La Lanterna West End — Restaurant in Great Britain

Following poor dinner on 28 June 2025, I sent the following email to the restaurant. I never got a reply.

"Good afternoon,

Would you please describe accurately the ingredients of POLLO ALLA VALDOSTANA. What I had was not chicken breast but what appeared to be a slab of reformed chicken. Darkish meat that I thought might have been batted out deboned leg, but it was too consistent texture across the piece for that. And it was definitely not a batted breast. The mozzarella was not cooked long enough under the grill as it was mostly still in its unmelted state underneath.

The wine is on your wine list as Rosato Puglia IGT, A Mano (12%). The bottle states it at 13.5%.

And for the BRUSCHETTA CLASSICA, is it correct that it is not on toasted crusty bread?

The meat in RIGATONI FILETTO CON SALSICCIA E FUNGHI was questionably not fillet.

Disappointing meal I’m afraid. When dishes are deliberately presented as they were there was no point in saying anything at the time.

However, the room and décor was lovely and the staff were pleasant, efficient and very well presented.

Look forward to your feedback...

We came for an early dinner not being very hungry so we shred meals. Fried calamari in the Frito Misti were so delicate and fresh. Usually they are quite rubbery but in this place it melted in my mouth.

Bruschetta classics with was on a sumptuous soft bread with sweet tomatoes and big enough for two. We had scallops for the main and again the dish was a very decent size and great taste.

White wine from Veneto region served a good accompaniment, fresh and zesty. Very well priced as well. We also ordered Bellini to start with, this famous Prosecco based aperitif is one of my favourite. It was good, although the price was different than what we saw on the website prior to our visit (same as prices for some other dishes, need to be updated).

One of our waiters was very smiley and chatty, the other dropped one calamari ring from the dish she delivered! She was shocked herself but didn’t offer a replacement. :)

The food was so good, we left...

I was really disappointed with my visit here. My partner took me for dinner for my birthday adding in the booking notes it was my birthday, with us wishing to go to a local independent restaurant instead of a chain to have a more special touch. We would have been better at an Ask Italian! Never mind an extra touch for my birthday, the service was non-existent, didn't even get one smile or "how are you?" our whole visit nor even a word when paying the bill and that was with the manager. Service was incredibly cold and awkward. I have worked in hospitality myself so appreciate in busy times there is not much time to chat or be around, but it was really quiet which also made for a strange atmosphere. The food was nice enough so fine if you want to pop in for a dinner after work one day but do not spend a special occasion here, definitely not what I wanted on my birthday. Probably won't go...