The Ginger Italian — Restaurant in London

It was my Birthday and I was Turning 33! After a Huge Easter Sunday Gathering the Weekend Prior with Lots of Curry I thought it would be a Good Idea to Celebrate with a Different Cuisine for a Change. Since Grandad loves to Enjoy a Good Italian whilst he is down from Yorkshire I decided I Would Combine the Two and Have a Delicious Italian Birthday Treat, Anyhow I do enjoy my Italian Favourites too.

I Arrived at the Restaurant First and as it was Raining I stepped inside to Take my Seat and Instantly took in the Cosy Surroundings with some Pre Photography before the Calvary arrived!

Soon After Grandad, Mum and Dad arrived. Unfortunately Sarah was "Nursing" Granny at her Flat after her Cataract Appointment so they were unable to join us.

Grandad and Dad then Proceeded to Look at the Menu even though they have been to eat here many times prior (They Cater for Mum's Gluten free), but it was my First Time here even though I'm local.

The Atmosphere was Cosy, with Dimmable Warm Lighting that was Reduced throughout the Evening to Create a Cosy Intimate Feel. The Playlist was A Mix of 70s and 80s Disco and Pop with some 90s Whitney Surrounded by the Bee Gees and The Tramps Disco Intherno which appealed greatly to my Eclectic Taste in Music 🙂. We were Practically the Only Diners in the Restaurant apart from Two Blokes who sat outside in the Cold so they could Smoke.

For My Starter I Settled on Breaded Goats Cheese -

Thick slice of goat's cheese, deep fried in Panko breadcrumbs. Drizzled with honey & served with a sweet tomato relish

Once I Enjoyed my Starter Grandad partaked in Conversation on "Today's News" and then it was time to Settle on to our Mains.

Me and Grandad Had:

Vitello Saltimbocca alla Romana -

Veal topside with Parma ham cooked in a pan with demi-glace butter and sage. Served with green beans & mashed potatoes

Mum had Using Gluten free Breadcrumbs she had bought with her:

Vitello Milanese - Veal topside, pan -fried in flour, egg & panko breadcrumbs. Served with Spaghetti in our homemade tomato & Bolognese sauce.

Dad had:

9oz Ribeye Steak & Chips -

28 days matured, cooked how you like and topped with garlic butter. Served with French fries and 1/2 grilled tomato

To Drink I had 7 Up Zero, Dad a Diet Coke, Grandad a House Wine and Mum a Rosé, all washed down with Water.

Once We had had Finished our Delicious Main Course some of us Ordered Dessert with Dad having a Lemon Sorbet.

Along with the Desserts Came the Climax! 🤣🤣.......

My Birthday 🎂 Cake Accompanied by 3 Fiery Sparklers, Modern Happy Birthday Tune on the Sound System, along with Very Enthusiastic Singing from the Head Female Restauranteur and her Team accompanied by Clapping! It was such a Fun, Relaxed Cheery Atmosphere!! 🙂🙂. The Cake was a Simple Gluten free (for Mum) Waitrose Sponge and I was served Chocolate and Vanilla Ice Cream to go with the cake, (even though I had selected a Dessert to have from the Menu Online prior to the Evening! - I will just have to come back for it.

What a Fun Chilled Lively Atmosphere was Had throughout the Evening! - The Female Head Restauranteur was Singing to Whitney's, I Want to Dance with Somebody, Whopping and All Cheerful and Happy 😊.

Actually the Restaurant has Live Singers and Tribute Acts on Certain Thursdays and Fridays throughout each Month with the highlight being an Elvis Tribute Act coming up soon! So the Fun Chilled Family Relaxed Atmosphere is Part of the Ethos of Restaurant which is Nice. Very Homely 🙂.

....... And So What an Evening!! 🤣. An Enjoyable "Low Key" Affair. I Must Go Back for More especially as I'm Local. PS: Grandad Celebrated his 90th Birthday here as part of his Celebrations and he was Treated to Birthday Singing too. 🎂 - 🇮🇹 🍴

--- Normally Bring Your Own Birthday Cake is Not Allowed but they made an Exception as the Cake was already handed in without the Head Restauranteur...

