Spicy Spicy
Portobello Garden

Portobello Garden

269B Portobello Road, London, W111LR, W11 1LL, United Kingdom

Cafés • Pasta • Pizza • Italian


"Out and about on a lunchtime constitutional along Portobello Road last week something interesting caught my eye. Set back from the road, hiding behind vintage clothes in the arcade, was an alluringly attractive Italian restaurant. On my own, without reading material and in a hurry to get back to work, I had no intention of sitting down to eat but I was compelled to go in and investigate. I glanced at the menu and clientele, was charmed by the decor of hanging dried meat and flowers, and decided I would return imminently.<br/ <br/ Thankfully an opportunity arose this week. I had taken it upon myself to arrange a lunch for myself and nine colleagues, and presented them with an option of four restaurants (secretly hoping that democracy would work in my favour). At first, take-up was slow as the more adventurous-sounding alternatives were far more popular, but risk aversion gradually set in and the simple Italian became the winner; a culinary hare and tortoise situation, if you will.<br/ <br/ “What if they don’t cater for big groups? What if it’s awful and I’m forever ridiculed for my restaurant choice?” Such questions were running through my mind, distracting me from my morning tasks.<br/ <br/ An amiable Italian gentleman saw the first sub-group and exclaimed “group of ten, this way please!” so we followed orders and went inside to our long table, immediately looking above us at the conservatory style ceiling and feeling as though we had walked into a Tuscan summer.<br/ <br/ Our charismatic waitress brought over an alternative to a complementary bread basket; a plate of amuse-bouche sized pieces of courgette frittata served on a forest of rocket. I was very impressed by this. They have foreseen that I’m going to be ravenous, having not eaten since my 11:00 AM apple; that I may not wish to bloat up on bread; that I enjoy being surprised, which I most certainly was. I had only been there ten short minutes and these people already knew how to please me more than some people who have known me for decades. If that isn’t customer service, I really don’t know what is. <br/ <br/ The menu is slightly unusual in that there isn’t the usual long list of pizzas and pastas to choose from, instead there were a couple of al forno dishes (baked in the oven), several paninis (with pizza bread), and a list of specials, a few of which were mains. I took from this that a decision had been made to offer a limited number of dishes, but to do them well.<br/ <br/ I had top-notch, considerably portioned gnocchi with bolognese sauce for £11.50, served whilst the tomato sauce was still bubbling from the oven, with fresh basil scattered on top.<br/ <br/ To make the experience even more superior, they should consider investing in a second credit card machine to take two payments simultaneously since this was a bit slow.<br/ <br/ I was really fond of this restaurant and highly recommend it. Now I just need to think up another reason to go back next week.."

Zizzi

Zizzi

57 High Street, Winchester, SO239BL, SO23 9BZ, United Kingdom

Pizza • Cafés • Seafood • Italian


"Poor service, slow and careless. We went there for dinner whilst visiting the Christmas markets. As we walked in we were seated quick which was nice, but then seemingly forgotten about as we never saw that particular waiter again and didn’t get the chance to order a drink with him. 15 minutes went by and someone finally came over and asked if we’re ready to order food and we asked to order a drink first. We ordered our drinks and then waited another 15 minutes for them to arrive, in the meantime the waiter came back to take our food order. When the drinks arrived they were fine but they took way too long to arrive, and my beer glass was dirty but I just drank out the bottle. The starters arrived and mine was very nice, great food, except my partner was given the wrong starter instead of what she ordered. They corrected it but she only got to start eating when I’d finished my starter, or it would have gone cold. They seemed to forget about us again, never once came over to ask if everything was okay, and never gave us any cutlery either so we had to go find some ourselves from another table. It’s at that point you start to realise the service is slow and not good, and it’s not going to be a good experience. After we had both finished, no waiter came over to us to clear our table, ask how it was etc, nothing. Around 15 minutes after that our mains arrive still with dirty plates on our table, so they had to awkwardly put our food down and pick up the plates. Then even the table next to us spoke to us and said how they had been waiting ages for their food, and it was just such slow service since they’d arrived. They weren’t having a good time either. The mains were great, good food and tasty which was a relief to know that at least the chefs cared about their jobs as the waiters didn’t. Again not one person came back to check if our meal was okay or we needed anything. We were never again offered any more drinks apart from the start where we asked to order them. You couldn’t feel less welcome if you tried. 20 minutes had gone by and no one had cleared our plates still, it was just awful and so slow. It got to a point where I was trying to wave to the waiters to come over and that failed so I had to go up to one and ask them to clear our table and if we can have our desserts yet. Then she came over and took our plates away (after we literally had to ask her). Again didn’t ask at all how the food was, or if we needed any other drinks, despite our glasses being empty. Our desserts came and they were nice again, except my partners had a hair in it. So that was ruined. The whole experience which could have been lovely was just made awful by slow service and waiters/waitresses who don’t care about their jobs or customers and make no effort for the most simple customer service skills. The table next to us then were trying to pay their bill and found they had 2 extra random drinks on their bill which they hadn’t ordered and it seemed difficult for them to explain to the staff they they didn’t order those drinks and didn’t want to pay for them. Again, no one bothered to come over and ask how our desserts were, if everything was okay, if we would like a drink etc, you can just tell they couldn’t care less about you and were more interested in chatting to each other. Trying to get their attention was impossible. We sat there for 15 minutes after finishing our desserts with no attention or service from them, and so we just wanted to pay and leave. But again it was impossible to get the attention of the waitresses. So we started putting on our coats and getting ready etc to give them a hint, and then finally a girl came over and just said ‘have you paid yet?’ With not a care in the world that we STILL had dirty plates on the table not cleared etc. we quickly paid, said no to adding a tip which they clearly didn’t deserve, and left. It just puts a bad taste in your mouth. We picked Zizzi as we like it where we live, yet we’re completely let down by the staff who couldn’t care less about customers or serving and have no customer service skills whatsoever, and can’t be bothered to do the bare minimum to make people feel welcome and make them enjoy their time. An evening which was supposed to be so nice was just ruined by going to this restaurant, and had I seen the other reviews before hand I never would have gone to. Such a shame, just disappointing and won’t ever be going back or recommending."