Pesantissimo — Restaurant in London

I have been ordering from Pessantisimo for a long time and I have never had a problem until today. The food was always excellent, delivered on time, I enjoyed ordering previously but was shouted at on the phone by a member of staff because I asked why it was 'collection only' when I ordered for delivery at the right time. I was met with a barrage of abuse when I told them I placed the order at the correct time and expected delivery. I found out that they apparently don't deliver to my postcode anymore but there was no notification on 'Just Eat' that this was the case. If there had been, then I wouldn't have placed the order. The staff need to work at improving their customer service when it comes to legitimate complaints. You do not argue on the phone with customers especially when they have spent a lot of money and been a loyal customer. I unfortunately will never be visiting the restaurant after this. A bad experience which has put me off ever dealing with them again. They could have said 'Yes, it is collection only from now on, we're sorry but we will deliver to you anyway this one time as you didn't know.' That would have resolved the problem in less than 30 seconds. Before the waiter agreed to a delivery option, he argued with me for 5 minutes beforehand! That is very poor customer service. I declined the delivery option, got a refund and ordered elsewhere. If they had agreed to a delivery option initially so the miscommunication could have been rectified before arguing with me, then I would have said yes and agreed to delivery but they chose to argue with me. Not acceptable. Shocking way to speak to a customer who has given them regular business.

RE: Response from the Owner

In regards to my 'unreasonable' and 'improper' suggestion, I had simply requested to know why you could not make delivery when there was no indication on the app that you wouldn't be able to - instead, I was argued with. I was not 'politely informed' as you state. As a long standing customer you should have acted with the professionalism that I had come to expect and sent the delivery anyway as an apology/goodwill gesture (considering I have been a loyal and regular customer) before arguing with me. You didn't. I am very angry and shocked that I was spoken to in such a way when I made a straightforward enquiry. Your restaurant is very close to my postcode so the fact that you are 'all the way in Primrose Hill' is a very weak excuse. (And I do not live in Holborn as you are well aware). I am a 10 -15 minute drive away from the restaurant. (I actually ordered from a restaurant further away from my address this evening and they didn't complain about having to travel here like you have done). You could have handled this much more professionally than you did....

I never really gave this place a shot on account its name, which I'm pretty sure means 'very heavy' or something like that in italian. I mean, I know italian can be pretty heavy, but I like to sell myself the lie that it won't be. Fair or unfair that's just me and I like to provide context. I like my restaurant names to align with the lies I tell myself. Like Pret. I am ready for nothing, but happy to believe I am.

Anyways – I gave this place a shot when I saw it discounted by 50% on Deliveroo (it has been every day since like april). I don't know what their margins are, but let's just say it buys them a lot of goodwill in the old review dept. You'd have to be a monster to assail half-off pizza. Even if it was on fire when it arrived.

It's thoroughly decent stuff. When people come from out of town, I don't think it'll be on the list. But you know, for a quiet night in it's great. The dough is suitably restaurant caliber, the toppings too. I think anyone rating this place below a four needs to question their own expectations and chill out a little too. Unless they ordered the char-grilled veggies, those I have to admit were objectively pretty bland.

I do sometimes stay up at night worrying this place has done the Gap thing of discounting itself into oblivion, making the prospect of paying full price ludicrous. But I mean, what am I? A pizza business analyst? They probably have a plan to wean people off the half-price pizza and get them re-accustomed to paying full price. Maybe they'll add more cheese or something, dunno. But it will be interesting to see. Order one now, so you can have strong opinions in a future before/after debate. I suspect there will be many and you will not want to...

HORRIBLE!!! I just ordered a pizza from there and found a roach in it!!!! I called the restaurant and the rude woman said i had to call Deliveroo, refused to give me her name and told me to call back in the evening to speak to the manager because she was busy! She Clearly didn't care so have reported to the council!!! Following the insulting response below being encouraged to 'do the right thing', please see attached the highlighted report. Also attached the owners initial response (amazing customer service guys well done - makes sense why you would delete it) In regards to the 'Surprised Visit' I told your rude member of staff on the day of this incident i would be reporting you. I wrote in this review on the day of the incident that I would be reporting you. As you can see from your initial response you even told me to report you... So let's be honest it wasn't much of a surprise. The review and photos of my experience from your restaurant will be staying up. This is not the first review of a free insect in someone's food so if people want to see that they can scroll down for more photos. People will also see clearly how you have handled this situation and the fact you had notice you would be getting an inspection so you had plenty of time to do a quick clean up, they will also see the photos of the roach in my pizza so the mediocre report doesn't make much difference. If you are going to tell people to 'be kind and do the right thing' you should definitely start with yourself and your staff. Not once has anyone ever apologized or acknowledged what was in my food I purchased from you. I won't be commenting further or removing the review. Say Hi to the 'isolated under control pests'...