Salerno Pizza — Restaurant in City of Edinburgh

When it opened, Salerno was beyond compare in it's food quality. It's pizzas were the best in Edinburgh. This is no longer the case.

I write this with the hope that Salerno will read this and take the criticism on board.

Salerno used to proudly display San Marzano tomatoes in it's windows, it no longer does and has replaced them with a cheaper, and very noticeably inferior brand. The sauce, which used to be sublime, is now bitter and disappointing.

I am gluten-free (Coeliac) and was used to purchasing the bases there at a £1-2 markup vs the standard base. It is now £3. This is unacceptable and I have stopped going because of this. They are charging far too much for gluten-free bases. I understand that a markup may be needed to cover costs. Many places do not charge for gluten free bases and this would be preferable but their charge for one is by far the highest in Edinburgh as of June 2023. Cafe Maradonna on Elm Row (a stones throw away from St James) does not charge an additional price for it's gluten-free base and its pizza is considerably better than the one Salerno currently produces and it does so at £5 cheaper than Salerno charges for its gluten-free pizza.

They charge additional prices for oil. Oil is a given staple as a complimentary product on the table of any good Italian/Pizza restaurant. Salerno charges something around £2 for a small side of oil. My partner and I used to take our own to avoid being charged extra for something that should be a given.

The pricing structure they now use has raised the cost of a Pizza which used to be around £10 to now £13 and the quality has severely decreased as the price has increased.

I no longer eat here when I used to eat here multiple times in a week, to the point of the staff knowing my order at the door.

I say to Salerno: For a short time, you were the best Pizza place in Edinburgh, now you are one of the worst. You seriously need to reconsider your pricing for the gluten-free base and you should stop charging people for condiments such as oil at the table.

As a side-note: Your staff have, on several occasions, tried to add a service charge for take-away orders and have not stated that they have done so. I have had to have knowledge of your pricing in advance to know that the bill for a takeaway is too high and instruct them to remove it. This is outright robbery, you should not be doing that. Take-away orders include nothing but the absolute baseline of service. I do not believe this would be done without instruction from management level and I doubt that the service charge is reaching the waiters. I have also noticed that you have done this more often when my girlfriend (who is foreign) orders and less so when I (a local) does. It is quite clear why.

I have probably spent over £2000 at your restaurant (which is a lot given that your mains peak around £15). The criticism is very sincere. I would like to be able to eat here again, your food was unbelievably exceptional when you opened, unfortunately it is less than mediocre now. I have previously reviewed you at 5-stars, it is a shame how far you...

Food was fine, service was atrocious. The host waved at us from across the room to tell us which table to go to, and then left us to it, didn’t walk with us or even speak to us. We then sat at the wrong table, because for some reason we assumed that the table with 6 settings and not the one with 3 settings was the one he was waving our party of 4 in the general direction of. Of course he then made us get up and move, and told us the table we had sat at was reserved. He and a colleague then pulled it apart and made it up into two tables, before pushing back together into one table again (not sure how he knew it was reserved but clearly didn’t know how many people it was for).

The table were were left at was a hastily thrown together one wedged between the waiters’ station and emergency exit, and we were clearly in the way, because the staff were continually pushing past us, without so much as an “excuse me” or a “sorry” when they kicked my 4 year old daughter’s chair. The drinks arrived while I was taking my daughter to the bathrooms and when I came back the waiter had spilled water over my place setting and seat and just left it for me to clean up, apparently without even acknowledging it.

Later in the meal, my daughter had stood up from her seat and was standing between our table and the table next to us, and the staff kept pushing past her, once again without so much as an “excuse me”. After the host who had originally waved us unenthusiastically towards a table nearly took her head off with a high chair, I told him off and asked him to please go round the other side of the table next time, where there was plenty of room, rather than pushing past a small child while carrying a heavy piece of furniture.

Looking at other reviews here, it seems this place is well regarded, but this was such a bad experience we’ll definitely never be going back. The one saving grace was that they didn’t actually put the optional service charge onto the bill, because that saved me the hassle of asking to have...

It's all about the dough.... the neon sign proudly proclaims.

Dough not cooked through, nearly burnt on the bottom but raw on the top. It was a busy lunchtime but that suggests the oven wasn't up to temperature. Pizza by pizza.. tomato base tasteless and wet so don't be fooled by the trendy tomato tins they serve your cutlery in - there are tomatoes and there are GOOD tomatoes - mozzarella not even melted (see comment about hot oven) and fennel sausage didn't taste of fennel. Truffle pizza, pretty truffley to be fair but that was it, really mean on the mushrooms, cherry tomatoes weren't roasted so made it wet and the whole pizza was covered in what I can only describe as a hedge full of rocket!

Saw a number of pizzas being returned while we were there. Should have done the same.

Service was swift so don't blame the waiting staff.

PS We do run a small pizza business, make our own dough, sauce etc so we know our pizza. I'd say the dough would have been good if the oven was hot AND the tomato sauce wasn't as wet but they've tried to save money on the tomatoes and toppings. Those margins don't matter much to us but we're not renting a space in the St. James Quarter!

Just put...