San Carlo - Knightsbridge — Restaurant in London

I am sorry but I have to give 1 star to this restaurant for the service that we received. When the waitress came with the bill, I explained to her that we will share the bill between my friends. After that, the waitress asked about the service charge. I kindly told her that I will not pay it as the restaurant didn’t make it compulsory ( there was no mention of the compulsary service charge on the receipt or on the menu) In the UK, the service charge is usually optional, unless the restaurant specifically make it compulsary. She told me if anything was wrong with the service. I explained to her it’s nothing to do with the service or with her. After that, without saying anything, she straight went to speak with one of her colleague. ( I found this really rude). After that she came back, and I asked her if everything was okay as she disappeared. She was really moody and annoyed and said “ I AM GOING TO TAKE THIS PERSONALLY, WHO IS GOING TO PAY THE SERVICE THAT WE DO, DO YOU THINK WE WORK FOR FREE?” Despite the fact that the service was poor, she only took the order and then came back with the bill, during the dinner nobody came to see if everything was okay or if we needed anything. After that she said “ YOU DONT PAY THE SERVICE CHARGE BUT WE LET YOU IN WITHOUT A RESERVATION” I said to her that we weren’t told that we have to pay the service charge. She was speaking as if we had the dinner for free. We paid our dinner and I don’t understand what was her problem. And I am wondering whether she gets paid hourly or she gets paid only with the service charge.

Finally, when we left I said thank you very much and goodbye in a really polite way. However she didn’t reply back anything and she went away, in fact another staff replied to me and said thank you, goodbye.

I think her behaviour was utterly unacceptable and rude, she carried on arguing with us, even though we spoke with her politely and explained to her the reason why we didn’t want to pay the service charge. She cannot speak with customer with this attitude. The manger must speak with her and explained to her, her role with the customer. I am really disappointed with her service and with her behaviour. Also, she was mooning for the fact that she was working from 11am, it’s her job and she cannot moon about her hours with the customers. Only because she does long hours it doesn’t mean that we have to pay the service charge.

I don’t have a problem to pay the service charge if the restaurant make it clear that the service charge is compulsary, and this wasn’t the case with this restaurant.

The waitresses in question was a white Italian girl with black hair, height around 1,65. She is from Rome from what I understood. We went there around 21:40 on 10/12/23, we were three guys sat on the second table by the right side of...

As a regular Signor Sassi customer I was looking forward to trying this new restaurant. First time I came one of the managers who was taking my order has been very sarcastic. I ordered a buratta which in their menu came with eggplants and pistachios. He asked me if I want it with parma ham, I said please NO MEAT! I don't eat meat for ethical reasons, and I never touched pork because of my background! After some time I was served a burrata covered in parma ham!!! I felt nauseous! I was basically thrown pork into my face at Knightsbridge!!! They replaced it. Next time I came they served my main a mushroom risotto together with a cold starter which is unacceptable for a respectable restaurant!!! They removed it, and 20-30 minutes later served me the same cold risotto on a tiny bread plate. After they promised to make a new one, but they simply reheated same old watery and overcooked risotto in a microwave (please I can tell, it's very obvious). I felt very offended and couldn't eat it, so I quickly paid the bill and left, I was even charged for seriously underbaked bread I didn't eat. If their chef is capable of doing this I am now afraid that he gave me the sane buratta that was wrapped in pork as he has no dignity and no respect for customers. I was fed a buratta that not only touched meat but was covered in pork because if kitchen staff are capable of serving microwave reheated food claiming it's freshly made they're more than capable of serving non halal food. The taller manager was trying to fix the situation, and had a more professional approach, but there wasn't much he could do with such "team". Also I doubt their chef is Italian, I got a very strong impression that best case there's one Italian supervisor in the kitchen and the rest of the staff are from central South Asia, as I've been to various parts of Italy far too many times, and I know how Italians take pride in their traditional food. Zia Teresia was a much better restaurant, but lesson learned everything always changes...

We made the terrible mistake of booking at this restaurant to celebrate our wedding lunch with our two witnesses after the ceremony. 3 out of 4 of us ended up with FOOD POISONING within 24 hours after the lunch.

All three of us effected had Calamari as starters so without a doubt this was the cause!!! My new wife also had seabass as main course and she was the most ill out of the three of us, which makes us think that the restaurant’s poor hygiene around seafood is a major factor! All three of us suffered terrible diarrhoea for 2-3 days, nausea and acute stomach pains for several days.

I called the restaurant as soon as I was feeling better and reported the food poising to the Assistant Manager, Alex Metzcopiam who said he will investigate and call back. 48 hours later I called back as I haven’t heard anything, and Alex basically told me he is not authorized to offer any form of compensation, or an official apology on behalf of the restaurant, and basically left us high and dry with no respect despite spending £250 on our lunch.

This is the most shocking customer service and behaviour we have ever encountered in a restaurant!

San Carlo Restaurant Group who owns Cicchetti (and many other restaurants in London, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, Leicester and internationally in Bangkok, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Dubai) are clearly only focused on opening on the surface glamorous restaurants but behind the scenes their hygiene standards and customer care policies are non-existent!

We have reported our food poisoning from Cicchetti to Kensington and Chelsea Council’s Environmental Health Department who confirmed they will investigate promptly. This is our only consolation after our wedding lunch was ruined, and the terrible days that followed with us being ill!

We hope San Carlo’s Managing Director, Marcello Distefano is reading our review and will hang his...