Venerdi — Restaurant in London

I have been wanting to try the restaurant for sometime. It's right on my doorstep and could be somewhere I go regularly. I was so wrong. It was a Saturday evening and me and a friend was taking in the last of the warm weather. When we got there it was busy and my friend wanted to leave. One of the staff came up to us and said the have tables, it should only take 5-10 to sort a table, so we waited and staff member then passed and repeat the same thing. We only had two couples in front of us. This is where it started to go wrong for me. Another staff member decide to seat us who did have a clue who had been waiting the longest and started to seat people by who he liked the look of, I can only imagine. I piped up and eventually we got seat.

We sat there for sometime as the waiting staff served and to orders around us and not even water was offered to us.

At this point I thought what is wrong with this place, they have the staff are the not trained.

Eventually a member of the waiting staff came a took our order.

I could start going into how the waiting staff lent on our table many time while chatting to other customers before they took out orders, but I think I've set the picture.

The food! It came to us lukewarm. My friend main had flavour and my pasta was clumped together as it had been sitting in the kitchen for sometime. My friend by this time was not happy at all but wanted a dessert. Once we finish our main had to wait again, by this time this had become very tiresome. We ask for the dessert menu as a it was getting late the waiter said he would just tell us.

She got her dessert and now, as the wanted to close they quickly asked if we wanted anything else. When the waiting staff came over for us to settle the bill he asked how was the meal? I said very lacklustred ok he pushed on my response and I suggest he speak to my friend who explained what we thought about out visit and food. I'm not sure why he asked because his reply was ok and that was it. Personal I think that they thought that the reason we made the comments, was to get a reduction on the bill. It wasn't and we paid the bill with the service.

Venerdi, please train your staff better. If you seat people and they haven't got a drink ask if they would like a drink while they are deciding. If you are not sure who arrived first ask, do not assume. Theses are very basic thing....

I recently move to the area and wanted to pick up a late Tuesday night pizza to takeaway with my girlfriend. Our idea was to have a drink while we waited for our pizza on a night warm night.

About halfway through the our drinks the pizza arrives boxed up. We thought about it, and came to the conclusion that there’d be no harm in eating a few slices while we finished our drinks, perched on the benches outside. As we’re sitting there the manager charges towards us angrily ranting about the rules stating we now must be charged extra because we were technically now dining in. He was aggressive and shocked us both. I tried to explain that the way he was behaving, not to mention the pettiness of the rule he was applying (it’s not like we were harming anyone, there was probably one other set of customers) would mean I’m not ever going to come back. I’m not sure he heard anything I said he was too busy shouting over us both. He charged us almost £7 extra. In hindsight I’m guessing he applied a service charge.

Ridiculous and pathetic behaviour. We weren’t trying to get away with something, just didn’t want our pizza to get cold while we finished the drinks we paid for. The rest of the staff seemed nice, I feel bad for them having to work for him.

Venerdis pizzas are nothing more than pleasant, their main stock in trade for me as a potential new regular was convenience and friendliness. We left after we finished our drinks, as we said we would, feeling like we’d been mugged.

I meant what I said to him, I’m never coming back.

Edit: the response to this, is definitely from the manage. To whom I would say - it’s your tone mate, grab yourself some human touch. You’re a hospitality manager not a...

Venerdi gets 3 stars because the cocktails were good and the food looked nice however I was put off ordering anything aside from Olives and a deink as I didn't want to pay extra for being a Vegan and had limited food option.

Spending 20-30 minutes disectimg the menu and educating the waiting staff on what a Vegan can and cannot eat was not on the cards today. I only had an hour to dine so opted for a safe appetiser instead even though I was hungry.

Even the Bruscetta comes with Dairy-based cheese with no wiggle room for a slight discount if you want it omitted from your meal.

Italian food generally is quite easy to "Veganize" however I was really put off ordering a meal when I realised that the waiting staff had no idea what vegans can actually eat. Two meals were recommended to me which had either meat or dairy in them.

My non-vegan friend said the food was ok, she had a Pizza, Bruscetta and a cocktail.

The menu clearly states at the bottom that I would have to pay extra for Vegan cheese which is fair enough. Please make this clear online so I can save myself future hassle.

Usually I would explain to the waiting staff that I can eat a cheese-less pizza as an alternative with an extra vegetable ingredients but this suggestion was a tad complex for the waiting staff to comprehend so I sadly gave up examining and opted for just olves instead which were delicious but far from filling.

I'm sure people who have other dietary needs such as being Gluten-free, Halal, Nut-free, Kosher or Vegetarian are not charged extra for their lifestyle choice or dietary requirement. A Slightly disappointing dining...