Mangia Bene — Restaurant in London

I would never visit this restaurant again.

The manager/owner was incredibly rude & arrogant and had no customer service skills at all. I went in with a friend for lunch and asked if they accepted taste card. They said yes, but I wouldn't be able to use it because I hadn't booked. I accepted this however I didn't like the manner in which the manager said this. I then asked on what days I would be able to use my taste card (this was before I tasted the food..) His response was "it depends whether we are busy or not - if we are busy, then you won't be able to use the taste card as we won't need your business". Need I say more......

The restaurant wasn't busy, but a group of 6 were seated right on top of us - so much so that neither my friend nor the person from the other party could move their seat. No apologies from the manager or an offer to move to another table (there were many others available). We therefore had to ask the waitress (who was lovely and appeared embarrassed by the owner's behaviour) to move seats.

Our food then arrived - we both ordered pizza and mistakenly thought these would be authentic pizzas. Unfortunately they had thick & doughy bases and were very similar to those of a pizza delivery chain. Because we didn't finish them, the waitress asked if anything was wrong and we explained that the quality of the pizzas weren't good and we were disappointed by the quality. She apologised and took them away.

The next minute, the owner appears at our table (we did not ask for money off our bill nor request to speak to the owner - we actually just wanted to pay and leave ASAP) and was quite confrontational demanding what was wrong with the food. This made us feel quite awkward as we really didn't want to speak to him again, but we explained that they were very thick and almost uncooked in the centre which he obviously didn't take kindly - his response was "well you managed to eat it" when in fact over half of my pizza was left uneaten.

Needless to say it was not a good experience and I will never be recommending or revisiting the...

To be honest the food wasn’t even 5-stars in my opinion, but I’m giving 5 stars because I want the owners to see this, and I don’t want to beat down a small business with a bad review. That being said, I’m writing this because my family and I have strong reason to believe that we were treated like second-class citizens at this restaurant due to racial discrimination.

First, I want to acknowledge that the staff were polite on the surface and never said anything overtly rude. However, after placing our orders, we waited well over an hour for our mains (we were a party of three with a reservation), while other tables— both larger and smaller groups— who arrived long after us were seated, served, finished their meals, and left.

At first, I made every excuse in my mind. Maybe pasta takes longer than pizza. Maybe they prioritize bigger tables. Maybe it’s easier to serve smaller groups first. Maybe the things we ordered just take longer to make. Maybe it’s all a coincidence that we were the only Asian family in the restaurant and the only group waiting so long. I didn’t want to believe that, and I didn’t want to be mad, because I wanted to just enjoy a nice meal with my family on a rare vacation before a big day at the marathon tomorrow.

But the breaking point came when I saw multiple tables seated half an hour after us being served the SAME dishes we had ordered. It became clear that it wasn’t about what we ordered or the size of our party — and I was left to conclude that there was another reason we were being deprioritized.

I gave as much benefit of the doubt as I could, and even now, I don’t have it in my heart to leave a low rating for a small and hardworking business. But I do feel a responsibility to speak up because this hasn’t happened to us before and this treatment isn’t right.

To the staff working that night— I urge you to reflect on how and why this happened. Please understand that these patterns of behavior are not invisible. We noticed. We were hurt. And you have the power...

This place was a great find. Slightly off the beaten track near Upper Street it's definitely worth a small diversion. For starters we tried the 2 specials; Parmigiana melanzanne & King prawn with chilli and garlic. The melanzanne in particular was fantastic and probably the best I've ever eaten. Just cheesy enough and not overly greasy or oily.

Onto mains and we decided to go for one of each of the Italian options. Pepperoni and artichoke pizza plus Fettuccine pasta with porcini mushrooms and truffle. The pizza that arrived was actually not what I ordered and even though they were going to replace it the pizza looked far too good to send back. Both dishes tasted fantastic and the pizza crust was just the right thickness.

The house red wine tasting was a multipulciano and it £14 was incredible value for money.

Just to round things off the manager brought over a free crème caramel to say sorry for the pizza mistake.

This place is well...