La Famiglia — Restaurant in London

I have no idea why this restaurant is a favorite amongst locals when both the service and food are subpar. We were seated promptly but after that we were completely ignored. After 15 minutes we had to flag down one of the many scattered waiters (who only seemed interested in helping one table with a woman who wore sunglasses inside and had two nannies for her two kids at the table) just to get our menus.

We never had the same waiter. One brought us menus, one took our order, one took the food away. All terrible by the way because none did their job without being flagged down many times even though they stood around talking.

I ordered the ore with pesto. I’ve been to Italy many times and dated an Italian whose mother made authentic food not to mention I’ve made my own pasta from scratch so I know what good Italian food should taste like. What I received was not good pasta. The pesto was lackluster and barely had any flavor not to mention there wasn’t a lot of it. I didn’t eat much and when yet another waiter came over (by us calling him over not because they’re proactive about serving customers) he asked how the food was like a robot despite seeing that I barely ate my food. No one came over before then to ask how everything was. No one came by to give us drink refills on our water. I had bottled water so it was easy for them to see when the bottle was empty. Very poor service. Can’t reiterate this enough.

Very expensive but for what? Bad service and underwhelming food? They do provide bread which was fine but nothing special. Not great, not bad. Their breadsticks had barely in them which is a filler ingredient.

What stood out other than poor service was the dessert cart sitting out without any concern for the cheesecake and other dairy desserts being a perishable that should be refrigerated. It sat there the entire time blocking the walkway as well. We weren’t even offered dessert or tea because the service was horrible. Yet another thing customers have to get the attention of a waiter for. We obviously didn’t want any after seeing it sit out for over an hour so it wasn’t a loss. I witnessed one waiter serve what looked like slop instead of a slice because he didn’t know how to dish it out properly.

The only redeeming quality about this restaurant is their female bathroom but it’s not mobility friendly at all since it’s down a long set of narrow stairs. It was clean and nicely decorated. Two stars for the loo.

One more thing that bothered us was the fact a girl (over the age of three) ran around with no shoes on and no one said anything. Nothing posh about this place...

We chose this restaurant based on its location, inviting interior and generally positive Google reviews. However, the less favourable TripAdvisor reviews should have been a warning sign.

The warm welcome was a good start, but unfortunately, the service and food didn’t meet expectations.

From the outset, the service felt rushed. We wanted to order drinks first and take our time reviewing the menu, but the waiter pushed to take our full order straight away, making us feel hurried rather than relaxed. Overall the the wait staff were nice and friendly.

The starter of liver pâté was awful - overpoweringly strong taste of offal, with little other detectable ingredients to balance the flavour. It was served warm, as if it had just been made, which was surprising since there was nothing on the menu to indicate this. In our experience, pâté is served cold and kept in the fridge to allow the flavours to develop. This version, however, was simply unpleasant. My wife found it inedible and had to send it back. When we mentioned our disappointment, we were simply told, “That’s how we do it here.” We find that hard to believe, as we’ve never had pâté like this before. Despite returning it, we were still charged. It was also served with barely griddled bread instead of crostini, which felt like an odd choice and didn’t work as everything was soft and mushy.

The mains were an improvement - prepared quite well and reasonably enjoyable, while the desserts were good but unremarkable. However, the prices were far too high for the overall quality. While the restaurant’s reputation and location may justify some of the cost, it didn’t feel worth it.

With so many great dining options nearby, this wasn’t the best choice. At £200 for two (inc. two glasses of wine), we left feeling...

La Famiglia a once respect household name in the local area has declined so much that they have lost their identity. Parking aside the food which for locals and regulars we know has been in decline for years, however, we still go despite this, in whole, due to the friendly staff and family feel, however, this reviewer can say this is no longer the case. My parents have been going to this venue for over 40 years and I can say with conviction I witnessed the most disgusting and uncomfortable display by the waiting staff and their manager who single-handedly destroyed my mother’s 80th birthday with their rude, vile, and disgusting attitudes, if one weren’t rational, I’d have believed this was a set up and or a hidden camera show for comedic effect.

The waiter who sadly miss heard the order which resulted in us receiving the wrong food, proceed to talk down to my elderly parents and for context, there is quite a big age difference, proceeded to tell in the most condescending way possible that this was our order, not ask and or offer up an apology for his mistake, personally, I wanted to get up and punch him. The final straw while leaving was my mother trying to explain to the on-duty manager what happened and trying to give him constructive feedback, again, a further argumentative reply in the most patronising way possible which led to him arguing with 80-year-old women, which at this point I wanted to throw a chair at him.

It’s very clear that the team at La Famiglia are ageist and I shudder to think how they treat their own parents let alone their grandparents.

Please save yourself the time, the King’s Road offers amble restaurants with polite staff that will not argue with you and or ruin...