Sacro Cuore Pizza — Restaurant in London

It's a shame I have to give a 3 star to this place (same thing that happened to me with its counterpart Santa Maria in Ealing, where my experience was worse if possible).

So, let's review the good stuff first. The pizza. It's very good. Dough, taste, the way it's cooked, I mean, really, you can't complain - To get better you only have to go to Napoli (where I am from, by the way) and get fresher ingredients (for obvious reasons: it's local ingredients). Considering we're in London, I could give this pizza a 4/4.5 out of 5. And that's the only reason why this place is getting a 3 star, otherwise it'd have got much less. Also good was the waitress; at Santa Maria (instead) I was treated like I was doing them a favour by eating there.

Now, let's go on the bad stuff. This bad stuff are things that will probably not affect an English speaker eating there. It will probably affect an Italian speaker to a certain level. But it really gets into you if you are a Neapolitan like I am.

Half of the music played in background by this place represent the worst part of the Neapolitan culture; which I can't deny, but I also don't like and by far prefer they myriad of positive aspects of the Neapolitan culture instead.

While I was eating my delicious pizza with my wife, I had to cope with "Cornutone" by Squallor, a song in Neapolitan language full of swearwords and sexual vulgarity. To follow, songs belonging to the so-called "neo-melodic" genre, which are inspired (and funded) by criminality and often speak of such (more or less explicitly, depending on the song).

Much better would it have been if they'd have stuck with classics like "Torero" (by the worldwide known artist Renato Carosone), which was also part of the playlist yesterday night.

I don't want to get into the personal taste or life of the people that own/run the place, by I really don't think that's the kind of stuff you should be playing in...

As a local resident, I have eaten at this restaurant many times. I cannot fault the food – the pizzas are delicious. The one thing that has regularly let this place down is the service. Nine times out of ten when I have attended for lunch or dinner, there is only one waiter who is expected to serve the whole restaurant and organise lots of orders for home delivery. This frequently leads to slow wait times in being served. Today I attended and the poor waiter was rushed off his feet trying to do everything at once, but as usual this led to it taking over 10 minutes to try and order (other people waited longer and left). Once we had ordered, the chef forgot to make our pizza and we had chase this up ourselves, meaning it took over 35 minutes to arrive. The waiter was apologetic but I did request to not pay the service charge on this occasion but unfortunately he advised that it was compulsory and I had to pay it. I have been on Sacro Cuore's website which confirms the service charge is discretionary so I'm not sure why I was forced to pay it. This place could really do with extra staff so it does not let down the customers in the restaurant & justify why they force customers to pay a 'discretionary'...

The food is delicious. Really. But there a massive issue with the service. Went midweek for a dinner and shared a pizza, side and a salad with my friend. Bill said about £30 which I paid without looking at the card machine. 3 weeks later I look at my bank account and I’ve been charged £52. Mistakes happen so I made sure I went in when the waitress who took the payment was in to explain the situation. Politely. She then said “how do I know you’re not lying”, didn’t apologise, and that the system is refreshed every 2 weeks. Yes, but that can’t mean they have no single evidence of the payments they been taking?! Also how would I have details about a specific bill on a specific date/time if it wasn’t mine? So, she gives me the email of the manager so I can check with him. I email the manager with explanation and all the details. He replies that he’ll check. Haven’t heard anything in months. So I don’t feel comfortable going there anymore. Not because of £20 but because the staff was disrespectful and didn’t even consider they might have made a mistake. Do you think someone would make an elaborate plan to get the price of a pizza and a half? Super disappointed. My friends know not to go...