Alma's Restaurant Italian Cuisine & Pizzeria — Restaurant in London

Booked a table of 10 for a birthday, booking confirmed by the restaurant a month in advance. On the day, received a call from the restaurant informing me they have double booked and asked if I was prepared to fit 5 people on the bench side of an 8 person table. I felt as though I was left with the option on cancelling the booking 5 hours before dinner, or accepting the smaller table and the restaurant’s mistake.

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were met with a table set for 8 people and were asked to fit 6 people on the bench side meant for 4 people. When we asked for a chair to fit one person on the end of the table, we were told there were no spare chairs. This left more than half the party squashed and uncomfortable until desserts had been ordered and another a chair was finally provided. We felt as though everyone else got their table and their booking as they intended aside from us. We were the only ones affected by the restaurants mistake.

The staff stated that they had confirmed the arrangement with me over the phone earlier in the day, but I had not agreed to not having a 10th seat available and 6 people on a 4 person bench. I agreed to fitting 5 people on a 4 person bench, assuming an extra chair would be provided and people would be reasonably comfortable.

I was disappointed at the end of the meal when, despite the obviously cramped conditions, and restaurant mistakes, including forgetting one persons dessert, nothing was comped on the bill and we relied on arguing our case to the staff to reduce the bill.

Overall, some terrible organisation let down a nice atmosphere and good quality food. I would not visit again unless it was confirmed my booking was in place and no other bookings has been taken in relation...

Slight edit given the restaurant's response: we didn't share our starters between 3. In fact the 2 of us who got our starters allowed each other to taste each other's food as we compared our taste. And the person who enquired about the spicy pizza didn't order it, rather I did and added my seasoning to it. As I understand service charge goes to the service staff to whom I also credited with the 2 stars.

Both stars go to the 2 waiters because the food was dismal.

As a starter the calamari was a small portion with what seemed like some attempt at tempura style carrot and courgette batons added to the plate. The "nachos style ravioli" required clarification for which we were told its deep fried and has cheese. As opposed to the croquettes which came with a tomato sauce. Despite ordering the nachos style ravioli we were given the "croquettes" and ONLY when questioned why we had the wrong starter it was because there was no ravioli left. The croquettes were in fact dough balls with cheese and I'm not entirely convinced that they weren't from the frozen aisle of a frozen food supermarket.

The pizzas were bland - margarita, calzone and something with a spicy topping tasted of not very much frankly. The dough wasn't all the way cooked and left one of our party with an upset stomach. The tomato sauce that is provided at the side of the calzone and the starters is the tomato base used on the pizzas and didn't add much to anything it was provided with.

At £85 for 3 people this was a pretty...

This was a very disappointing experience at Alma’s. I am a wheelchair user and was looking for an Italian dinner with my family. We inquired whether Alma’s had a ramp or not and the waiter said that they had a ramp, but were unwilling to accommodate due to “safety”. The restaurant was not crowded at all and had plenty of space to accommodate, they simply did not want to do a bit more work to accommodate a disabled customer. I am sharing this experience to encourage fellow disabled people and people who generally care about principles of equality and human respect to not patron Alma’s until their behavior towards disabled people improves. There are so many barriers we have to overcome everyday, convincing people to use equipment made to accommodate us should not be one of them.

RESPONSE TO ALMAS Wow, I didn’t think it could get worse but somehow you have managed to make my negative opinions stronger. My family does not have 6 members and as I stated to you, my power wheelchair raises up so the high top comment is a poor excuse. From reading your other reviews it seems as though other wheelchair users have had similar experiences. Maybe instead of accusing me of spreading misinformation when I advocate for my rights, you should reflect on more respectful and responsible ways to treat...