Spaghetti Vongole Spaghetti Vongole
Essenza

Essenza

210 Kensington Park Road Notting Hill Gate London, W11 1NR, 03710, United Kingdom

Pasta • Pizza • Italian • Seafood


"The cook should hang his hat up and move on. Everything was frozen not fresh, garlic prawns were smelly and the chef must have known this as he tried to disguise the smell by smothering paprika all over it! Gambas al ajillo is one of my fav dishes and I order it a lot, never seen it served like this before so it leads me to believe he was covering up the bad smell. We didn’t eat the dish and the barely awake waiter didn’t bother to ask why we didn’t eat it, just took it away. Calamari al andaluz was dry, rubbery 100% pre fried then frozen then refried. Horrible. We told sleepy, (our waiter) that we would be sharing the starters and he smiled and said ok, like I was asking for his permission, no side plates, nothing. We were all eating out of the plates in the center of the table. The mains spaghetti bolognese (bolognese from a tin tastes better! Pasta dry crunchy in places, the pizza hard as a rock with no authenticity at all but worst of all was the mustard chicken!!! Vomit worthy!!! Chucks of re heated chicken, some pieces cooked but still cold in the middle smothered in this onion mustard concoction that looked like slimy mucus! Absolutely inedible, we did not touch it. Of course the servers just took it away without even asking as if they knew if they asked it was going to be bad. Taking advantage of unsuspecting tourists like this is just not on. Absolutely rubbish,"

San Carlo

San Carlo

4 Temple Street, B2 5BN, Birmingham, United Kingdom

Pasta • Steak • Pizza • Italian


"This was the same night that we transferred over to the San Carlo restaurant after a bad experience at the sister restaurant next door at Fumo (see other review) We were greeted professionally and taken to a table, sat next to the kitchen. Unfortunately, this restaurant had the same view as Fumo of quantity versus customer experience. All the tables were so tightly positioned that even the staff couldn’t walk between them to serve the customers. The waiter who took our drinks order, was very friendly and provided good advice on wines . The waitress who took our food order was very friendly accommodating. We started the meal with calamari and bruschetta. Both were delicious. Unfortunately, the main courses ruined our entire experience. My husband ordered the surf and turf style lobster and steak combo what a treat for our special occasion. What a shame more like! The steak was overcooked for his request of medium and the lobster was cold. When we advised the waitress, she came and took the lobster off his plate, leaving him with the steak. Five minutes later, returned with the same piece of lobster that had she told us had “been put under the grill for five minutes” to heat it up. This meant that the lobster was completely dried out and inedible. I ordered the gnocchi with beef Ragu. Because the plates had not been warmed, my dish was cold around the outside and a warm in the middle. It also only contained 10 pieces of gnocchi, and that is it. We were asked if we wanted anything else to eat, but we declined as we had theatre tickets and were aware that all the staff were now talking about us. When presented with the bill, both of the dishes were on there, but they had taken off the service charge . I had advised that we should not be paying for the lobster and steak or the gnocchi, as neither dish had met expectation or was edible. The female supervisor got very defensive with me and basically told me, that I would be paying for it at which point, I asked to speak to the General Manager. He was more understanding and removed the 2 dishes from the bill. Unfortunately, we had a gift voucher so now we have a credit to reuse at another one of their chain restaurants. After trying 2 in one night , we are reluctant to try another one again."

Spaghetti Tree Warlingham

Spaghetti Tree Warlingham

633 Limpsfield Rd, Warlingham, United Kingdom

Cafés • Sushi • Asiatic • European


"My partner and I visited Spaghetti Tree with another couple, and we were seated by the window without a reservation. We ordered some beers and waited for our friends to arrive. After about 15 minutes, they came and ordered a bottle of red wine, along with some olives and a bread basket. We started enjoying our drinks and food when, unexpectedly, a staff member approached my partner and asked her to remove her baseball cap. Confused, my partner questioned why we were only being informed of this now, especially since no one mentioned it when we entered. Had we known, we would have opted to go to the pub next door instead. It felt unfair, especially since we had communicated that we were a group of four and were seated in a prominent spot. Reluctantly, my partner removed her cap, feeling uncomfortable for the rest of the evening because she hadn’t styled her hair as she would have preferred. The staff then offered us the option to either move to a less desirable table at the back of the restaurant, where no other patrons were seated, or stay at the window if she removed her hat. It was disappointing to see that there were only three tables occupied in the entire restaurant. Unfortunately, the food didn’t meet our expectations either. Given this experience, it's unlikely that we will return. We've dined here before, but after this visit, we certainly won’t be coming back."