Gondolier Italian Restaurant of London — Restaurant in London

STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE!! SEVERE FOOD POISONING ALERT!!! 🤢🤮🤢🤮🤢🤮 PLEASE READ TO THE END!!

Myself, my husband and my son, was there Wednesday evening May 4, 2022, our bill was $69.72 and my son and I, haven't been able to eat since. Because both of us, are suffering from severe food poisoning. Do I recommend this place, No. Whatever you do, don't order their Stromboli's or eat their strawberry cheesecake. The pain we have been experiencing is really unbearable, not to mention the nausea and vomiting as well. No one should have to suffer this much pain, from what we thought was a nice dinner out.

UPDATE.... I called and spoke with, Dual Jones (supposedly a manager), about this situation and not only did he lie and say they checked their food daily, (which clearly isn't the case. Otherwise, I wouldn't have written this review or my son and I, wouldn't have suffered from this). He also didn't care or have any concerns, regarding the pain my son and I had suffered, (for several days) or the constant vomiting and becoming dehydrated, we had to deal with as well!! Plus, he also stated, "that this situation happens "ALL THE TIME" with this restaurant", (even though they're reply, is trying to cover their own faults and lie to everyone)(PLUS, I had my phone on speaker and my husband heard the whole conversation). There's absolutely no way, myself or my son, could have gotten food poisoning from anywhere else, (they're reply is also, trying to put the blame on someone else, as well. Instead of owning up to their own mistakes). Everyone who personally knows me, knows that I only eat one meal a day and I've been this way since childhood. If we had gotten food poisoning from anywhere else, we would have already been sick. Even before going to this place and we wouldn't have been able to eat any of their food. So yes, we 100% got food poisoning, from Gondoliers of London Ky. Clearly, they're in need of a new "manager", plus clearing and deep cleaning their entire kitchen area and their refrigerators and freezers too. Mr. Jones didn't even apologize to me. He was the most uncaring unapologetic person, I have ever spoken too. Even if he tried to apologize to me now, I wouldn't accept it. (But they tried in their reply. No sorry, I don't accept that) Because I know it isn't and wouldn't be authentic and it would only be, what whoever is above him in management, asked or told him to do.

So, I don't know about anyone else, but if I had known this was happening, as often as he said it is, I would have never taken my family there to eat. I highly recommend everyone else, Not to eat there either. I seriously wouldn't want this experience, happening to...

This place used to be pretty decent, years ago. We thought we’d try it out again because when I last went ..about 7 years ago the spanakopita was sooo good and the pasta was also good for the price.

We get there and immediately notice it’s very, very warm. I don’t know if the ac was broke or if that’s the normal temp but dear god if that’s an everyday thing I feel awful for the staff that have to work in that.

I ordered the manicotti with a ceaser salad and a spanakopita to split with my husband. Ceaser salad was weird, I’ve had a lot of ceaser dressings but this was not it, and the Parmesan cheese from a jar they used was too much, it was mostly that terrible “cheese”. Didn’t finish it.

Out comes the spanakopita and right off the bat I see this is not going to be good. It just looked old, and when I stuck my fork into it and the top layer just kinda slid into the gloopy spinach mixture I knew I was right. Phyllo dough is supposed to be flaky and kinda crispy…but this was just greasy and microwaved. I tried it anyway just to see if maybe I was being a visual snob and the taste was worse than it looked. Very sour and very bland and VERY OLD! You can tell that it had probably been in the fridge for a long time waiting for someone to order it. Spat out that bite (luckily).

So I cancelled my food. Husband still got his Greek pork dish. He ate and we paid and left. On the way back home, about a 35 min drive my husband says we have to pull over because his stomach is going nuts, and with his body language I knew he was serious, broke the speed limit and pulled into Eastway gas station.

He is still not feeling too great, told him he should have spit out that spanakopita like I had. He only took one bite but it was either that or that pork dish he got.

Needless to say we won’t be back. I don’t know if they switched owners or what happened but the place has gone to the dogs.

That being said, the manager was a really sweet woman and our servers and the others around were so nice:

EDIT FOR UPDATE:

I had to make an edit because me and my husband were sick all night and still are, so I’m pretty irritated right now. Thank for the food poisoning...

Met some friends here for a late lunch over the weekend. Bread sticks with cheese baked on top was served along with marinara. The bread was cooked well, hot and fresh, and had a very pleasant taste. What you would expect. The marinara, while hot, lacked flavor, it was almost bland. This should have been a red flag for what I ordered, we will come back to that. My wife and her friend had a chicken and white sauce dish that they both enjoyed. The linguine was just right and the chicken was seasoned well. They had no complaints about the white sauce. My daughter had a chicken tortellini dish, again the chicken was the high light as she said the tortellini was not the best she had, but not so bad either. My buddy had a egg plant sub sandwich that he throughly enjoyed. Now to me. I had spaghetti and meatballs in meat sauce. The noodles were good, well cooked. The meatballs were good, cooked through and seasoned well. The meat sauce was disappointing though. Again it was so similar to the marinara from earlier, but now with a slight hint of meat. Not that I could see any. Service was excellent. The young gentleman that waited on us was very polite, awkwardly cut up with us, and did excellent work keeping our drinks full and dishes cleared. Atmosphere was somewhat dated. There was an AC unit just over our table that leaked water down the wall and soaked my daughter's purse. Luckily nothing important was damaged minus a book bought at the half price book store. All in all an enjoyable experience with friends. It is more like an upscale Fizolli's but wants to be a Maggianos. I will probably give them another chance when I'm back in town...