Quartieri italian restaurant — Restaurant in London

If you decide your card machine isn’t working at the point of billing, and request that I go across the road to a grimy, possibly dodgy cash machine which charges £2, then DO NOT have the audacity to watch me like a hawk while I pack my bag (with valuables in it) and then ask me to leave it on the premises as insurance in case I do a runner? What on earth were you thinking of? I was then called back as “the manager says he can handle the card transaction on his phone” – but as it transpired, not on his phone at all, but on the card reader, the one supposedly not working – that is odd, to say the least. Further, I ask for the card receipt, and get given the standard bill again (and not even any suggestion of removing the service charge). All this after a basic service error spoiled my meal; I ordered a pizza plus two sides, but the latter arrived as starters. Being heavy with oil (which would have been fine, as starters), it naturally impacted my appetite by the time my pizza arrived. The food itself; the caponata with aubergine, capers, olives in tomato sauce was delicious, and the stewed friarielli broccoli was lovely too, no issues there, they just should have been served as sides, as requested. If the waitress or even the chef wasn’t sure, why not ask? This is so basic, it wasn't busy, there’s just no reason to get this wrong. My pizza, a special with aubergine and ricotta, was piping hot, full of fresh ingredients, everything had a feel of quality. However, perhaps from the ricotta, it was the wettest (as in oddly watery) pizza I’ve ever had, perhaps not cooked enough (was very, very soft aside from nicely charred edges) and the ricotta needed draining (I'm not sure what's feasible), and unfortunately this did spoil it. Perhaps needed another minute or two in the oven? Back to the service; I don’t want to blame the waitress, who seemed very nice (until the awkwardness at the end), I think it’s down to a total lack of training and awareness of priorities and customer service. I liked this place for years, I’ve reviewed it very favourably on prominent websites before, but I won’t be back. This was appalling, and I feel very let down.

EDIT: Response to owner's reply, which includes several untruths. (1) No, you/the waitress absolutely DID NOT inform me about no card payments when I arrived and sat down. (2) No, you/the waitress absolutely DID NOT inform me about the card machine's £2 charge and offer to remove the equivalent from my bill. (3) No, you did not 'offer' that I could leave my bag on the premises, the waitress asked me to do so. And how on earth could carrying my own rucksack outside possibly be safer than leaving it in the restaurant? (Not to say I would expect the waitress to leave it abandoned, but obviously I would rather keep valuables with me). This was CLEARLY as insurance in case I disappeared without paying, as the waitress could see I wasn't happy about the matter (though I was polite for the whole evening and had no issues with the waitress; as I said, not her fault). In addition, why would I be asked to go and get cash if you knew you could use a separate card reader anyway? That can't be due to lack of receipts, else why call me back and say you'd use that option? If that were true, you'd simply have said you can't give a card receipt? Please, I've been dining for decades, don't try to fool me with rubbish. The fact you've chosen to reply and made completely false statements is insulting and makes me curious about your supposed card failure and preference for cash. If you're going to reply to irritated customers, I suggest you stick to the facts. I was hoping this would be a decent acknowledgement and apology, to which I would have added a positive comment at the top. Sorry, but trying to wriggle out via stating untruths is...

We were excited to try a local, independent pizza restaurant - and we were encouraged by the generally positive reviews. However, regrettably, we won't be going back.

Our meal was fine. The pizzas were good but not great. My puttanesca had a good crust at the edge, but the middle was sloppy with tomato sauce so it was very hard to eat - almost needed a spoon. The capers were all in one spot so most of the pizza had none. The other two pizzas were ok, nothing special. Given they were £12, £13, and £14 respectively, they should have been excellent. Sacre Cuore (similar prices) and Franco Manca (cheaper) are both considerably better.

However, the real turn off was the service. Indifferent and cool throughout the meal, it turned surreal at the end. The waitress presented our bill (with unmentioned 12.5 per cent service charge added) with the card reader ready in hand, and I paid it. Then I noticed that we had been charged £7 for a side salad which was £5 on the menu. We called the waitress back and told her. She said, "Oh come on, it's only two pounds." (!) We said, No, it's not what we expected to pay. She said we had had a large salad, so it was more. But there was no large option, and no £7 salad, and we had not asked for a larger salad. For the record, the salad was extremely basic and not large: a cereal bowl-sized medley of iceberg lettuce, a few chopped cherry tomatoes and slices of carrot, in a very rudimentary dressing. (The £4.95 salad at Franco Manca up the road knocks spots off this one, with beautiful leaves, olives, dried tomatoes, quality dressing.)

Anyway, we looked at the menu with the waitress, and confirmed that there was no large option.

Grudgingly she gave us back our £2. But no apology.

When we left moments later, I said thank you and goodbye to her, and she quite obviously ignored me! I tried again as I passed her, and she shunned me again. Very rude and very odd.

I would certainly not have bothered to write this review if she had been courteous - I would have put the average food down to...

I had quite high hopes for this place, as a local to Kilburn for 5 years, I get very excited when a new place opens which isn't a chicken, kebab or pound shop, of which there are too many in Kilburn.

So I was looking forward to having a new local place to eat where the food is good quality and the atmosphere is good.

It was very promising to start with, you can tell a lot of thought has gone into making the place, the planted wall is lovely, the furniture choice is very tasteful and the menus have an interesting graphic design. The place looks reasonably trendy. This is in contrast to many places in Kilburn, which are refurbished cheaply and without giving any thought to interior design.

The menu, mostly pizzas, was also promising.

We visited a weekday at lunchtime and we were the only customers, apart from one table who looked like they were friends of the owners or journalists - I got the impression they were reviewing them.

The failing of this place in my experience is that the owner, who was waiting the tables too, doesn't know how to do it.

Despite us being the only table to serve, he took ages to get our order, as he was more interested in being friendly to the guys in the other table (the journalists).

When he brought the food he was leaving the plate in the corner of the table rather than making the slightest effort to give it to the right person, and when he brought the mains (we had finished our starter), he just left the dirty plates on the table, for us to pile up and make space for the pizzas. It felt like serving tables was beneath him.

So my advice to him is to hire a professional who knows how to do it and for him to handle the PR, which he is doing very well having read all those positive reviews he has managed to get.

The food was ok, but I found the tomato sauce in the pizza too salty.

All in all I prefer the pizza from Franco Manca down the road, where they are super friendly and they know how to...