Cantinetta Antinori London — Restaurant in London

I've been going to the Antinori's in Zurich from the time it opened, and the one in Vienna and Florence for a number of years and was anticipating, as they all have a little different style, a great Italian Antinori experience. I probably shouldn't have expected so much. Comparing any Italian restaurant to one in Zurich is not productive as that one has been and still is great. The one in Vienna is a excellent Italian restaurant with a Vienna flair. This has way to much London in it to be anything better just a nice place. Really no place I will go back to, a number of much better Italian restaurants in the area.

This is No real reflection on the staff. The town establishes what a restaurant does, to a point, and thus butts in the seats, and influences some menu items or preparation more than traditional preparation methods in some people's mind. London has changed so much over the years in so many ways, from being well below NYC murder rate to well past it years ago, to respectfully honoring history to the gherkin and many more. Change is part of life and history is history; history like being able to in the 1970's basically know where you were in Italy by the color of the Bolognese, or not being able to getting a cappuccino after noon and other respectful attention to cultural traditions that are almost gone. As the now king stated, and was ridiculed for, years ago england was loosing it's identity, so are so many other traditions that make a country or culture what it is or was. The restaurant location, with trendy designer shops, to me reflects some of your food preparation and environment to get butts in the seats. Unfortunately like a Michelin stars has come to represent small puffs and splashes of food decorating a plate instead of food worthy of a trip and like modern art that's only real interest is to a very small group or want to be's, the focus is away from traditional great food. The wine selection was great and the bottle selected was great for educational experience for our youngest daughter; and for me was ok as long as I did not inhale while taking a sip; However the bottle was obviously recorked for some reason, revealed little, however a sip, as they had after opening, instantly revealed a odd combination of odd well past it peak wine and still a bright wine color in the bottle.

In short life is to short to waste my time on trendy instead of classic and great; hopefully the restaurant will be a success it just won't be...

This place has been on our list of place to try for a while and since we were at a club nearby for the night we decide to give it a go! We booked and our favourite wine wasn’t available but, that’s ok, can happen, huge selection and I must the wine did not disappoint! We got some bread selection with our starters, nothing special but no complain about it. Then we get two pasta, the ragu and the taleggio. As soon as the place touch the table you could clearly see that the dish has been sitting on the pass for a while, my partner try a bite and no. It wasn’t mixing together, so he send it back and he ask if they going to make a new one, if it would be different or he could pick up another dish. They said a new one would be made, in the correct way this time. Great! I try mine, it was good but cold. As we send back the other one I didn’t mention anything at the time. Flavour was there but wear a cold pasta is not the best experience or a memorable one. Just after few minutes my partner dish come back. A bit too quick to have a new one but it look creamy and lovely. We both try it. I was speachless to realise they re-heat the pasta just adding butter. Not even the taleggio, we’ve been serving a reheat pasta taste only butter. We send it back and we were truly disappointed at this point. Didn’t want to order more but we ask a suggestion to the waiter and he recommended us a carbonara. We give it a try. When it arrives. The saltiness of the pasta made it impossible to eat. Not because of the cheese and guanciale, but they pasta itself was super salty and rocking hard.we eat al dente; this had just touch the boiling water. We didn’t finish the dish. At this point I didn’t want anything as my partner was just disappointed and hungry. He get a tiramisu and we left. At the bill time they took all the pasta off the bill, witch I found just fair, I would have not paid for them. Service was kind but from this place i would expect more, way more and a better service. Won’t be back to eat but their canteen is...

Based on its food, I think Cantinetta Antinori could vie to be the superior Italian restaurant in central London. Unfortunately, my meal there (on the evening of 19/09/23) was heavily marred by inconsiderate behaviour from the adjacent table and the subsequent lack of support from the restaurant's manager when I tried to do something about it. My girlfriend and I left prematurely as a result.

We've all experienced the hardy perennial of people playing videos and music via their phones (i.e., with the sound up, and without headphones, so that all may hear it). This conduct blights pretty much every train journey and is commonly encountered in a variety of public spaces. You might experience it, and choose to suffer it, at a cheap and cheerful eatery - where it's still inconsiderate but goes with the territory. When at Cantinetta Antinori, I was surprised to learn that the use of phones to customers' detriment is acceptable to the restaurant's management.

A restaurant of Cantinetta Antinori's potential standing - a place backed by a historic, Italian dynasty that is synonymous with culture - should not tolerate the use of phones in this way. A phone conversation at the table should be verboten - let alone the playing of music or videos without headphones. In any half-decent restaurant, the peaceful dining experience of each customer should be regarded as sacred.

People read reviews to get a feel for what their meal might be like or to otherwise avoid disappointment. I appreciate that an opinion is necessarily subjective but, as a fair person and an experienced restaurant-goer, here is my take: the food at Cantinetta Antinori is first class. It was among the best Italian food that I've had in London. I also rated the serving staff, such as Domenico (a waiter and consummate professional). But Cantinetta Antinori is also a place where a customer (like me) can be expected to part with £259 for two courses (x2) + wine and still be expected to abide anti-social behaviour from...