Rudy's Pizza Napoletana — Restaurant in London

1/5

I’ll start with the positives: the host tonight who was wearing the tiny sunglasses was so sweet and he was such a vibe. The pizza was also good, the dough is exactly like Franco Manca so if you like one you’ll like the other.

However I will never come back to Rudy’s because of the horrible customer service I got from our waiter Clemmy. He was not only acting slimy and getting in our personal space all evening, being overly friendly in an uncomfortable way, but also made fun of me for asking for no garlic on my marinara pizza and no cheese on my Caesar salad. Which I could have gotten over because okay, asking for 2 menu changes can come across as “difficult” to some people, but then he brought the Caesar salad out absolutely covered in cheese. I politely said to him, “Sorry, I asked for no cheese on the salad” and he responded flatly, “you can’t remove the cheese”. Which is a lie, and so stupid because the cheese was clearly just dumped on the top of the salad. He refused to try to get me a new one with no cheese so I ended up picking the salad apart and just eating a few leaves underneath that didn’t have cheese.

He then came to get the salad when we finished our pizzas and he laughed, saying “you didn’t eat it because of the cheese?” And I said “yes because I asked for no cheese and you told me that was fine but then brought it with cheese”. And he laughed again shaking his head, walking away.

When I asked for the bill, we waited for 30 minutes for him to bother to remember to bring it. When it finally arrived I asked for the salad to be removed or discounted because of his error, to which he started arguing with me that I never asked for no cheese. (?!?!) At this point my friend was just gaping at him because she remembered that I definitely asked for no cheese on the salad as well, and we were both just looking at each other shocked at his rudeness. He said he couldn’t remove the salad from the bill anyway because he didn’t have the power to. I used to work as a waitress for many years and lots of different restaurants, and I know for a fact that he could have easily grabbed his supervisor to remove the salad from the bill which happens all the time in service and takes 2 minutes, but he clearly couldn’t be bothered to make it right and admit he’d made a mistake. Honestly disgusting behaviour for someone getting paid to interact professionally with customers.

He then gave us the card machine with the cost split in 2, and as I was paying, he had added the “optional” service charge onto our total without asking or giving me the option. That was honestly the cherry on the cake of the worst experience with a waiter ever because when I realised this, my Apple Pay had already gone through so I couldn’t ask him to remove it.

He then pushed us so hard when we were about to leave saying we needed to leave a review and talking us through the QR code, leaning over and getting creepily close to my friend’s face who was already so uncomfortable, and I just laughed because if he wants a review so bad, here it is!

If you go to Rudy’s, I would make sure your waiter isn’t named Clemmy if I were you 😊 But I’ve only ever had positive experiences with staff at Franco Manca so I’d recommend you go...

It was about 8pm on a Friday night and we waited about 15 mins to be seated (accepted counter seating).

The restaurant was full, and had a vibrant atmosphere. It was bustling with life, although dimly lit (for ambience) and people were chatting through their meal. This seemed to be a great spot for catch ups and chilling.

We ordered a sharing starter (chose vegetarian coz I didn't want to overload on processed meats) and portions were big. I absolutely loved this starter (will order again!) - came with several pieces of toasted rustic bread, sliced buffalo mozzarella, roast peppers, roast almonds, grilled artichoke, and green olives. Everything was super tasty.

We went for 2 pizzas (coz my conscience could only handle so much carbs 🤣)... Calabrese and a special which wasn't on the menu.

Calabrese comes with spicy Italian sausage and we added a burrata to it. The buerata came a minute after the pizza was served... so I initially thought they'd sliced it up and baked it together. But the surprise came when they delivered the pizza and afterwards came with the burrata and added it in the middle of the pizza. Perfection!

I highly recommend adding the burrata - after slicing it, the sweet creamy texture oozed onto every slice and I lathered it all over before rolling my pizza and stuffing it into my mouth in 2 bites. Heaven. 😍

The special pizza (on the black board) didn't disappoint either.. It comes with Fennel sausage, green chilli, olives and I don't remember what else but I absolutely loved it. If you can take some spice, this is truly an amazing pizza.

Both pizzas tasted really good. My only complaint about the pizzas at Rudy's is that... the pizza base tends to get soggy. Both pizzas ordered had soggy bases and even the crust is soft and soggy. But the centre bits (obviously soggy and soaked) were delicious because the ingredients were generous and tasty.

Rudy's was a new experience for me, and I hadn't actually looked forward to another pizza after visiting another pizzeria yesterday. But I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

What surprised and delighted me was the friendly prices. It definitely looks more upmarket than the cheap and cheerful pizza outlet I'd visited the previous night, but the pizza prices were comparable! Unbelievable! And the pizzas were quite delicious, although I would have preferred a more sturdy crust. Nevertheless, that deterred me from eating more carbs, so I'm not too bothered... 😂

I'm glad to add Rudy's to my list of pizza places to visit in the future. Definitely...

Service ZERO stars. I would not go here again. They had three different people wait my table (which I did not have an issue with), until I asked for the bill, paid it, and left the restaurant. On my way out I ran into a friend who was supposed to meet me down the street and was chatting with them. Then I hear someone from behind shouting at me to wait. I was shocked because I don't know anyone else in London. I turn back and ask if it was me they were referring to.

And the guy says YES YOU! YOU DIDN'T PAY FOR YOUR FOOD! It took me a whole second to realize what he is accusing me of. I was shocked and so was my friend. I told him I did in fact pay. He looked very damning so I suggested we go back and check with the other 3 people who waited my table (which he already should have checked with before accusing a customer). He walks in as is keeping an eye on me so I don't run away. I see him point at me and ask the waiters who cleaned my table. They all nodded. He then turns back to me and says the most forced "sorry" I have ever heard and faces away basically running back into the kitchen. What a horrible business owner/manager/or whatever he was.

Other things:

When I entered there was no one at the reception desk to help me find a table, I waited a few minutes, no one showed up. Then, I walked in and asked one of the staff after they were walking away from a table. They gave me a weird look and said to go to the front (where I was before) and called someone.

The place has a nice atmosphere. The food was okay. I ordered the pizza with mushroom toppings but I had to wait a long time even though they were...