Marco Polo on The River

Have visited Marco Polo a few times. It is a nice venue on a hot and sunny weekend lunchtime, being close to the river with a nice view. The restaurant has quite a large outside terrace but the tables are quite closely packed together. Food is decidedly average. Plain and simple, with no flair or style – its good enough, not poor but always a slight disappointment. Wine list is nothing special. Prices are not overly expensive but do not represent value given the modest standard. What really lets the place down is the service. They simply don't employ enough staff to cover the number of diners that fit the terrace. Everything takes too long and it is very difficult to get any service or attention. I feel very sorry for the waiting staff. However, despite all the negatives that setting keeps drawing you back in the hope that things have improved.

Nice location and hit and miss service. Eastern European restaurant masquerading as Italian. You don't go there for the food…

On the last hot evening this Summer I descended to this lovely Italian on the river. I have walked past this many times but have been put off by the unnecessary pictures of the food on the glass walls, but thought I would give it a chance. To start I tucked in to a modest bruschetta followed by handmade seafood tagliatelle. Such simplicity shouldn’t be overlooked when it is done this well. The pasta was absolutely delightful, I savoured every bite. My boyfriend scoffed down his delectable speck spaghetti with truffle oil trying desperately to fend off my fork from stealing a bite. The evening was made more gratifying with the sunset beaming over the river and a tasty glass of house white wine in my hand. I felt like I was on holiday. A lot of the appeal is the huge terrace they offer. The interior is quite slick and trendy but it is run by old-skool Italians who understand traditional Italian food. I must admit the service could have been a little more attentive, we skipped dessert because we were waiting so long for them to take our order but they were courteous and friendly which I always value highly in a restaurant. Over all it was the perfect place to spend the last night of Summer.

I have just eaten lunch here. The setting is beautiful, you can't beat dining al fresco riverside on a beautiful sunny day. Food here has been hit and miss in the past but I am happy to report that we were all happy with the food, everything was pretty good. However the service is terrible. We waited to be seated, then we had to ask twice if we could order some drinks, then we had to ask for a waiter to order our food and then we had to ask for the bill twice. They forgot 2 things we ordered from the menu and we had to ask twice before they brought them over, by this time we had finished the rest of our meal. Not once were we asked whether everything was ok with the meal. Our waiter was the grumpiest man I have ever met, we tried chatting to him to raise a smile…but nothing. There were lots of staff wondering around but nobody seemed to take any notice of customers waiting, they were more interested in clearing tables to get more poor unwitting customers in the door. All in all the experience is too frustrating to give Marco Polo another chance. Such a shame.

I‘m a reguralar costumer in Marco Polo and I have to say I all ways enjoy the food, service and the restaurant it self, in the summer we can enjoy the al fresco dinning toguether with an amazing vew of the Thames. the food its all ways very good and exellent presentation. the staff is lovely and very freindly and exellent service. I just can't get enough of Marco Polo I highly recomend it!! P. Alexander Putney, London

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.