Florentine Trattoria — Restaurant in London

TL;DR up front: This will be the last time I dine here. Food was ok. Service was terrible. I don’t recommend that you dine here.

The details:

Things started off on a bad note. I walked in, I told the server I had a reservation, which he ignored and just grabbed menus and sat me at a table for one. I’m sure his thought was that the restaurant was clearly open for a table for one and so why bother checking for the reservation? The problem is, I made the reservation via Open Table, so when someone doesn’t check me in for my reservation, I don’t get rewards points added to my account.

I was sat at a table and asked if I’d like anything to drink. “No, just tap water.”

Host walks off. No tap water. He just left me there for my server to come by.

Strike 1.

I waited for what was at least 5 minutes but felt more like 10. Not joking - it was bad enough that I started looking on my phone to see if there was another restaurant nearby that I could get up and walk to for dinner instead.

My server finally walks by the table. He doesn’t introduce himself or anything. He literally just, as he’s walking by, asks, “ready to order?”

Still no water.

He comes by to take my order. As he’s walking off, the gentleman who sat me recognized that I still did not have tap water, and finally comes to fill my water glass.

Strike 2

At this point, my server disappears for the entirety of my dinner up until dessert. His colleagues did everything for him since he was nowhere to be found.

The calamari course was served by a nice lady who noticed I had drank most of my water while waiting for the appetizer, and refilled my water glass.

My burger and fries were served by the same gentleman who sat me at the table and asked if I would like ketchup or mayo to go with my fries. He also filled my water glass.

My server is still nowhere to be found.

I finished about half my burger and fries, and my water glass - which holds about 25cl - is now empty again. I’m looking around for my server. Still nowhere to be found.

I sat with an empty water glass for at least 5 minutes and didn’t even see my server to flag down and see if he could refill my water glass. I couldn’t get the attention of anyone else by this point. I was worried about my food getting cold if I waited for someone to come by and fill my water glass again. I finally gave up, got up from my own table, and filled my own water glass myself.

Strike 3.

I finished my burger and fries, and drank the rest of my water. A few minutes pass. Before my dirty dinner plate is cleared, my server finally shows up with my dessert course, the mini donuts… sets them down and THEN clears my dirty plate. The dirty plate should be cleared first. It’s basic table maintenance and any server should know this.

I am not even joking when I say that the server started to walk away before saying, “would you like some water?”

YES I WOULD LIKE SOME WATER! THAT IS NOT SOMETHING YOU SHOULD NEED TO ASK, IT SHOULD BE AUTOMATIC!!! (I did not say this out loud, for the record, but I shouted it inside my head).

When the bill came, I nearly asked that the discretionary 12.5% service charge be removed. The service was that poor. In fact, it was nonexistent. Ultimately I chose not to make a scene. I was once a server, so I chose to leave the service charge and just decided I would never be back at this establishment for dinner.

I would not recommend that you eat here either. It’s not worth your time or your money. Go somewhere else. You’ll have a better...

This restaurant has great promise but disappoints on many levels, I am afraid. The food was average, which aligns with many of the other comments here. However, the star of the show is unfortunately the rather dismal service—or shall I say, the lack thereof. I am not usually one to leave reviews, but I felt I needed to here, as I came with my mum for a special occasion.

When we walked in, no one came to greet us, and we had to ask numerous times to be seated. We then ordered cocktails, which took so long that I wondered if they had forgotten the ingredients and had to go to the shop to get them. When we finally ordered food—after asking three times—we then had to ask twice about our cocktails. Meanwhile, the staff seemed to be standing around talking, and I almost felt bad for interrupting their conversation.

When I asked about the cocktails, I was told they were on the way. The food then arrived before the drinks, and when I tried to ask for some sauces, the server had, quite frankly, vanished. The other server, who was having a conversation with the chef, didn’t seem to notice, and eventually, they brought the sauces.

The food was nice, I will grant them that, and if the service had been above the standard we received, we would consider returning. However, our final verdict was that this restaurant does not care about its customers, and we did not leave a...

Went for dinner with my wife and was very excited about the ostrich eggs and the place seemed to be very nice, it happens that they don't have the eggs in there anymore. I think they should update it on their website and Google, we felt very disappointed.

Waitresses seem to be very distracted, there was some drama going on with a customer screaming which happens sometimes, but I don't think this should take the attention of the whole staff.

We were waiting 15 minutes for cutlery, so we took the ones from next table as our food had arrived already, the waitress gave us such a stare for taking the cutlery from the next table and then he came puffing to replace the ones we took, I guess he was expecting us to eat with our hands.

The kitchen is exposed, so we can see what is going on there, and oh God, the chefs were CONSTANTLY eating, licking their fingers while preparing the food which to be honest almost made me leave.

For the service they provide I think is super overpriced, we didn't enjoy the food as we constantly saw cheffs licking fingers, wine was hot, lasagne was tasting weird and they used some different meat, the chicken parmigiana was literally nothing special.

Definitely not going back at all, I don't think that place should ever called an...