Trio Of Dips
Aqua Grill

Aqua Grill

33-35 South End, Croydon CR0 1BE, United Kingdom, FSA Food H, London

Greek • Steak • Pasta • Italian


"Bad food. Loooong wait both for drinks and food. Waiter (owner I was told) got 2 meals wrong. Brought calamari fritti for my husband and I which he never ordered in his life and I can 't stand them as they are like rubber in the UK so would never have ordered that. Waiter insisted I did, not once but 3x! My husband actually asked for whitebait! My husband ordered calf 's liver as a main which is soft and succulent in France, Germany and Greec etc. It was thin and like shoe leather. It is supposed to go into a hot pan, then turned over after a few seconds and taken out of pan served. This is what it should be like "A classic of British cooking, Calf 's Liver is succulently tender and fine grained with a deliciously mild, sweet flavour. More and more people are discovering the delicious flavour of Calf 's Liver due to its place on the menus.« I took it home to give to the dog and foxes!! My friend next to me (we were 13) ordered meatballs which were so salty she couldn 't eat them. Another lady didn 't like how the fish was done. It was mediocre. MY mussels had anorexia. I have photos. They were non existent or if there was one in the shell, it didn 't measure more than 5mm. 20 were empty and the sauce was not nice. Obvs they were not fresh mussels, they were cooked already and just heated up. Lots and lots of small broken shells in the sauce. Must have been the last dregs. Just as well I didn 't swallow one of the shards. Will I go back? No, I 'll go to a real Italian restaurant next time. Bragging about an Italian chef! He needs to go on a cookery course IN ITALY! I lived, ate and cooked there. I know what Italian food is supposed to taste like!!!!! And sooo expensive."

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ASK Italian

Lower Ground, Festival Place, Basingstoke, RG217BB, RG21 7BB, United Kingdom

Pizza • Sushi • Mexican • Italian


"Came here for the first time ever with my boyfriend for our anniversary dinner and was so excited to try the carbonara as it looked so good on the picture on the online menu. When it came out it looked nothing like the picture, it was genuinely just boiled pasta with olive oil and cheese. It tasted watery, bland and oily with absolutely NO ham at all!! I told one of the waiters that I had ordered a carbonara and was presented with what seemed to be plain linguine to which he responded ‘just needs a bit more sauce’. They brought out my dish again and this time it had ham on it although it still looked nothing like advertised. I gave it the benefit of the doubt and gave it a taste and it tasted the exact same. Bland, oily boiled pasta. I genuinely lost my appetite after 3 bites and felt scammed that this dish was £14 so I tried to call over a waiter and this is when the TERRIBLE customer service kicked in. I understand that the restaurant was busy but I was sat there for about 20 minutes with my hand up and said excuse me to every waiter that walked by just to get ignored. It was honestly humiliating. I finally got the attention of a waiter who didn’t come over and instead told me to wait and he’d be over in a minute but after 10 minutes of waiting he still didn’t come over and in the mean time we were STILL trying to speak to a waiter. Meanwhile I heard a man behind us, complaining about cold pasta and I went to ask him if he had complained, and he said that he did and they managed to take it off the bill. Finally a waiter came and I told him about the disgrace of a carbonara that was served to me and I asked for it to be taken off the bill to which he apologised and agreed to do. Then we just sat around waiting 30 minutes for anyone to come back and give us the bill. I was so upset and frustrated I was trying to hold back tears as I was REALLY looking forward to eating here for our date (I was so hungry too lol). Then it got even worse… the waiter had just gone to get us a bill to which another waiter came up to us and asked us if we wanted the bill. I told her it was already getting taken care of but then she came back with the bill full price without taking off the price of the carbonara. I told her we were meant to have the carbonara taken off the bill to which she crumpled the receipt in my boyfriend’s face, scoffed and walked off. We then had about 4 waiters crowded around us over this issue which was really overwhelming and embarrassing. The waiter came back with a new ‘upgraded’ bill to which she said the manager had given us a ‘manager discount’ of £7 off, I was appalled as we had been told that the carbonara would be completely taken off the bill as I didn’t even eat it and not some measly £7 discount. After arguing with her, she told me that I had to speak to the manager if I wanted it changed so I demanded to speak to the manager but never got to, it’s whatever because the waiter finally came back with the THIRD bill which took off the carbonara. All that hassle just to leave with an empty stomach. It was honestly the worst restaurant experience of my life, I cried as soon as I got home because it was so frustrating and humiliating. This is my first time writing a review on anything but the food the customer service was so bad that I felt compelled to write this review. Do yourself a favour and never visit this restaurant. It needs a lot of work. I also have pictures of my bland pasta and all the receipts. I understand that maybe they are a troubled restaurant and low on staff but the bland food is definitely not worth the extortionate price. The customer service was terrible as well and usually I’m quite compassionate towards waiters as I know it’s a rough job, but they didn’t even come to check on us once. We practically had to beg to be heard out. As a restaurant please do better, I sincerely don’t want anyone else having this bad of an experience."

