Da Paolo Restaurant — Restaurant in London

Absolute joke!! Expensive! Dirty, bad service. Really really bad.

Edit: (Because the owner requests me to be more specific, this is the level of this restaurant's customer service).

Firstly, although the website looks like a charming, romantic italian restaurant, it actually is a narrow, overcrowded space with an outdated decor that hasn't seen investment since it opened.

The welcoming was cold, by one of the waitresses, we were asked if we had a reservation and looked upon as if we were strangers, perhaps we should have had a reservation, but given the fact that we were the only table until well passed 1 hour, and that in total the restaurant only had three tables that day... well, it was completely unnecessary.

We begun our meal with some starters and a bottle of wine, we decided to go for rose, and although I know most places have limited space and rose is not a preference, it was shocking to see that the only option was a supermarket rose, but well... after we finished the bottle and decided to have some red wine... the wine list wasn't much different, basically wines you can get in every deli around london. The starters were really expensive for the size, nearly £6,00 for the garlic bread, two mini bruschetas £8.00!! Almost £13 for a selection of frozen fried calamari and scallops!!! This wasn't looking like the "Best Italian Restaurant in London", we could have cancelled our meal and crossed the road to Roka, but we thought... let's give it a chance! The pasta looked quite good on the menu.

If the starters and wine were bad... well, allow me to expand on the rest of the meal. I understand that white truffle is a premium, and it represents so in the price, but I think it is quite ludicrous to offer mushroom ravioli with truffle, when the only flavour you get is from a cheap truffle olive oil, that the only thing it has are flavorings and not even a single slice of truffle. But what I thought it was a serious scam, was the fresh (and it says fresh on the menu) clam linguine. Tiny, frozen clams scattered over a bowl of linguine, for the gentle price of £22. In other situations you would openly say that they scam you, when they sell you something of lower quality than what they advertised it for. Why should we accept that in a restaurant? Has it become like this? Accepting that what is written on the menu doesn't reflect the reality. Yet, when we told the manager (or perhaps the owner), that we thought the clams where frozen, he came up with a story about the quality of his place... my wife kindly asked to see the wine list, to select another wine, but he kept ongoing about his favourite parts of portugal, how did we get from frozen clams to portugal... I am still not sure.

For some strange reason, we felt really carnivorous and mysteriously we were sold the meat platter really well. For a minimum 2 people, for £36, we thought it might represent a great value. Now I know what the readers might be thinking, "you go to an italian place to eat meat? Your mistake", and you might not be wrong, yet, in my many visits to Italy, I enjoyed some delightful meats. Perhaps we should've noticed the way this dish was written down "Selection of House meats". What does House meats really mean anyway? But hey! The clams were fresh, right? Maybe House meant something else... It was a terrible choice. It was small, random, and it just took all the space on our tiny table. So the bottle of wine was taken away where their EPOS was located, so we had to be asking for top ups every other minute (only two tables remember?). By now we showed our disappointment quite openly, yet the owner or manager, vanished, yet the waiter seemed to have no real responsibility to find a solution.

So we skipped dessert, had a grappa to culminate the lovely £££ bill and left.

I hope this satisfies the owner more, than his restaurant...

I have been to this place few times . The first time the service was really good and the food too. I came back two weeks ago with my mum , my aunty and some friends but the personal was really rude to us . They were even disrespectful and racist . I do not understand how a restaurant like this can have attitude with their customers . But because I had a good time the first time , I called to have a booking for 10 people for a birthday dinner. And when I ask the waiter explained me if I would like a table at 9pm it will be to noisy outside and I didn’t understand it . A dinner is not noisy it is not going to be a party ! He said to me if I book for 7:30 it would be fine for the noise . How can a waiter decide for me at wich time I have to eat ? When I tried to discuss with him he hang out the phone on me . It is really disrespectful . I called a second time because I thought it was not maybe his fault but he told me he hang out the phone on me because I do not have to discuss it is like this and there is not other options . How can someone professional do that when a person is trying to come to this place ? I am completely chocked of their attitude and I will never recommended it again to anyone . Even if the good was good , the respect is...

I really don’t know how this restaurant is so highly rated on Google and TripAdvisor. The food served is bland and the service is below average.

The price of the food was extortionate at £65+ per head when we had a group of 8. I’ve cooked better Italian meals at home. For prime central London I’d expect far far more and I won’t be back.

The attitude of the owner and staff = awful and arrogant, not authentic Italian.

When they see a large group their eyes must light up, as they over charge the table especially when it comes to alcohol.

Food is like an Italian ready made meal you’d buy out of a supermarket and heat in the microwave. I’ve ate in Italians around the world and this was one of the worst, while at the same time being one of the most expensive. This restaurant is supposed to be rated #500 approx out of 15,000 restaurants in London on Tripadvisor. Ha! It isn’t even better than my local Italian restaurant in a small village in Ireland.

Avoid avoid AVOID

As for their response below - I expect nothing less. Blame other people when your food is below par - arrogance. No customer care. Go to the pizza shop down the street and you will get a better lasagne than here. They are an embarrassment to...