Tetto's Highbury New Park — Restaurant in London

So I took my girlfriend out for what was supposed to be a nice relaxing valentines day meal here, unfortunately what we got was the furthest from relaxing you could imagine.

We'd booked for 7pm, arrived on time and were seated. Within 2 minutes of sitting down, one of the front of house staff comes charging over telling us that we were 45 minutes late and that they needed us out by 8:30 (even though we had booking confirmation saying otherwise)... not exactly the start to a romantic meal you'd be hoping for.

The waiter then comes over 2 minutes later to take our order - the rudest waiter I've ever met I might add. I order a bottle of red wine to start with, he follows up with "and for your food?" (We'd only had the menu for approx 4 minutes). As I say we're still deciding, he snaps back with "well we need you out by 8:30 so could you choose quickly", so we rush our food order.

The waiter seemed so keen on rushing us through the door that he doesn't listen to our drink order properly, and brings back a bottle of white wine, so I send it back, asking for the bottle that I ordered. Undeterred from getting the wine order wrong, he comes back a few minutes later with the same bottle of white he brought out minutes earlier.... when I send it back a second time, he snaps at me again "this is the bottle of wine you ordered", I reply "sir, I know what I ordered, and it was the red". He huffs, and goes back again to get the correct wine... third time lucky,

Food comes out, my girlfriend's Lasagne was cold, so had to send it back to get warmed up. All areas of service completely wrong.

Finally the bill comes, and they hadn't taken the £10 deposit off the bill which they were supposed to (nice try), and what's more, they had a discretionary service charge added to the bill.. hilarious considering the service we'd received. I asked for the service charge to be removed and the waiter replies "something wrong with the service?" ... as if he's just provided the best table service in town... laughable really. I told him what was wrong with the meal and he starts arguing with me about the wine AGAIN?!

All in all, on what was supposed to be a lovely romantic evening we were made to feel totally unwelcome from the moment we sat down, until the moment we left. Probably wont be going back here again.. considering the good reviews we saw before booking it was just a shame we didn't get the same level of service.

Night ruined,...

We saw that this place was opening a few weeks ago and wanted to try it out so when we were free tonight, we popped down.

We didn't have a reservation but because we were there early, they seated us. Friendly greeting and extremely attentive staff.

The food was extremely delicious. The prices of some dishes are well above average for some items such as the salads and starters but this is because the portions are very generous and can be shared.

They age their own steaks and have halal aged steaks, one of the only places in London to do so. The traditional Himalayan salt cellar can be seen as you go in with racks of forerib on display, a meat lovers dream 😊

The interiors are designed to be Mediterranean style luxe, very thick comfort chairs, ambient lighting and Mediterranean touches throughout.

We shared a chicken pasta for starters (they didn't offer starter portions of pasta like traditional Italian restaurants) then I had monkfish and my other half had ribeye.

The ribeye was an amazing piece of meat, perfectly cooked and was well rested. This meant we waited a bit longer than expected for the meetings to arrive but when they did, they were well presented, generous portions with extras we didn't expect (such as spinach and asparagus) so the pricing was reasonable given the quality and being a complete meal. My monkfish was very tasty with a generous portion of mash and spinach.

Recommend going for the tiramisu or creme brulé which are made fresh at the restaurant.

Overall, really lovely evening, we weren't rushed, our mocktail were delicious and the best we've had in the area, likened to central London cocktail bars and the food was delicious. Service was slow in parts, but thorough, friendly and we felt well attended to. I think now they've been open 6 weeks, they've managed to get their prefer of service running smoothly and improving with incredible food coming out hot and ready to eat.

We are already planning next visit. Plenty of vegan, vegetarian, halal, pescetarian options so great for the varied group with demanding needs.

Huge lower ground area for groups and small parties that can take 120, so great setting for family or work parties I would think, hard to find locally. Manager was very friendly and knowledgeable, giving us a lot of confidence in the quality of the place.

Please check out photos of...

Terrible from the get go of entering the restaurant! Chubby bearded guy at the door with clipboard took us through into the seating area of the right hand side of the restaurant. he had no mask! when we entered this space the place was crammed with tables and seats so close.. less than a metre gap. when i said in a friendly way” oh wow tables are abit cosy arent they” he got very offended and reploed “if u are uncomfortable u do not need to be seated in the restaurant! i can see this being a problem for us “ we were less than 2 mins into the resaturant for a friends birthday! this is disgusting! i replied with “excuse me why are u getting so offended.. im saying the tables are very close less than the guidelines” the seats behind were touching each other.. barely any gaps to walk through... my friend then intervened and asked if he had a table for us. he then walked us back by the bar area and aggressivly pulled a table away from the other table and said here you are. by the rose wall. we sat and waited for the menu for around 15 mins till we were acknowledged. we ordered our food at 3:20pm and did not arive till 4:40pm! the waitress appologised we saw the same guy giving the waitress timing of how long for food each time we asked. Was this dillibrate? Unbelievable! we ordered steaks- which on the menu clearly states cannot be cooked well done.. but yet we were served it well done and not medium well as ordered.. chicken steak as thin as the chips and tiny! it was very uncomfortable.. this place is just pretty interiors! u can get that anywhere now! but service is disapointing .. the behaviour of staff is dispointing and food is also disapointing! go elsewhere and avoid such an arrogant deamining type of place like Tettos highbury! to top ot when the bill came out which was over £200 they even tried to cut us short on the deposit we paid! we had to point that out and get it corrected! what is going on here! we have come out of lockdown but some seem like they’ve forgotten how to even behave let alone run front of house of a restaurant! restaurant menu has some guideline ruling which is not correct.. photo attached! restaurant : please teach ur staff some manners and hospitality skills. Rude guy photo attached .. got captured at the back of one of our photos....