Pasero — Restaurant in London

This was a rather strange restaurant. The menu on the blackboard (see photo) which we were encouraged to take a pic of by the one waitress who appeared to be on duty that evening is headed 'Sharing plates'.

Our party of four people ordered patron peppers, leek with vinaigrette, barley, anchovies, small boiled potatoes with a crab dressing, etc - pleasant enough in terms of flavour, freshness and presentation, but the portion sizes appeared more suitable for voles, fieldmice or other small mammals.

We'd also ordered bread; three pieces of bread were proffered, and when one of our party pointed out there was a fourth person present, the lone waitress made a point of saying "yes, I can bring extra bread.

Inadequate place settings - we had to scavenge forks and spoons from an empty table. Also, we weren't provided with an additional fork or spoon for the sharing dishes. Again, we had to ask, and this request was fulfilled in a 'polite rude' manner (to quote another Pasero reviewer).

There were only two mains available: mackerel or chicken. It seems curious, to say the least, given Pasero's 'young creative' demographic, that no vegetarian (or vegan) main was available. This has been mentioned by other reviewers on here, so I don't believe we were just unlucky this one evening.

We departed hungry and £100 out of pocket. One might say this is not too pricey for four persons, but we ordered the cheapest house wine (£29) and no mains.

Fortunately, although we left famished and dismayed, we stopped off at a nearby kebab shop for some generously-filled bags of chips. And instead of Pasero's dessert menu, we scored some delicious and amply-sized cakes (£7.50 for 4) from the superb Bom Pecado...

Finally popped in to Pasero for some of their 'plates' of food, having bought lovely loaves of sourdough and coffees to go previously. The space has been beautifully fitted out with lots of wood and tiles and upcycled chairs etc., and it has a really calm ambience with a chic designer feel, and the service was friendly and attentive. The menu is mainly skewed towards vegetarian and vegan food, with a couple of both meaty and fishy/seafood options. We ordered arancini, 3 delicious crunchy bite-sized balls rice balls each served on a tasty little dollop of mushroom 'ketchup'; whipped beans, rather like a houmous, topped with toasted hazelnuts and braised fennel; burrata, covered with toasted flaked almonds and a herby green sauce that refreshingly wasn't pesto; and finally a generous plate of braised butterbeans with cavolo nero and Jerusalem artichokes, along with some crunchy sourdough to mop up any leftovers (if you've not eaten all bread as the vehicle for the deliciously light whipped butter with thyme and garlic that accompanies it.) Truly, this is wholesome food, tasty and healthy, nicely seasoned and presented simply. For the two of us, sharing four dishes and bread with butter, plus a really nice glass of red wine and one coffee and unlimited water (with the £1 charge going to a local youth charity) the bill was £55 including service, so it's not the cheapest local option, but I think it was worth it and is a nice and different option for West Green Road and the...

We were a walk in this evening. As each of us have either lived or worked in the area for approx 30 years on average, we were all really happy to see a bustling business in our local area. Three of us arrived first and were seated and were told we’d need to be out by 8. Fair enough as we hadn’t booked and were going somewhere else after. The other three in our party arrived gradually and were begrudgingly accommodated, though there was plenty of space at our table. The tapas we ordered were extremely slow to arrive but we were regularly reminded the table would be needed at 8 (which we had no problem with and didn’t need reminding of again and again) - when the sixth person in our party arrived, the manageress was reluctant to seat her and when I asked what was going on she said it was unfair to the customers next to us as they’d be squashed (nonsense). She then came over to apologise to them. They looked utterly bemused and insisted that it was not a problem to them, and gave us further reassurance of this when she left the table. Eventually at 7.50 we just asked for the bill. The food was okay but slow to arrive, waitress staff pleasant but the manageress needs to reflect on how she made us as customers feel - very unwelcome! I hope this is not another example of the locals being marginalised and pushed out of areas they have loved and invested in, but it certainly smacked of that to me. Very...