Bancone Covent Garden — Restaurant in London

I am so gutted to give this place a bad review. I have been following and sharing Bancones posts for the last 3 years and wanted to go there for this long too. Boy was it a. disappointment. First the pros

The second waitress (we had three over 2 hours) was very nice and friendly

The chefs were all cooking with a smile

The silk handkerchief pasta was nice… the first bite was divine the second one so tasty… after that it actually was just too heavy with way too much butter (and I love butter)

But the rest of the food…oh my gosh

And the lack of service… was so disappointing

We got there at 3pm (reservation was at 2.30 and I had emailed ri say we would be late)

Seated by 1505 and order taken by 1510 (not bad)… the starters arrived quickly as expected when they’re pre prepared.

Oh gosh; the crackers with the whipped cod’s roe were literally dripping in oil like a papadum had just been fried.. and it was rancid vegetable oil.. it was horrible. The whipped roe was okay; a bit too salty and lacking in flavour.. couldn’t eat the crackers.. was hoping a staff member would come over to ask if Everything was okay with the food, but that never happened. In fact nobody throughout the entire meal ever once came to ask if everything was okay. Had they actually done that I could’ve given my feedback and maybe had a better dishes.

The focaccia was dry and also under whelming. My daughter who loves bread didn’t even eat it. As mentioned the silk handkerchief pasta was okay, but what was so disappointing was the sausage and nduja pasta.

When it arrived, it was a tad spicy for my daughter, so it wasn’t a problem. I chose to have it instead to my regret as it was bland and boring. The sausage Ragu tasted like the filling you get in tinned ravioli. I’d love to know the percentage meat fillings in these sausages….

I adore al dente pasta I don’t like raw pasta.

The pasta was hardly cooked. Again, nobody came at any point to ask me if the food was okay if they had I could’ve asked them to replace it.

The worst thing is is that the second course pasta didn’t arrive until 4 o’clock: nearly 50 minutes after being ordered.

I had my 9 year-old with me, who was absolutely starving, and when I asked the waitress at 3.40 (half an hour after we had ordered) where our main courses were. She then told me that they had forgot to put my order in.

At this point, I would be hoping that they would be telling me that they would be comping the meal. No, instead I just got an apology and a oh well; just have to wait….

Absolutely gutted and disappointed. The food was really not good. I could have made much better myself. I was hoping to take the undercooked pasta home and blitz it in the microwave and eat it. But guess what they had no takeaway containers so that whole dish ended up going in the bin. When the waiter came to clear the dishes, he didn’t even ask why one of them had been untouched.

I was charged for water for my daughter, even though she didn’t want any, which I find really disgusting.

Absolutely gutted with the terrible service and that’s not something I normally complain about.

Had the food bin okay I would’ve forgiven all the other nonsense, but the food was really not as expected. Won’t be returning.

My first bad review of food… and it’s sad it had to...

My Husband and I have been going to Bancone Covent Garden since it’s opening week back in 2018, every time it has been fantastic. Unfortunately, we will no longer be attending after yesterday’s experience.

To be clear, the food was again excellent as was the ambience. The chef’s are great, wines are fantastic and it is has always been our favourite Italian restaurant in London.

However, after 1 hour 25 minutes into our service we were given the dessert menu and told we only had 5 minutes left on our seating. We still had half full glasses of wine and this would obviously not be enough time to order dessert which we wanted to do. We enquired if anything could be done so that we could have dessert in our current seating and were told we would have to move to another part of the restaurant if we wanted to order. As this was down to the restaurant’s own pace of service (it was v busy and, understandably, it therefore took longer than usual to receive our drinks and food) we found this incredibly disappointing.

We asked to speak with the Manager and he came over to say that someone else who was arriving had asked to sit in this part of the restaurant and we would have to move if we wished to stay for dessert. We asked why they (the arriving customers) couldn’t be seated in that part of the restaurant instead given our service had overrun on account of the restaurant’s pace of service? We were told this wouldn’t be possible. After much unenjoyable and dismissive back and forth they then apologised for the slow service to us and attempted to entice us across to the other seats with complimentary desserts, but this wasn’t the point and we felt unvalued and embarrassed as customers. Clearly we were not as important to them as those arriving.

We asked for the bill and left. They took £15 off it as “compensation”. However, we wish we could have paid in full and just enjoyed our meal properly. I should add we arrived at 20:00 and this was happening at 21:30, so the restaurant was naturally emptying anyway at this point. We both left feeling confused and upset, realising one of our favourite restaurants was now a thing of the past.

A real shame and ruined our evening. It’s a difficult time for the restaurant industry and it’s sad to have to leave a bad review. We post this in the hope the team tries to avoid this happening to others...

Bancone has two branches. We went to the Covent Garden branch in the afternoon during weekday. There were not many customers, but when we passed by at night, the seats were almost full, so if you want to go, it is best to reserve a table.

🧀Burrata cheese

Burrata is a type of lava cream fresh cheese, made of mozzarella + cream, it will burst when cut, but 90% of Burrata in London are not bursting or have a strange sour taste, here is very good, milky, creamy, fresh and sweet.

🍞Focaccia

When we ordered Burrata, the waitress asked if we wanted focaccia. I said no, and after 5 minutes, I called her back and ordered focaccia. Their focaccia is filled with virgin olive oil and sun dried cherry tomatoes. The texture is soft and moist, which is really good.

🍳Silk handkerchiefs

This is their signature dish, each piece of pasta is the size of a palm, with salted egg yolk, walnut butter, and parmigiano reggiano cheese. First bite: wow! So fragrant, thick and silky! Second bite: The taste is really mellow. The third bite: a little greasy...

Nikki and I ordered a portion of noodles and then exchanged food for each other. After eating this pasta alone, the greasy taste will linger, so it is best to share a plate with friends.

🍝 Spicy pork & n’duja ragù with mafalde

N'duja is a spicy pork sausage from the Calabria region of southern Italy that is soft enough to spread directly on bread. The sauce of this pasta is fragrant and spicy, and it is also paired with sweet and sour tomatoes. In short, it is quite delicious.

🍥 Because we were going to eat at other restaurants later, and we were tired of silk handkerchiefs, therefore we didn't have any desserts, and the price was cheaper than eating a full meal.

🥟 When I left, I saw the chef at the window making dumplings, which looked like willow leaf dumplings, so I took a picture.

Price is about £20 per person...