Pizza Carbonara Pizza Carbonara
MACARONI

MACARONI

24 Darkes Lane Potters BarEN6 2HW, London, United Kingdom

Pizza • Vegan • Italian • Vegetarian


"Maaroni is my local as it is less than a 5-minute walk from me. Not only have I eaten here a countless number of times since it opened, I also get takeaways from here often. Unfortunately, this was the first time I had ever been left feeling very disappointed. To begin with, I was given a bottle of sparkling water with no glass, let alone lemon/ice/straw. Had to ask for a glass I was not going to drink out of a big bottle. It was difficult to explain things to our waitress, especially as we wanted to remove some pizza toppings and add on others; I had to show her the menu with toppings written down so that she could catch the spellings. Moreover, I requested for cacio e pepe, and the waitress confirmed that the chefs would be able to make anything off-menu. I had to explain what the dish was, and showed the waitress the list of ingredients for it. She went back and forth several times to the chef and I, and ultimately said that the kitchen did not have pecorino cheese. I said that that could be substituted for the next best thing, as long as the sauce was creamy, cheesy, buttery and peppery. When the dish arrived, it was a buttery spaghetti with a lump of cheese in the top. At this point, another waitress began to serve our table. Let her know that the cheese should be almost melted in; she took the dish back for it to be re-made which took a long time, by which point we had nearly finished our mains. After our mains we were told that we need to leave within 15 minutes, and we were not given dessert menus nor did we request the bill, it just arrived. I had brought my aunt and uncle to Macaroni for the first time and they were looking forward to dessert. It was highly embarrassing that this option was not even offered, and even more embarrassing that we were rushed off the table. There were 5 of us, 1hr 45mins is not enough time for a relaxed 3-course meal. If the restaurant is unable to honour a 3-course meal for 5 people, they should not confirm the booking."

Buon Appetito

Buon Appetito

8 West End, DL13 3AP, County Durham, United Kingdom

Pizza • Pasta • Steak • Italian


"Burn Appetito clearly has a captive audience in the village of Wolsingham as there is little competition in terms of eating establishments, so I was hoping to be impressed on my second visit as hadn’t been on my first visit. Once again totally disappointed. In most Italian establishments you receive a little bread, olive oil, just something, definitely not here. The wine range was incredibly limited so we chose a decent red, rather expensive. The starters took an age to arrive and I had ordered tomato and basil soup and it came with a 2 inch piece of toasted bread and was hugely disappointing. My partner ordered the special lobster ravioli starter and it was the weirdest tasting dish. The main course I hoped would be better…… my partner ordered fillet steak with prawns and at nearly £35 a dish hoping to be blown away. Imagine the surprise when it arrived with mediocre chips, not one vegetable or pice of garnish in sight and just the steak and 3 prawns! Wow, definitely not wow! I had cannelloni and can safely say it was the worst offering I’ve ever had in an Italian restaurant. It was swimming in what looked like tomato soup and the actual mince was grey. Needless to say I sent it back and ordered a pizza. The experience could be so much better and the shame is for an Italian they didn’t even have proper red wine glasses. We definitely won’t be back unless they have a radical rethink. Only saving Grace is the staff are lovely."

Enoteca Da Luca

Enoteca Da Luca

207c Old Street, London, EC1V9NR, EC1Y 1AX, United Kingdom

Meat • Steak • Cheese • Italian


"Attractive space and attentive service, but we might have gotten special attention because they noticed the Italian in our party. We attended the discounted soft launch. Food was good. Menu was ambitious but not everything was perfectly executed. Given that at full price our meal for four would have rang in over £200 (including 2 bottles of wine and service) I would normally expect every dish to be good. Though to be fair our bill was large due to the rather copious meal we had with quite a lot of shared starters. I don't think they are overpriced for the quality of food delivered. We started by ordering the Antipasto Misto, and a bread basket because the Italian at our table got excited by the fact that it contained pane carasau, a paper thin flatbread from Sardinia. The prosciutto and mortadella on the charcuterie board were memorable. Off the starters menu we had the pork fillet, prawns crudo, beef tartar and octopus. I didn't get to taste the pork. Prawn tartare was sliced into thin slivers and dressed with yuzu dressing. A nice dish, if a small portion. But I guess if you weren't sharing there is only so much raw prawn one wants to eat. Beef tartar could have been punchier for my taste, as there wasn't any caper or onion in this version. However, the sous vide egg yolk on top was a magnificent texture. Beef was a nice texture too, being hand chopped. Braised octopus was beautifully tender if an unattractive grey colour. The Italian refused to eat it because if its looks. The more for the rest of us. Overall, we found most of the starters a little under seasoned, but that's something that can be corrected to taste at the table. We each ordered a main. I had the smoked lamb rump medium rare which was good though a somewhat dainty portion. I didn't really discern the smokiness in the meat, but the charred slices of onion were a highlight. Another excellent component was the smoky BBQ celeriac garnish. The other orders for mains were the rabbbit ragout tagliatelle, the porcini paparadelle and the sea bass with clams. Everyone was happy with their choice. For dessert we all shared a single order of the blackberry doughnut. Very small portion with a spherical doughnut the same diameter of a £2 coin. it was unpleasantly tough and dense. There was ice cream on the plate, but the star of the dish were bits of meringue-like freeze dried shavings of yoghurt. There was a mix up regarding the soft launch discount on our bill that got corrected. We were offered a round of limoncellos on the house by way of apology. I thought that was a very gracious gesture. — with Sebastian Law and Claude Crommelin"