Paesan Crouch End — Restaurant in London

I know it’s a long message but trust me, it gets interesting at the end.

I walked into Paesan on a Friday eve at around 8.45pm on my own with a book and my wallet in hand. I asked for a table for one outside and immediately got sat upstairs. Minutes later I ordered a glass of wine, the courgette fries and the polpo pasta.The restaurant wasn’t busy as it was already late for Crouch End standards but a couple of people were still arriving next to me. However 10, 15, 20 minutes had passed and all I saw was every customer tucking into their food, except me! How long can some courgette fries and a bowl of pasta can take!? I wondered. I asked the waitress about my food to what she replied ‘sorry the other waitress forgot to put your order in’. 'No worries, it’s all good' I said with a big smile as I was happy reading my book and drinking my crisp and fruity glass of wine in peace. 5 minutes passed and my small bowl of fresh pasta arrived ready to be devoured by a now - very hungry lady! I assumed they had forgotten about the courgette fries as I was almost finished with my pasta and there was no sight of the waitress bringing anything else to my table. Once again I called the waitress over and asked ‘excuse me, you know if the fries are coming?’ Her reply ‘let me check.’ Sure enough they forgot about the fries. A few minutes passed and a very pissed off Italian man approached my table with a mountain of courgette fries on a plate. Pointing at my empty bowl I said ‘no thank you, Im finished and what’s the point of those now.’ He shrugged his shoulders like my 5 year old child would, picked up the plate abruptly and with an attitude he said ‘no worries I’ll eat those anyways’ and walked off. I walked downstairs and I asked for the bill to the same rude man. ‘May I have my bill please and I’m only paying for my glass of wine’ which was £11. His reply ‘No, you’re only paying for the pasta.’ ‘Great and please take the service charge off too’ I replied with a straight face. He handed me a machine with £16 for my pasta, I tapped my Amex and the transaction failed. ‘We don’t take Amex’ said the bitter man whose name - by the way - is AMARIO. ‘Im sorry all I have with me is this card and I didn’t bring my phone’ I said politely but serious. 'OK THEN WE ARE CALLING THE POLICE!!’ was Amario’s loud and threatening reaction whilst reaching the phone on the counter. My thought, ’The Police?!? That’s a bit harsh. All I need to do is call my husband (who is a few blocks away at home) to bring me my other card! Which I did a couple of minutes later using the restaurant phone. My husband came, paid my £16 bill and we left. I never got an apology for my missing food, the inconvenience or the bad experience. We did however got a ‘fuck off’ from Amario on the way out.

I was treated like a thief when Amario threatened to call the police and this is absolutely unacceptable. Im a reputable member of the community and a local mum, and I love to support the local businesses in the neighbourhood. This is something that shouldn’t happen because an unexperienced restaurant manager can’t take up a busy friday night shift and can’t control his anger.

Customer service AND respect in a hospitality business is everything in this day and age. I was never rude or impolite and all I was expecting was a SORRY.

P.S. Food is just ok, nothing special and definitely not worth the...

This might be the worst service I’ve ever had in my life… Upon entering the restaurant we were immediately met with looks of confusion and ignored until I approached the bar and asked about our reservation with appeared to spark even more confusion. After sitting down on what could be a lovely terrace, if not for the fake plants and insufficient wind/rain covers, we were offered water that never arrived. Three times we had to ask before a bottle arrived, not tap water but bottled mineral water as every other table had unlabelled tap water bottles. The indoors seating area was quite lifeless in ambience and the terrace outside was better but let down by the extremely uncomfortable and tiny table and chairs they have set up. We ordered two mixed drinks, two appetisers and two pasta dishes. We were told that they’d run out of the one appetiser, so we ordered another but they had run out of that also. It’s 7:30pm and the restaurant is fairly empty… We ended up ordering two of the same appetiser which arrived as two huge piles of fried, soggy courgette. The waiter should have seen that a couple wouldn’t need two plates of this and advised us against it. This is where I realised this waiter was extremely clueless about service. We then sat for 45 minutes and noticed the complaints of other guests around us, a couple next to us was given their desserts but had to ask for cutlery. The other couple nearby on a first date had to ask SIX times for her glass of wine. When it arrived the waiter did not apologise, he even accepted the girls apology for asking so much. This was the final straw for me and I had to approach the kitchen to find out what is going on. After approaching the manager and kitchen staff it appeared that our main food order hadn’t even reached the kitchen. Graciously the manager allowed us to leave without charge but I am still shocked at the service of this restaurant. We dashed around the corner to check if Little Mercies had a table and ate there for the second time this week, I would advise anyone to avoid Paesan and instead go to Little Mercies or...

I felt compelled to leave this review because the staff at Paesan need to be made aware of this. Went there for dinner and we arrived 15 mins later than our booked time slot - fair enough, our fault. We thought we had in fact book for 15 min later. Upon greeting us (in an empty restaurant) we were reprimanded for arriving 15 minutes late and that “they still had the table but it would be needed by (insert time).” Fair enough, very understandable and we wear that, HOWEVER, the passive aggressive manner in which the front of house manager informed us of this was entirely unnecessary. Ok, we move on. Next we are seated on the terrace RIGHT next to another couple, jammed in the corner. The rest of the terrace is empty. Ummm ok. It was ridiculously close and the couple immediately offered to move because it was beyond awkward (think of an empty cinema and people come and sit right next to you) and were promptly told by the manager that “all the other tables are booked”. Now again, totally understandable except those other tables didn’t arrive until almost an hour later. It’s hospitality 101 to stagger early seatings so this doesn’t happen. We were served by a lovely waitress who was very friendly and helpful. She hadn’t moved some of the glasses and cutlery from a table and the same front of house manager, not very quietly, reprimanded her IN FRONT OF US. It was incredibly awkward as we could hear all of it and incredibly unprofessional. There is a time and place to tell your staff if they are doing something wrong, but in front of the patrons is absolutely not the right time. The food was lovely and in physical ambience very charming. But I cannot give more than two stars because of the unnecessary, rude and frankly, unprofessional behaviour of the front of house manager. Perhaps hospitality is not for you? The service experience IS the experience. Probably will choose another...