Guido's — Restaurant in London

Guido's is the antidote to the likes of fast "Italian" lunch spots in the City that peddle under seasoned, overcooked, soggy and tasteless pastas. They cook all their pastas to order (al dente, of course) and finished in the pan with the sauces, and you have the option of adding a slice of bread to the bottom of the portion (it's an Italian thing, apparently), as well as a sprinkle of parmesan and black pepper on top. All the flavours are great too (although the Nduja one I tried was the only one that didn't quite hit the spot - I think it could have done with a little more sauce), with specials that come in every now and then as well. I've not timed them, but each order doesn't seem to take too long to prepare (even though they're made to order), and even during their lunch rush they are just as efficient, and you can see each order being made in a production line in front of you. I just...

Unfortunately, I've tried pasta from this place at least on three occasions and each time it got more and more disappointing. I work nearby, so thought I'd give them a chance. For a pasta place, that specialises in pasta, astonishingly, they do not know how to prepare pasta. When I tried arabbiata, it barely had any tomato sauce and was way overcooked. Carbonara was, overcooked awful, with huge pieces of fat, poor quality "Guanciale". At last, I tried cacio e pepe and asked for gluten free pasta (as it is harder to overcook it). For a pasta with two ingredients, one was missing, there was no pepper in there whatsoever. The cheese was hard and not saucy as it should be. Three chances is enough, not going to eat their...

I shouldn’t be harsh. Lunch in London is ridiculously expensive. However when I found a piece of bread at the bottom of my box I wasn’t impressed. I had the pesto pasta, it wasn’t anything special. The soggy bread wasn’t complimenting my £10 lunch. I can imagine it might be nice with the meat option. It wasn’t for me. The service was terrible even when I went off peak. There is surely something about this place as the queue is long, but the veggie option is utterly overpriced and doesn’t taste that amazing that I would ever want to...