Caldesi In Marylebone - Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in London

This is the worst restaurant I’ve ever ever been to. Firstly, we walked in and they told us we had to wait at the table for 15 minutes before being able to take any orders because they wanted to slow down the kitchen which was absolutely fine, however, when we sat down they didn’t give us water, a menu, no cutlery, didn’t offer to take our drink order. Secondly, when we gave our order, we ordered two pasta dishes, one which had the option to add prawns for £6. The two dishes arrived, I ate mine but my boyfriends prawn dish was missing the prawns. We asked them to bring the correct dish and she said she can bring the prawns on the side, to which we said no can they remake it. When it was taking a while for his newly made dish to arrive, I asked to see how much longer to which she said (a) we have an event upstairs so we’re very busy, and (b) the waitress said you didn’t order it with prawns. Why would my boyfriend begin eating his dish and decide oh actually it would be nice with prawns? I obviously during this time finished my pasta. 15 minutes later my boyfriends pasta arrived and the pasta was hot but the prawns were actually cold and overcooked. Their excuse was that there was an event upstairs so they’re very busy. I made a point that if the event was going to take away from the service to the other guests then they shouldn’t keep it open for other guests. They didn’t even really apologise and charged us for the full bill. We told them time and time again that this was the worst dining experience we’ve had and that nothing was good. At that point I just wanted to leave. We both eat our regularly and this was nothing but poor and disastrous definitely won’t be going back. Would give zero stars...

My friends and I dined at the restaurant on Saturday night and overall the experience was not great. I was hesitant about going there as it had taken 3 phone calls (I had to call to make a booking as the internet does not accept tables over 4) for my booking to be confirmed in the system and I re-confirmed the booking late last week as I was concerned that there would not be a table for us. The table that we were originally given was not suitable for 5 of us as 3 on one side would have been too tight and due to the location of the table, we could not put one of us on the end. We had to suggest that we moved to a more appropriate table. The service was very slow as there just weren't enough staff on duty. We arrived at 7.30pm and we still hadn't received the starters by 8.50pm. It took forever to bring 2 bottles of wine and we had to keep asking for our water to be replenished. The food was fine, but the lack of service detracted from the food experience for us. As the evening wore on, it became stiflingly hot in there and staff said the heating wasn't on and in the end a fellow diner opened a large window. The 1 female toilet was not replenished or cleaned throughout the night and deteriorated rapidly. The bill should not have included the full service charge as we constantly had to chase. I am sorry to say that for the overall cost, we would not regard it as good value for money or a great dining experience and we would not...

I read a few reviews before picking Caldesi for a Saturday night out with my wife and am not really sure how anyone could give the restaurant 5 stars - certainly not for the food.

The restaurant was very busy, both downstairs and upstairs, which made for a really good atmosphere.

The food itself was a little average. I really wanted it to taste great because the menu looked so appealing. But the foccacia tasted far from fresh, and was very oily. The arrancini could have been very good but they lacked seasoning, both in the balls themselves and the dipping sauce, which made the dish pretty flat. The parmigiana was fairly decent, albeit a small portion and it arrived luke warm - this dish should always be served piping hot.

The main courses were fine. Nothing special. I ordered the pasta with beef and veal ragu, and my wife ordered pasta with duck ragu. The portions were on the small side and again both lacked seasoning. My dish wasn't really what I expected - not so much 'ragu', rather 'bolognese'.

I may just about have given this restaurant 3.5 stars but the manager upstairs was openly rude to one of the waiters and basically told him to get lost and moved him downstairs. Pretty poor to do that in front of diners. So that pushed the restaurant down to a solid 3.

The chianti colli sensi wine was by far the best thing I had - I would give...