2 Amici — Restaurant in London

Reading the reviews of this place it looked like heaven mixed with your best memory of your mom cooking when you were a child.

Then you actually go there and realize that if that heaven is a lie, hell is a lie, everything is a lie, and you'll have trust issues and emotional scar really difficult to heal.

The promise of a relaxing evening, a well prepare italian meal, that warming sensation that usually comes after eating a great dish.. Everything shattered to pieces.

Everything that we ordere looked like taken from the frozen area of a supermarket and reheated. Not even a decent supermarked, but the low cost ones.

The fried calamari were though, and after the first one went down into my stomach I was already able to feel it make a good home there. It will probably never leave.

The bruschetta was covered in oregano, with tomatos and orergano, with prosciuto and oregano. To recreate that sensation go to a local supermarket spices section, take a whole box of dried oregano and stuff it into your mouth. That.

The calf liver had a strange flavour, and it seemed like battered somehow, with an overall strange flavour.

Before someone tells me "Maybe you just don't know the REAL italian food, you know?". Sorry mate, I'm Italian, I know italian food. I've eaten poor prepared italian food before, is not as bad as this. I've simply been served the frozen section of a bad supermarket, and been charged A LOT for that.

Also the service was poor, we had to repeat things several times and make sure that the right things get added to the order (and they manage to get it wrong anyway), the waiter went back and forth several time while he was taking our order leaving us there with the menu opened halfway through, and on top of that one of them smelled really bad.

To go to the toilet you need to pass near the kitchen area, the whole area smells of garlic and pure ammonia, I felt dizzy after the first time that I went to use the toilet because of the lack of oxygen. Plus there isn't a hand dryier in the men's bathroom, and the only way to dry your hands was a roll of toilet paper. Come on... At least put a roll of kitchen paper!

The overall experience left me disgusted, with a persistent sens of nausea, and despite the fact that I've barely eaten, a sense of heavyness on the stomach that is still here, more than 15 hours later.

The worst dinner that I had in...

This is the true story of 6 friends (4 of them Italian) who decided to celebrate their work successes in this fantastic place. Our 6 unlucky heroes after a working day of almost 11 hours decide to go to the restaurant 2 friends and beleive when I say the made a massive mistake. The menu written in Italian by a drunken Pakistani kid should have been enough to make our heroes understand that they just had committed not a simple false step, but the biggest of all mistakes. All that was served to our heroes was nothing but hatred and rancor shaped as food. This restaurant was built only to tarnish the good name of Italian cuisine. The owner of the restaurant must have decided to undertake a personal crusade to destroy every good memory we had of our homeland. Our heroes survived somehow (I personally took a day off from work to meditate on my life choices), but after careful consideration they arrived at the common decision that yes, this is without a doubt the worst "Italian" restaurant of all time. Without any doubt and without any rethinking. I don't think I will ever be able to look my parents in the eyes ever again, none of us will ever find peace for what happened.

I miss my mom.

P.S.

If you are thinking for a second that I'm joking, well, I am freanking not. The food is not fresh, all comes from frozen. Spaghetti as a side for a chicken escalope? REALLY?. I cant understand what we did to make the owner so mad, he clearly hated on us for the entire dinner and after all of this he found the strenght to charge us 23£ of tips (that of course we refused to pay). Do yourself a favour, if you wanna spend the day after on the toilette just go the Indian take away behind the corner, the result will be more or...

The 2 Amici is indeed a traditional italian restaurant. But not of the 'like Nonna used to make' variety. It's a 1980's trattoria recognisable to many of my generation. The owner(?) is heavyset with the demeanour of a man who has done this job too long. Guessing, is his daughter, acting as front of house, more engaging and helpful. She looked pleased when I asked her to recommend a dish. The Seafood risotto was fine but made with frozen seafood. The tomato and onion salad made with beefsteak Toms and straight out of the cold cabinet. The house white wine was drinkable and the giant pepper mill made an appearance. There's nothing wrong with this place although it feels more suburban than central London. It would make for a good weekday neighbourhood place, especially if they could just seem...