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ASK Italian

121-125 Park Street, London, W1K7JA, SW7 4, United Kingdom

Pizza • Italian • Chicken • Mediterranean


"Ummmm...YUM! Plus good service. 5 stars in my book. We were in search of something good to eat after a long day of walking and sight seeing in London. Baker Street was off the tube line on the way back to the hotel so we decided to stop here. We wandered around for a bit when a local sneezed on me and apologized. He asked if we were lost. We said no, just looking for somewhere good to eat that was kid friendly since we had my 16 month and 3 year old nieces with me. He pointed us down the street and said there was a few down that way. The first one we came across was ASK. There was also a sign outside that said Father 's Eat Free on Father 's Day! it was Father 's Day and my brother is all about free stuff so we went in. We were greeted warmly immediately and allowed to pick a table. We sat right in the front away from the other patrons because we know how the girls can get late at night especially when they are tired and hungry. The server brought over very cool jumbo wooden crayons for the girls to play with and also gave them some paper to color a Father 's Day message for my brother. Very cute. They offered to order us bread and we knew that it wasn 't free because we had a moment to see on the menu that there was a charge for it. We were STARVING so we went ahead and got some. I 'm so glad that we did. It was DELICIOUS. My 3 year old niece who is a very picky eater wanted more and more. She could have easily ate a whole order by herself. For our meals we decided to share a pizza and pasta dish amongst the three adults. We ordered the Caprina Primo Pizza and the Rigatoni di Manzo Piccante pasta dish. They both were EXCELLENT. The toppings on the pizza perfectly complimented each other and the pasta was probably one of the best I have ever consumed...and I have consumed a lot of pasta. We were definitely very pleased with our selections. Service was great until the end. Our server even helped us get the massive double stroller out the front door for us. We were definitely very pleased with our experience at ASK."

Gables

Gables

14-16 Newgate Street Village Hertford, Hertfordshire SG13 8RA, United Kingdom

Steak • Pasta • Italian • Seafood


"Firstly, I am somewhat amazed at the reviews theis venue has based on our visit on Saturday evening. We arrived 45 minutes early for our table for 4 persons at 7.30pm as I had called ahead at lunchtime asking if they had a bar area that we could sit and select from the menu in advance of being seated in the restaurant. I was given the impression that they had a lavish area for this purpose. However, this was not the case and we were shown to our table on arrival which was probably the worst location in the restaurant that was sparse of diners at that time. I will elaborate on our table location as it made for a negative night. It was a circular table placed in a “gap” between the original restaurant area and what appeared to be an extension to the restaurant. This gap did have curtains that could have been closed which would have curtailed guests and staff squeezing between the wall and one of our chairs but when asked the Owner said he would not close them……. In fairness, “Theo” the Owner did offer the choice another two alternative tables but both were in no better location! We sat and ordered drinks and were provided with menus. The drinks arrived in a timely fashion and were made fine. I also ordered some wine which was decanted and allowed time to breath before being served. The wine was an Amorone but the year did not warrant the price he was charging but nonetheless was quite good. We placed our food order and in doing so I asked if chef would add a simple fried egg to top the steak I had ordered. I was told by Theo that he was down a number of staff on the evening shift and could not provide the egg. How many people would we have needed to fry an egg???? To be honest the whole experience was not worth almost £500.00 even though the food fine. We also found it disturbing the way Theo tried to control the waiting staff this may have been because they were young or new to the role but we felt that the staff did a good job and didn’t need micro managing! I am always curious when a front of house individual, who gives the impression he is in total control, loses the plot mid service. I did tell Theo I would give a poor review and he pretty much dismissed me so I dug a little deeper and it would appear the restaurant has suffered financial issues in the very recent past…….. this information is in the public domaine through Google. All in all we were so disappointed with a venue that appears to have a wealth of happy diners from their reviews……. It’s NOT that good Guys!!!"

Zayane

Zayane

91 Golborne Rd, London, W105NL, United Kingdom

Vegan • Moroccan • Vegetarian • Mediterranean


"I was here for an event, but the food was so good and the owners so friendly that I'll definitely be going back again some time soon. I arrived almost half an hour early, but I received a warm welcome from the lovely owner Meryem She is such a bundle of infectious and contagious energy enthusiasm! Glasses of lovely Moroccan wine were quickly handed out and our tables were already set with olives, nuts and a olive oil balsamic dip. We stood around chatting until more people turned up and we took our seats. Piping hot bread was soon served at the tables I've lived in the Middle East and North Africa, but I've never tasted this kind of a bread before. It was a combination of eish, griddle cakes and a sponge cake all in one. Actually it defies explanation, except for the fact that it was yummilicious. Our starters of chicken pastilla soon arrived and it had just the right hint of sweetness. I don't like my savoury dishes too sweet, which is a trap easy to fall into with Moroccan style pastilla. The cod tagine was a surprise as I was expecting couscous with it, (also I tend to cook/order meat or chicken tagines) instead we were served a side of butter fried potatoes which were the best potatoes that I have eaten in a couple of years. The meal was brought to a lovely end with a chocolate mousse slice served with a side of orange sorbet. I could happily live or die on that chocolate. There was live music playing through the meal and Meryem managed to get quite a few of our group onto the dance floor. The Chef Christopher Bower came out to say hi and it was a pleasure to meet him. I'd love to go back with more friends to check out more options from the menu."