Sartoria — Restaurant in London

I booked this restaurant after enjoying Francesco Mazzei is food at Corinthia in Malta, and seeing Stanley Tucci also recommend it - I was quite excited. We ordered starters and mains, which were quite good (plating could have been better for the quality you go for...but this was on the servers and not the chefs). The dessert however was disappointing - we ordered a lemon sorbet and a Tiramisu. The tiramisu Francesco makes in Malta is delicious, so this was a dish we looked forward to...however this one was right from the fridge (very cold)...and practically a bunch of cream used - the type you get when you spray it....tiramisu has mascarpone however this had none of that - was barely edible. The lemon sorbet is supposed to be a typical Sicilian creamy sorbet, however this had the majority filled with ice flakes and just not creamy at all. When it comes to the service - this was the most disappointing - starting with basics, we ordered one bottle of water...they decided to just open another and start pouring it, where we had to tell them we didn't request another...they just made the assumption we wanted more even though all our glasses were full. A negroni sbagliato was also ordered, which they confirmed they can do....was a negroni but definitely not a sbagliato (no prosecco added). A room temperature ginger ale was ordered, confirmed they have non cold bottles available...served it and was very cold, when questioned on their previous confirmation, the server stated that is the room temperature they have. Regarding the pasta, two carbonara and one Cacio Pepe was ordered...the Cacio Pepe was very good....carbonara too, however presentation - you get the pasta rolled up with an egg yolk in the centre - one came presented that way...the other the pasta was all over the plate with the yolk broken on the side (apparently the server did that accidentally according to them - which is fine...but also presentation is key in such a restaurant). There was also an issue with the waiters understanding of English, which surprised us...even when requesting basics such as ice cream/sorbet flavours...they described another dessert, and I had to ask about two more times until they understood and I got told the flavours available. Also basic things such as the menus being taped together or with biro marks on them...this restaurant is classy and in a nice area, the upkeep however was lacking. Overall, service was not too good, the restaurant is nicely decorated, the savoury dishes tasted good, and the dessert I do not recommend. Unfortunately not a place I would return to...

From the moment we walked in, the staff looked so miserable, and not welcoming at all. We decided to visit this place knowing that they serve halal chicken upon request of booking. I booked a month ahead and clearly stated we wanted halal chicken. However, on the day- they failed to meet that requirement and the gentleman that was serving us tried to elude from explaining why they don’t have the halal chicken we asked for. We had no choice but to opt for the Cod on top of mash & asparagus (God knows what that’s called on the menu lol) I was so discombobulated by the taste of that fish! It tasted like plastic🤢 The bill came & we could see there was a ‘cover charge’ of £6 and a service charge of £17. When we asked about the cover charge, they said it was for their ‘table cloths and cutlery’. The waiter could see we weren’t happy about this so he waived off the cover charge. At the time of our payment, we came to the conclusion that we weren’t impressed with the service and wouldn’t be paying the DISCRETIONARY service charge. The waiter was soo impudent in his tone because we didn’t pay for the unimpressive service and literally chucked a £5 note at my friend and walked off! He then came back to give my other friend her change and gave it all in 10p coins. PETTY! We went to the back of the restaurant into a little passage to take a couple of pictures. We were there for precisely 8 mins. A manager looking man came and told us to leave as we’ve been here for 15 minutes and are blocking people’s way (bearing in mind the restaurant was empty!). He said ‘you’ve eaten. You can leave now’. We were so shocked and stated that we ate and paid but he was ignorant and said ‘you didn’t pay the service charge, so you can leave’. Lord knows how we contained our anger, but we remained classy and avoided screaming. I told him the service charge was optional, and seeing that they did not provide the satisfactory service that we required, we decided not to pay it. He kept telling us to ‘get out’ because we didn’t pay this DISCRETIONARY service charge. When leaving he followed us to the front and started speaking to his staff about us in his language which we found really discourteous. Guys, just because restaurants are categorised as ‘fine dining’ don’t always expect them to carry the...

Firstly, please don’t be fooled with the reviews that are given on here. The staff are extremely rude and the service is awful.

Before booking this restaurant, we asked for halal chicken and they confirmed they will provide us with it. Bare in mind, we booked in a month in advance. Upon arrival, we had asked for the halal chicken as it was not on the menu and the waiter states they don’t have any, that we would have to make do with the Carte menu. For this reason, we were limited with options. So we had opted for the fish.

We were then given the bill and there were additional charges. There was a discretionary service charge and a table fee. We had enquired about the table fee & the waiter had said it’s to pay for “the cloth, knives & forks etc”. We asked if this was optional, he said yes. We then paid £140 without these additional cost. The male in a suit, who was not a waiter had asked us why we are not paying service charge, we said it is optional and our choice is we don’t wish to. He then THREW THE CASH on the table that we wanted to pay with & stormed off. Just because we said we don’t want to pay the service charge!!! He then comes back with a new bill without any service charges added on and took our payment.

We then went to take some pictures, another male staff approached us who is also wearing a suit. He had asked us to leave the restaurant because we have been here for more then “10 minutes” just taking pictures. We were shocked. We stated we had eaten and paid for the service. We are entitled to remain in this restaurant, no matter how long we take taking photos. He then stated “you did not pay for service charge, can you leave this restaurant” We were thrown out of this restaurant for not paying service charge???? After arguing with this rude gentleman as to why a person who has not paid service charge should be treated any different, we had no choice but to leave.

Me and my friends have never been to a restaurant before with this kind of disgusting behaviour & service. There is a restaurant called Sketch on the same road. I advise you all to go there instead. The service there is amazing & everyone is treated like royalty there.

Please. Please. Please do not waste your time visiting...