Va Pensiero — Restaurant in Hertsmere

This is the last time I will come to eat here, my family have been coming to this restaurant for over 15 years and in that time I have witnessed the slow decline of the food quality. We came for a family celebration a table of 12 people... 3 of us ordered steak 2 rare and 1 medium rare... Every time I order a steak here it comes out badly cooked... I've ordered a lot of steak from this restaurant. Because of dietary requirements my choice of food is very limited. In the last 7 years only once has a steak come out properly cooked and tonight was no exception.. all 3 steaks were raw the 2 rare steaks were so raw that to call them served blue is an overstatement. And the medium rare steak was blue..

It makes me so angry, the cut of meat, a 1 inch ribeye is of great quality but is absolutely butchered by the cookery.. I don't know if the chef either doesn't know how to cook a steak properly or just doesn't care but either way they need to practice or GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN.... How hard is to stick a meat thermometer in a piece of meat to make sure it is cooked properly?

Quite a few of our group had tiramisu for desert, the only way to describe it is a great clod of mascapone on a biscuit. There was no flavour what happened to the coffee? Where was the masala?

Honestly when you pay £26 for a steak with no sides and £7.50 for a desert at least prepare and cook the damn food properly!... If the head chef takes that little pride in making sure the quality of the food is maintained it really does make me worry about the state of the food storage and kitchen cleanliness.

On a more positive note the waiting staff are fairly quick and attentive without being interfering or intrusive. That said they do seem to gather together around the bar or dumbwaiter and ignore the customers which makes it difficult for guests to get their attention. Twice during the meal I had to get up and find a member of staff at which point I found 4 of them having a nice little chat.

Speaking of the atmosphere in the restaurant it would be great if you are young when it gets busier. The background din reaches a point where you have to shout across the table to speak to someone 4 feet away, which if you were young would seem I guess, hip and happening but for our table of 12 became a horrific burden that added to the ruination of the evening.

I complained to the manager who firstly asked why did I eat half the steak if I was going to complain about it. I told him I do eat blue steak. I did not ask for any money back and told him so, I just told him that his kitchen staff need to stick a meat thermometer in their steaks if they can't cook them properly. The manager took the price of 1 steak off the menu. Which is something I guess, but no one asked for it.

6 of us have decided to never come here again which means our family of 12 will find another place to fairly regularly dump £400 - £600 into...

Well done va pensiero... If you are going to win at anything you certainly have won at making a loss!

One last point to leave you with... I hate having to go to a restaurant to pay for overpriced food that I can cook infinitely better at home.

At least the filter...

Went to Va Pensiero for the 1st time with some friends who'd been before and spoke so highly about the food. When we arrived at the restaurant, it looked really pretty from the outside, and the interior is simple yet classy. It wasn't very busy when we got there so we were able to order drinks and our food quite quickly.

For starters we ordered; Brushetta - 10/10 Garlic dough balls - 10/10 Avocado & Mozarella salad - 3/10 (the avocados were inedible as they were not ripened at all)

Mains we ordered; Cannelloni - 7/10 (too cheesy and not enough sauce but very tasty) Scicilian penne - 10/10 Mushroom risotto - 10/10 Off the menu tomato creamy risotto with veg; green beans, spinach & broccoli - 10/10

Dessert we ordered; Tirimisu - 10/10 Profiteroles - 10/10

As the evening went on, it became very busy, and with that also very loud, we found ourselves having to talk loudly across the table to be able to have a conversation, which wasn't the greatest. We also found that the service slowed down, and we kept having to get the waitresses' attention as they didn't appear to have enough staff.

All in all, I'd highly recommend the restaurant. Location is great, plenty of parking on the street or off the main street and the bill wasn't too expensive either.

Average spend per person £30

Food was amazing and I'd...

Always heard great things about this restaurant so decided to book it for my daughters birthday with a group of my family. Got to say……wasn’t impressed On arrival everyone was friendly and helpful but throughout the meal we had to go walking around looking for staff because no one was out front Half of the table (there was 8 of us) enjoyed their food and said it was nice and the other half said it wasn’t good. Everyone who had the Calamari said it was rubbery and the batter was really over cooked - it was a chore to eat it Pizzas wernt homemade (well didn’t taste like it anyway) which I was really gutted about think I ate 1 slice and just left the rest, I’ve made better pizzas at home. It also had oregano all over it which I’m not a fan of (they should put this on the menu) they did kindly offer to remake it but I declined However the lamb chops were really nice and all the pasta dishes were tasty and well cooked. My daughters ice cream came out twice…..one had sauce on but the one she had already been given didn’t have any (this wasn’t an option) Was all just a bit inconsistent. Overall it was…..Ok…..I’ve had/experienced better. Not sure...