4pm yesterday, I’d been working all afternoon (works been manic), had a bit of a health scare recently and we hardly ever go out anymore but I felt like a break from the monotony and thought it would be nice to take the kids for their favourite, pizza.

Checked the Ginger Italian website and saw they did vegan food and the kids pizza had a V next to it so I booked us a table. My son has food allergies so when we arrived, before we sat down, I asked the waitress if the vegan pizzas were safe as my 3yr old was allergic to dairy, egg and soya. She asked the kitchen and came back and confirmed it was all ok. Ordered the two vegan pizzas with extra olives and sat down. Liked the decor and was especially enjoying the jazz music which took me back to happy memories and I told my hubby I had a warm nostalgic feeling which was nice. All good.

Pizzas arrived looking looking like they had dairy cheese so I asked the waitress to check. They were dairy pizzas so had to send them back. Few mins later the manager comes over and says they don’t have vegan pizzas and the waitress was new so didn’t know. I explained I’d looked at the website before booking our table for 5:15pm and as a mum of children with food allergies, I tend to check menus online before going anywhere to make sure we can eat there so they need to make it clear on the kids menu that the V is for vegetarian and Vg is for vegan. I asked for an allergy menu but they don’t have one.

Ordered fish and chips - the children’s fish fingers are made from swordfish!!! And no vegetables anywhere! Something rang a bell so on a quick google, see that sword fish is high in mercury and should be eaten with caution. Why are they serving swordfish to children????!!!!

Kids by this stage are ravenous and getting fractious and the fish fingers arrive really quickly so we let them eat. The restaurant in the meantime, go buy some vegan cheese from the Sainsbury’s a few doors down to make the kids a pizza. Very kind of them and an appreciated touch as when the pizzas got taken away, my 5yr old daughter was so disappointed (& tired), she was crying. All very stressful and not the nice relaxed dinner out I was hoping for myself. Dinner was ok. The cheese on my pizza was a bit hard and dry but hubby enjoyed his marinara pasta. Kids 1/2 each vegan pizza was fine and we paid for all the meals, added a tip and left at the end.

Put the kids to bed and then 9:15pm, 3yr old wakes up in agony, screaming his head off. I’ve never seen him in so much constant pain. Lasted til 10:45pm when he finally crashed. Suddenly I became so nauseous I had to be ill. Had to go to bed and couldn’t look after my child and had severe body shivers. Thankfully I had some anti-nausea medicine to take to help me but I was man down until 3:30am when the doctor from 111 called back to make a more detailed diagnosis and see how to proceed with my son (we called them at 9:30pm because we were so worried about how he was behaving which was very unusual for him). My 3yr old then woke again at midnight again, screaming in constant agony for another hour. Unbearably hard to watch him in so much pain. Doctor thinks it sounds like indigestion so I’m sitting with him again now as he’s moaning and crying out in his sleep. It’s 4am.

We will never go back to...

we visited the restaurant yesterday after seeing so many great reviews but to be honest I was so disappointed and disgusted with the service bearing in mind it was my daughter's birthday every year we go to pizza express for her birthday but hubby said let's try joes as the reviews are great my 8 year old was really happy to try she had a badge on saying birthday girl quite a large badge (So you couldn't miss it!) and not even 1 member of your staff acknowledged it was her birthday, the couple next to us came in and the man had mentioned that it was his birthday on Monday they had pudding which bearing in mind we did 2 including our 8 year old and your staff came out with a candle on his cake and sang happy birthday!!! my poor 8 year olds face dropped she was really upset as pizza express go above and beyond even if they didn't have a candle they would at least said happy birthday!! (seemed like they was regulars as your staff were very friendly with them)

we all had a 3 course meal which the garlic bread for the children is so over powering and very bitter that she only had a few slices and wouldn't eat any more of it we scrapped off all the topping for our 2 year old. The mozzarella parcels were nice and pizza was great and so was your puddings.

we didn't feel that your staff are very friendly towards families as they would talk to people with out children and even ask how their meals where we didn't even get that! we was there nearly 3 hours! with an 8 year old and a 2 year old I wouldn't say you was overly busy either. I'm sorry to say but I felt the service we got as a family was very poor and I personally wouldn't recommend family's here.

No reply back from my message which i sent and had been read, to busy to reply back but not to busy to post on their Facebook page very...