar) and we'll let you know when it's ready. She did not let me know, I had to ask again to another hostess who said, oh yes, your table is ready, let me take you. When she took me to our section, the server was still finishing setting up, which was fine. What wasn't fine was when the first rude hostess girl came up and said, ‘you have two hours and 15 minutes to dine. Thanks.’ then walked off! I stopped her and said, um…excuse me? It's a 3pm reservation. I looked around, the restaurant was not even half full. She then looked at me and said, 'you've signed the terms and conditions. Thanks.' I'm sorry but has this girl had too much botox or she just has no ability to smile? She walked off again then came back to me waving the terms and conditions in my face. Fine, even if we only have 2 hours and 15 minutes to dine, I'd expected her to be a. professional and b. not act like a reservation tyrant. I've been a hostess, I've been a server, I've been a restaurant manager, never have I ever come across someone so crash and rude. If this is who you want as the first person to represent your restaurant, there is something seriously wrong. I wish I could say the rest of the services were flawless but I can't. Half of the time we couldn't find our server. Random people coming over taking our drink orders that took forever to turn up. An extra bottle of Prosecco appeared on our table and when I asked the table who ordered it, no one said yes. When I asked the waiter who ordered it, he said, 'I don't know, someone just told me to bring it over.' Disorganized much? When the food slowly arrived, you had one poor food runner who obviously was not supplied with a tray because he was bringing the food one 2 plates at a time. By the time we all got the food and the sides, some of our food were cold from waiting for the others to arrive. Then of course, lastly, the uncooked dessert mentioned above. The final icing on the cake: Dessert took ages to arrive and I had to wait for my replacement dessert. We were then told, ‘you have ten minutes .’ I can understand it if we were just hanging out on the table not drinking, not eating, not doing much but we have just received our dessert no more than 8 – 10 minutes ago and we weren't even given a chance to enjoy it. We weren't even offer coffee or aperatifs. On average it took 10 – 15 minutes for an order of beer to arrive. Took another good 30 – 45 minutes for the main to arrive then we were given a measly 8 – 10 minute to finish our desserts and pack up and leave. Yes, we were given the option to sit at the bar and ‘continue to enjoying our drinks’ but by then, I think everyone was so defeated by the lack of service, we just wanted to leave. We were also told they will send some mince pies to the bar which they did, after I ask another waiter after 20 minutes of waiting in the bar, what's happened with the mince pies. Overall experience: 5/10 I think if I wasn't so annoyed with the hostess' rudeness from the very beginning, I probably would've been more forgiven. Bless our waiter who tried his best but it just looked like his station was bombarded and he had no help. They need to seriously consider retraining their staff or hire more competent ones.

It is, of course, a restaurant for the masses. Which means noisy, and annoyingly the waiters grazed my back a few times due to the tables being set so tightly to push everybody into it and then some. That said, the food is tasty, wines are good, and prizes are affordable. Unfortunately, ‘mass quality’ as a concept does not quite work out. In the end, they bullied us out there, telling us the next people had already arrived for our table, when we in fact had come 10 minutes early and we hadn't even gotten our last course. This is ridiculous, and we will not go there again.

the food was good but the service poor. this was the second visit of the week and service was poor both times. seemed a lack of managerial oversight.

I feel they might be rolling these out too fast, but I do think it's a good edition to Mr Oliver's burgeoning empire. The food is very good, the staff are excellent, and they are generally nice spaces to spend some time in with their multi-roomed diner/warehouse feel. I like the spaciousness, but this one might be too spacious at the moment, as it was only half-full at lunch-time when I was in. I had a fish stew which was fantastic, and my friend had the burger, which was enormous – definitely got his money's worth. Well worth going to if you haven't been.

The Brand has landed in Islington, though none of the staff had, at week two, clapped eyes on The Brand himself though they did reveal that Jamie Oliver's muse on all things Italian, Gennaro Cantaldo, had drilled the waiters – and he'd clearly done a splendid job as they're were enthusiastic, knowledgeable and just the right side of over-attentive. The space, occupying a substantial chunk of the ground floor of the newly opened Angel Centre, is pretty sizeable, and in the hours of daylight is a blend of urban chic with a few nods in the direction of old-style Italy (concrete pillars clad in terracotta tiles), and fairly functional tables and chairs. ‘In the hours of daylight’ is an important caveat because after dark the place is lit by what feels like 40 Watt bulbs – never has the torch facility of an iPhone been more useful, as reading the menu in the crepuscular gloom was a non-starter. The menu is a good blend of antipasti ‘boards’ (a plank of wood sat on top of a couple of tins of Italian tomatoes), pasta (with a twist) and Italianate mains. The antipasti boards are fine – nicely sourced hams and salamis with a good mix of vegetarian accompaniments (a crunchy salad of root vegetables spiked with mint and chilli), thin slivers of peccorino with a blob of chilli jam on a piece of wafer-thin, unleavened bread, a good ball of mozzarella and various pickled things like caper-berries and some pretty classy olives. The mains were less appealing – a fiddled around carbonara added leek to the mix and served it on bucatini which – IMHO – moves the pasta rather more centre-stage than is required. The fish in a bag (en papillotte in tinfoil) used coley which (if it doesn't conjure up memories of feeding the cat) is not overly flavourful, though it comes with a reasonable assortment of seafood. A brochette of lamb advertised a veritable symphony of sheepy innards though there seemed to be quite a lot of padding (two cubic lumps of what looked and tasted like bread and polenta – in the gloaming it was rather hard to tell): the actual meat was a decent lump of leg, a piece of heart (possibly) and a chunk of liver. The rather insipid accompanying potato salad was NOT what it called for (a few sautéed potatoes with rosemary would have been a much better companion). And the high-point of the fish stew was a very flavoursome slice of sour-dough slavvered with rouille. (Mains are priced in the mid-?-teens – quite high for a restaurant which is trying to occupying the middle-ground.) A lunchtime visit two days later was an improvement – though they'd sold out of squid, they offered a nicely crisped bowl of mushrooms with garlic mayonnaise, a decent bolognaise and a slightly watery though tasty prawn and tomato linguine. Puddings were OK, if not overly generous, and the wine list is short but effective. I get the feeling that this is a restaurant that has set itself a quality target and it is going to work hard to achieve it. (Maybe The Brand will descend and inspect the troops when all is running smoothly.) Islington needed a decent mid-range eatery near the Angel intersection and, for people en route to Sadler's Wells, it'll be a much-appreciated stop-off. Aim for about £35 per head with a large glass of wine, though a cocktail (they do a pretty good Negroni) would set things up nicely.