Cicchetti by San Carlo - London Covent Garden — Restaurant in London

After seeing great reviews online, I booked a spot for 2 people. We ordered 5 dishes between us and a cocktail each. Service was included on the bill which came to just under £100. Now, if the food was delicious, I would have no issue with the price. However for what was actually served, I really do feel ripped off.

Let’s start with the drinks: the cocktails are £12.75 each, which is not too surprising for central London, but they were absolutely tiny!!! I was actually left shocked by how small the glasses were, by far the smallest cocktail I’ve had, and not particularly good either. So we had gotten off to a disappointing start.

Then the dishes arrived. The caprese salad was bland, and lacked balsamic, seasoning or enough olive oil.

The truffle risotto was not al dente - it was undercooked completely. The flavour was decent but the texture let it down completely.

The ravioli, which costs over £10, was nice but nothing special and you only get two (2!!) pieces.

The tuna tartare was quite tasty but the menu stated that it is prepared at the table, but we were instead handed a rather unappetising blob of tartare that had been prepared in the kitchen…

The pizza dough stuffed with cheese was the best of the 5 and was tasty but even so, there was nothing mind blowing about it.

Out of 5 dishes at a high price, I would expect at least 1 to be something special. Not only was nothing special, some of the dishes were truly disappointing.

Our waiter was kind and helpful throughout the evening, the only upside, and we ended up leaving without complaining as we really didn’t want to cause a scene and just felt too fed up to do anything about the situation.

I’m honestly really disappointed as I had heard such good things about the restaurant. When going to higher end places, especially well-reviewed ones, I expect to get flavourful, quality food that is worth the money spent. But I truly believe there are so many other Italian restaurants in the area that offer better food - and for lower prices.

Maybe I went on a bad day for the chefs or chose less recommended dishes. I’d love to be proven wrong about this place. However I simply can’t justify going back and paying such prices for...

Came here for an anniversary dinner and was quite disappointed… as soon as we entered there was a waitress at the front door who completely ignored us. She was extremely rude and we appeared to be an inconvenience to her waiting to give our reservation name. She rudely told us to move out of her way with unwelcome glares as she grabbed menus from the front door where we were stood.

When we she finally came back she took our booking which we had told them in advance that it was an anniversary. She didn’t bother to look at anything to congratulate (great customer service lol) and her face was like thunder.

We were seated at a table and menus thrown down and told these are the specials before she turned her back and walked away.The next waiter was lovely and explained the menu to us.

When giving the order another waiter told us we couldn’t order the 5th dish as it was “too much carbs” and to order something else. This is extremely rude and I don’t know what our carb intake has to do with someone taking our order if we are paying for the food.

When eating, wrong plates were brought to our table which we had to let them know it wasn’t ours. The servers didn’t look really they knew where they were taking food. After we had finished 4 of our plates we had to wait another 10 minutes for our last plate which was all ordered together.

Finally got the bill and thanked the server who was in a suit and was lovely at the start but informed him of the awful customer service we had received as our welcome. He was apologetic but then to see the same women rush over to him and laugh as we left.

This place has really great potential however the staff...

Went to the restaurant on 15th Oct 2022. We had a reservation for 6 people at 7pm. Upon arriving at the restaurant, we were met with a gentleman in a grey suit. He was the rudest host for a establishment I have come across. He couldn't even smile, it became boarder line aggressive.

He initially told us at 6:55 to go away and come back at 7pm..... 5 minutes later? bearing in mind there was a bar there, we could have grabbed a quick drink at.

We explained we had a table booked for 7pm, to which he said, he doesn't think I do. I explained I have a text message of confirmation, and I showed him. He asked me when I made the booking.... (like that mattered, as I had a booking)

He then walked off, and didn't come back.

I went and spoke with a young lady called Bobby. She was fantastic and simply the only reason I am giving 3 stars at all (she deserved 5). She bought us in and popped us at the bar, where the barmen were very friendly. She arranged our table, apologised on behalf of her outrageous colleague, who continued to give us dirty looks as we passed through the restaurant.

She was attentive, made as all laugh, suggested specials, and was overall providing excellent service.

The initial grey suited host however had already popped a sour taste in our mouth.

The food was fantastic, and for that reason, and that reason alone I will return, but not to this location, and that is purely because of MR GREY SUIT.

I hope this is followed up and fingers crossed, no other customers face the same issues we did with...