Da Valter Italian Pizza Restaurant — Restaurant in London

Pizza was fantastic, crust was lightly yet evenly cooked, Italian base was very thin and had a stone fired taste to it that you cannot get in an oven BUT Service was terrible, I arrived with my lady and the male waiter was hovering around our table about 15 seconds trying to push drinks on us, desperately trying to make eye contact with my lady to ask her rather than me when I said 'just tap water please' My lady was noticeably uncomfortable and looked to me to remove him, to which I shot a glance at him to say 'what are you doing?! ' I said 'that will be all thank you' and he left The man looked Italian in his late 30's His English was poor and in terms of service, he is kind but a little creepy

Then after the great pizza I asked for the bill

This was served by another Italian but a young girl possibly between 18 and 26

I looked at the bill for 1 pizza at 8.50 And a service charge of £1.15 I said excuse me I was not told of a service charge at any time, what is this for and do I have to pay it?

She said 'service charge it like the tax you pay for eating in the restaurant' I replied 'it's not eveywhere, and I thought I already paid for service when I bought a pizza, are you saying if you didn't walk to the kitchen to bring my pizza to me i would pay 1.55 less? I'll happily do that next time but I'm not paying for that'

She then tried to embarrass me in front of my lady by exclaiming loudly 'so you don't to pay for this pizza!?'

'Not the service charge, you never mentioned it! ' I said

She replied 'its for the tips.' 'Hold up!' I interrupted 'tips should not be part of the bill'

'you get tips for good service, why should I give a tip? You think this (arms splayed wide at the scene she caused) is good service?'

She said 'okay! You don't want to pay, Ill call the manager!' stormed of to the back, came out with a machine and said I will take it off your bill, typed up some numbers and held her hand over the screen so I couldn't see the figure going out

'Sorry!' placing my hand over the machine where she covered it, attempted to take the machine from her hand, she pulled it close to herself and said just tap it 'I said I'd like to see what I'm paying' at which she cancelled the transaction to just 8.50 So even at the last moment when proven wrong she was willing to STEAL tip money for sub par service

Upon leaving the manager caught up with us to let us know before leaving, that service charge is optional and we do not force or coerce customers (through embarrassment) to pay it. He also said sorry for the bad service and I let him know that the pizza was great

Post is 2 weeks after my visit, BEWARE of the card scam this little lady tried on me, always view the screen before tapping, if you don't know them,...

The pizza at this establishment is generally great! However, I was left deeply unsatisfied with the Spaghetti Carbonara which I ordered. The spaghetti was undercooked and the sauce consisted of olive oil and water from the pan the pasta had been cooked in, in addition to this the pancetta was totally undercooked. I sent the food back and was asked if I wanted a fresh bowl to be made however I was so put off by my first experience of the dish that I really didn’t want another. The waiter then proceeded to keep the carbonara on the bill and was reluctant to remove the cost of the carbonara and said that this was ‘how they did it in italy’ and was uninterested in my complaint, and made me feel unreasonable for not wanting to pay for food that was inedible. Quite frankly one would find a ready meal at a local super market that would be cooked better in the microwave for 2 minutes than the food I was served. The customer service is pleasant however in my experiences in this restaurant, the staff aren’t willing to go further than say hello, take your order and goodbye, which doesn’t justify the 12.5% service charge. There are other friendlier, better quality Italian restaurants in the area that would be by far a better choice than Pizza Da Valter, certainly not deserving...

A pretty disappointing experience overall.

Pizza Da Valter has everything to be a wonderful place. Unfortunately, the reality was different. Pizza is great. Location is great. But the service is very poor. We were not asked if we wanted drinks before ordering our food. We waited for the wine list. We then waited 25 mins for the classic bruschetta. The pizzas, which were very good, arrived after an hour. We were never asked about having desserts. We waited 25 more minutes for the bill which never came. The four staff members walked by the table countless times but never stopped by to check on us. We eventually walked inside to pay 75 pounds for two glasses of average wine, one bruschetta classics and two pizzas. People will tell you that London is expensive. I will tell you that this is way overpriced for the quality offered.

Again - they have everything to succeed but fail to deliver a great experience due to a very poor service. Table was booked in advance. They were not understaffed. Our order was...