La Vita é Bella — Restaurant in London

I will aim to be as constructive and fair as possible with this review as I don't believe in leaving negative feedback that won't help a company, to put it short I found my experience to have some positives but unfortunately some negatives as well.

Firstly the restaurant looks lovely, it is well presented with a nice vibe, outside seating and good seating areas for larger groups. The place is clean with well kept bathrooms as well.

The Menus can be quite vague, I was first drawn to this with things such as the Ribeye steak, it can avoid disappointment if they were to have the size/weight of the steak listed on the menu for better transparency, there were no calorie counts that I could see either which would help judge portion sizes and I felt that the drinks menu was not as comprehensive as some other places, the introduction of a few types of ciders, fruit etc and flavored Gin may have help add some more variety to the menu.

Unfortunately transparency was the main issue with my visit, I had already anticipated my bill to come up to a sensible amount based on what I had ordered and going on a limb with some of the other additional items such as Mushrooms and Lemonade however I left feeling underwhelmed as a jug of lemonade ran me £24!

I note a charge of a few pounds for mushrooms in which there were few and far between in my meal which was disappointing but not the end of the world for an already lovely main course and having asked for a jug of lemonade I had hoped I clarified with the staff first about the brand as instead of it being mint free lemonade which I had asked for as their menu advertised it with mint ( which I believed to be Schweppes with perhaps a few mint leaves on top) another type was served to me which still had a mint aroma that wasnt my cup of tea, instead of making a fuss for this accommodation that the waiters kindly made, I anticipated the cost of the jug to be of a reasonable amount considering a glass (again no ml specified) was perhaps £5, my expectation was to take a hit on that even it was not fully up to what I wanted. The waiters were very kind and provided me with some dry ice in an attempt to carbonate it as in fact I wanted to use it for a wine spritz but I digress.

To my shock seeing the price of that at the end of the meal was concerning and certainly did not represent value for money, how can sub-standard lemonade tasting more of mint than lemons cost more than a bottle of wine you may ask? I had raised this with the staff and it only made me realize how different it could have been if I were to have sent it back initially after not getting what I expected, what I wanted, with a transparent price tag attached to it.

Quite frankly I would have preffered another meal as the portion sizes on some of the food and service was good and good value in a sense. I enjoyed the service provided and whilst I was left with a sour taste in my mouth regarding the outrageous lemonade bill that in a sense can be linked with the service and better customer care informing them of things that would be useful to know such as additional costs which are expected to be outlined clearly to a good standard,more so personally if they are new to the restaurant, I still enjoyed the hospitality and attention of the staff which is why I kept the service charge on as it would be unfair to take that away however I felt that more could be done both from the staff at the start to prevent this issue from happening and also at the end when querying it to reach an outcome that suited both parties under the circumstances especially with the amount of buisness brought in that night or atleast with the manager themselves as I understand that what the staff are telling me has not come from them, themselves.

I see myself coming back maybe to give it another go, but hopefully seeing what's been written can help identify where changes...

Sunday 27th of March evening service. I ventured to this restaurant yesterday and I am highly disappointed. Firstly, I did not expect much however I regret spending my money here. I absolutely do not intend to offend and I am not one to write bad reviews since this do harm a business a lot a times but yesterday was not good. The service was just fine, the waiters a bit all over the place at times but my family owns restaurants in Italy and god knows how difficult it is to find competent people on the floor and in the kitchen. Service 3/5 since we had to put our plates one on top of the other to make ourself noticed. The food now. We ordered a carpaccio, calamari fritti, two pastas, one pizza and three dessert. No drinks, only some still water. The carpaccio was embarrassing - It was so thinly cut it was barely there probably a total of 0.15gr counting the rucola and balsamic so it was a no; the calamari was also a no since the coating was coming off. The pastas, I didn't have the audacity of trying my mates pastas which said it was good but they have no idea of what they ingest so fair enough it was ok for them but I could tell what they were eating was unacceptable, I could say more about the produce and where it came from but I won't since what Ive said is enough. Now my pizza! I didn't say anything to the pizzaiolo/owner (?I think) when he asked cause people were around us and it was quite an open/vulnerable question. I am afraid Mr that the pizza was not "all good". It was paper thin and rock hard, the mozzarella was chopped on topped tasted cheap and the tomato passed on with a spoon before getting in the pizza oven made it weird looking ofc being basically the only thing on the pizza. I was meant to take the funghi one but the funghi were of course marinati (marinated). Disaster -1/5. The desserts. Home made apple pie with custard, tiramisu, and brownie with ice cream. I never get the tiramisu in restaurants if the meal wasn't actually outstanding (like 10 out of 5) since it would ruin my day so I decided to get the "home made apple pie with custard". I am truly sorry but the whole meal was a big mistake. We paid £75/76 which although it is not much (reason for which I gave two stars instead of zero) makes me upset since I wasted my Sunday evening. I also want to state that going to this Not For Italians restaurant was...

Have been coming here for years, and it’s really become a spot for all of our big family dinners and events, I’ve had my graduation and birthday here, countless other birthdays of other family members and tonight we had my mum’s 60th. And it’s because of the amazing food and great service, I cannot fault the restaurant and service. All of the staff were great today, I wish I got the name of the young lady serving us tonight cause she was so great and had to deal with a lot of different orders and changes as I guess is sometimes the case with family bookings, but still, thank you again as I know it was probably stressful, but she took it all in stride and was so friendly throughout. Also, my nephew is non-verbal and autistic, everyone is so understanding and they’ve never made us feel like anything was too much, the pizza chef, I believe his name is Roberto, was amazing, he’s taken the time on these last 2 occasions to really get him comfortable as previously we didn’t know if it would be feasible to bring him. He even gave him pizza dough to play with and it kept him occupied. So again, thank you all for the amazing service, this is a family favourite for a reason and that’s why I always bring friends here or recommend this as they always have gone above and beyond for us.

The lamb cutlets in particular are great 👌🏽, but loads of variety, can’t go wrong as it is halal, has gluten free and dairy free options also, so we are all covered...