"My wife and I spent last week-end in London, we took in a show on the Tues evening, Les Mis (fantastic) and decided to go to the Cafe Pasta in Shaftsbury Avenue on the Friday night as we have many fond memories of using this restaurant when we both lived in London on our way home from work.We were shown to a table directly in front of the door so that everytime the door opened you were subject to a cold blast of wind and Friday night was cold, the restaurant was full so this was accepted. We ordered two starters, olives and warm bread with dipping oil, the wine arrived and with-in one minute so did the main courses we had ordered.WEexplained to the waitress that we had just that minute received the starters and would like time to eat them first, she took both plates away placed them on the counter and walked off. A male waiter then picked them up and returned them to our table, we explained again to him that we had just received our starters and wine and would like to have some time to enjoy them with our wine. The table is approx 27 inches square and with wine, glasses, and three plates with starters I was some what at a loss where they would have put them, he took the two main courses back to the kitchen and approx 15 minutes later one cleared away the starter plates and another reappeared with the mains. Both plates were stone cold as was the pasta 's, I informed the male waiter who placed his hand on the plate, agreed and took them both away, before he did I was confident of what was about to happen and using my fork spread some of the sauce on the lip of the plate. Sure enough the plates returned in 5 minutes and the smeared sauce was baked hard, a sign the plate had been in a micro-wave, my wife had had a pasta with fresh rocket this was now cooked, not wilted but cooked. Both pasta 's were hot in the centre but cold on the outside. We refused to accept them and asked for the bill, no apology was forth coming in fact the attitude of two of the staff was we were being problematic, during the whole of the time spent in the place we felt as if the aim was get them in and get them out, we need the table. We used to use this restaurant on average once a week some times twice, the service was good the food typical Italian pasta and you were allowed to enjoy your meal at your pace. I would add when we left this restaurant we went to the Soho Pizza on Beak Street, the service was excellent, the pizzas were HOT, freshly baked and tasty, we were left to enjoy the food and live jazz in peace. The next time we come to London for a week-end, Cafe Pasta is off the list and Soho Pizza on, it is such a shame as we have fond memories of good nights spent in there."
Tomato Salad
