Pizzeria Pappagone — Restaurant in London

Good food but aggressive and rude management ruined the evening.

I was in a large group (15) celebrating a birthday Saturday evening. We were told we had the table for 2 hours and we were happy with that. The service was a bit slow as the restaurant was busy. Not everyone was getting to place drink orders, not everyone got cutlery. But we didn't mind, understanding that these things happen.

However, after taking our desert orders just before the end of our 2 hour slot, we saw the manager have a word with our waiter before the bill appeared telling us we needed to leave ASAP. We hadn't even received our deserts yet and this made us feel uncomfortable and that we would have to rush our puddings.

Because of this, we asked the waiter to remove the service charge from our bill. The service had been slow, but more importantly we had been made to feel uncomfortable and didn't feel that it was our fault we had over run on our 2 hour slot. We would have happily not had desert if we had been told before ordering they needed the table back.

The manager then came over and basically had a go at our whole group. He blamed us for the slow service. He blamed Brexit for the slow service. He accused us of screwing his staff over as they needed the service charge as they were only on a "basic wage." He then started demanding to know what members of our group did for work. He was incredibly rude and incredibly loud, shouting in the faces of some of the people in our group.

Some of our group have been going to this restaurant for over a decade. The food is usually very good and in the past the service has been too. But the behaviour of the manager on this occasion was shocking and quite frankly disgusting.

We felt terrible for the waiter who had to stand by watching while his manager shouted at us in front of the whole restaurant. After the managers actions, we were never going pay a service charge, despite his demanding and guilt tripping. Our bill was around £600, so it's not like we hadn't already spent a lot of money during out time there! However we did give a cash tip to our waiter, wanting him to keep it for himself. We understood he was doing the best he could during a busy service.

This experience left a very bad taste in our mouths. We will not be returning to a much loved restaurant now.

It is such a shame that the management couldn't handle a minor issue in a civil way. He approached us on the defensive, ready to argue. If he had handled it differently, maybe even just appologising for slow service and explaining the situation in a calm manner, we probably would have just paid the service charge because up until then, we were happy with our evening there. But instead he seemed intent on making us the problem.

I have never been somewhere and seen a member of staff, let alone a manager, address customers like that. The normally great food and friendly staff is not enough for me to overlook the manager's behaviour that night. I can't imagine how it must have looked to other customers in...

My husband doesn't like my cooking, (but my friends do) however he deserved a reward for doing several hours of household chores. He wanted an Italian meal, he often asks for an Italian meal but only ever orders chicken Milanese. I wanted somewhere buzzy, exciting and delicious so we set off via Crouch End to Stroud Green Road N4 3PX, an area that we often explore. One of the Italian restaurants is called Pizzeria Pappagone. It looked full inside at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon, and the overflow tables outside were all full as well. Clearly a very popular and successful venue. We went in and asked for a table, explaining that we hadn't booked. Apparently you can only book by phone or by going in and asking. The lovely man allowed us in but we had to leave by a certain time. It smelled good, and there was great music in the background. We ordered 2 virgin coladas and they were very creamy and heavenly. My husband happily ordered the Vitello Milanese. When it arrived it was huge and on the bone, the spaghetti was full of lovely sweet cherry tomatoes, the crunchy covering was perfect and not puffy. Every mouthful was a delight. I know because I kept raiding his plate. Although I really wanted pasta, hubby persuaded me to order the lamb chops. They were cooked to perfection, I gave him some scraps, and, as it came with big happy chips, I gave him half of those, as well as a reluctantly allowing him to taste my wonderful spicy tomato chutney which was possibly the best that I have ever tasted. The clientele were varied, but there were several young groups and many Italians which is always encouraging. Unfortunately we were greedy and wanted desserts; they reached the same high standard. He had a very rich Tiramisu, while I stuffed myself on a ginormous bowl of ice creams and after eights. I struggled to drive home and slept for 2 hours. We will return soon, and I really want to share Pizza and pasta with hubby next time. It all...

Hi Owner Please do your homework, find facts before you respond . Your staff need customer service training. Firstly Nicolas did not ask / take order for drinks, he is very rude person. You were not there yesterday, how do you know , we will have tap water? We might order, cocktail, mocktail drinks as we always order when we come. Please check order history, have we ever order tap water? We are regular customers . We didn’t said we want only 1 pizza, we were still looking on menu. This is discrimination with us . Wake up owner, you need to mistery shopper with your staff.

Don’t go this Restaurant anymore Terrible / rude/ unprofessional behaviour, discrimination , breach of Human Rights act 1998 by Nicolas I went this restaurant with family for lunch, Nicolas asked do you have booking, my wife said no, he was rushing however restaurant was not busy around 13.30 pm. My wife said we would like to order 2 large pizzas and sides dish and drinks. Nicolas said you have to order each meal for each person if you want table otherwise you can not have table, it said very loud, customers were looking at us, very rude and embarrassing. He left us , I called him, asked for his name, he said Nicolas. I said to Nicolas do you written policy or on website that each customer has to order each meal, he said no. We left restaurant, didn’t eat lunch. We could have Order foods and drinks, most of people spend money on drinks than foods. We are Asian, if we were white if wouldn’t treat us rude , unprofessional and discrimination. I would like prompt response from management, Nicolas needs customer service training and human rights. We are regular customers , likes foods and my family visits regularly and...