Sartori - Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria — Restaurant in London

I visited this restaurant with my family in May 2024, and although it’s been a while, I’ve struggled to write this review because of how traumatic the experience was and, well, life just gets busy. We were in London to celebrate my 30th birthday (May 11th), and since Italian food is my absolute favorite, I chose this restaurant for a special meal between two West End shows The Lion King and Tina Turner Musical. At first, everything seemed okay. We were put in the little corner to the left as you walk in. The staff were ok despite it being busy, and I was genuinely excited to try the seafood dish I ordered (which included prawns and clams). The rest of my family ordered different meals. Unfortunately, the evening took a terrible turn. About halfway through the second show, I began to feel extremely unwell. I had to leave the theatre early and barely made it back to our hotel. Our Uber driver even had to stop on the way so I could be sick. What followed were six straight hours of violent illness the worst I have ever experienced. I won’t go into the details, but it completely derailed what was supposed to be a joyful celebration with family I rarely get to see.

Importantly, I was the only one who had seafood and I strongly believe the clams were the culprit. As many say: when it’s food poisoning, you just know, and I knew.

I’m not writing this to be malicious or to damage the restaurant’s reputation. I understand that seafood can be a risk, and things can happen. But I wanted to share my experience because it’s had a lasting impact on me. I’ve been put off seafood ever since, which is really unfortunate as it used to be something I loved.

The experience also had a ripple effect I missed the majority of the show, time with my sister, and a lot of what was meant to be a very special day. The hotel we stayed at was expensive, and I had prepaid for breakfast the next morning, which I couldn’t even stomach to attend.

This review comes not from anger, but from deep disappointment and a sincere hope that steps can be taken to ensure this doesn’t happen to someone else if it...

We gave the restaurant another chance. The food was delicious, as always. The service this time was excellent, very well-chosen, and exactly the kind of atmosphere we'd been looking for in the past. It was like being in Italy for a while, enjoying fresh, homemade, and tasty pasta. The apple cake and ice cream were a total success. We'll be back.

PREVIOUS REVIEW ( 4 months ago)

We celebrated my friend's birthday this evening, the food was very good, the attention of the staff was also good with one exception, the waitress named Rocio was quite rude to us at all times during our celebration, it was a unpleasant encounter she made it totally uncomfortable for us. From the moment we asked her to bring us the cake she almost throw it on the table even though we were kind and without a problem agreed to pay the £10 for bringing it, so she wasn't doing us any favors since we paid for a service that was included in our restaurant experience. Bad gestures and looks at every moment, not to mention that when she brought us the bill she threw it at us reluctantly and when it was time to pay she made gestures at us with an annoyed face. I think that if she doesn't enjoy her job she should change her profession now. That more than being a pleasant experience, it has been terrible because of her. Making my friend feel bad on her birthday and being that it was still early and there were clients upstairs, we felt like they were forcing us to leave. It's a shame because we had high expectations of the place. I'm not someone who likes to give bad reviews but this occasion...

Really conflicted on this review. The short version is the food was amazing but the service, food-handling and restaurant itself was sub-par.

We were seated in the downstairs area where there was virtually no one else, which I think answers why the service was lacklustre. We ended up having to flag down the waiters if we needed something.

Our table also had a few of the pizza oven and preparation area. Out of everyone in our group, there were two vegetarians and one person who eats halal. I had full view of the pizza area and noticed the chef preparing the pizzas was not washing his hands between handling meat and vegetable toppings. On one of the pizzas, which I hope was not one given to our table (!!!), I noticed he accidentally used pepperoni and then just picked off.

I don't know whether we were meant to explicitly state our dietary requirements when ordering but I've never had to do this before (or I've been asked by whoever is serving us), I feel majority of restaurants know that you can't label something as vegetarian if it's being handled in the same area/equipment as meat options.

Only other thing was there was half eaten cucumber slices and such under our table when we sat down. Not great.

Regardless of everything I said previous, the food was pretty good. Although I will not be returning through fear of being fed something that falsely claims to be vegetarian.

If you don't have any dietary requirements and would like a good Italian place in London, this is the...