Vasco & Piero's Pavilion

My fiance and I visited this restaurant a few days ago.

I've worked in soho for four years and must say that I've never even noticed this place even though I work just across the road.

All in all, a pleasant experience. Fantastic service. Quick and attentive. Friendly and knowledgeable. I didn't detect the slightest whiff of rudeness whatsoever.

The food was nice, light, well cooked and seasoned. If not, for the price, slightly on the small side. I would have happily ordered a side dish if I'd have known just how small the portions were. The menu deceptively includes a list of ingredients which would have you believe the plate would be over flowing, not on purpose I hasten to add, just in my mind. I left still feeling partially hungry. Even after dessert. Perhaps I'm just greedy. My fiance was satisfied.

I would say however, that this place lacks something that I can't quite put my finger on. I would say, the restaurant has obviously built up a very firm and loyal following over the many years it has been around and perhaps the 'word-of-mouth' reviews and recommendations have become a little embellished and slightly biased. We were recommended this restaurant by a colleague who swore blind by it. I'm not sure I would have the same enthusiasm in encouraging someone else to go here. However, I would certainly recommend it as a choice for soho dining. I can also see why it attracts a slightly more upmarket crowd of soho types since it's virtually impossible to peer inside from the outside, sheltered from the 'riff-raff'.

So all in all, I would recommend this place. It's slightly pricey for what you get, perhaps go for the pre-theatre deal. But it's a nice place to dine, especially in soho with the ever increasing rise of the franchise restaurants.
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Nick - View all reviews by this user
6 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 5
Friday, August 05, 2011

Went in shortly before 2pm and asked politely if we might still have lunch. 'No', snapped the young maitre d', 'closed in 10 minutes' . He then turned on his heel and walked away. The restaurant was about one quarter full. Clearly the owners are not comfortable with the concept of having customers.
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AB
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, June 13, 2011

My son and I enjoyed a fantastic meal recently at this restaurant.

The quality of the food was top-notch as always.

For my main course I had the calves liver with braised cabbage. The taste and texture of the liver was mouth-watering.

We had a thoroughly enjoyable and relaxing evening.
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Fish - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Thursday, January 20, 2011

I believe this is one of the best restaurants in central London.

We've eaten there several times and I chose to use it for one of my major birthdays, where we invited a number of friends/family to join us.

Food is excellent and of a high quality.

It's obvious that the people who work the restaurant are a close-knit team.

We always sing it's praises to friends and work colleagues. Please give it a try and you won't be disappointed.
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Bern - View all reviews by this user
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Saturday, January 08, 2011

What a strange little place. When we arrived for dinner we were greeted with a grunt from the guy who took our coats, we then received a similar sort of greeting from the frowning waitress who showed us to our table. The table was literally 2 inches away from the one next to it. Very tempted to walk out at this stage and the awful lighting was doing nothing to encourage us to stay. But this place had good reviews and was recommended to us by the Concierge at our hotel so we were hoping that the food would make up for everything else.......

We ordered a bottle of still water, they brought sparkling. Asked the waitress to recommend a hearty bottle of Italian wine, she did and it was very good. Bread basket very uninspiring. The pasta starter was excellent and made us really look forward to the main course.......What a let down, one of us had pork, one chicken and one duck but it didn't matter what they were because they all tasted overwhelmingly of salt! We probably should have complained but the whole attitude of the place was "take it or leave it", so don't think we would have got very far and besides at this point we just wanted to get out of there.

No-one asked us if we enjoyed our meal or thanked us for coming as we were leaving. A very disappointing experience!
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2 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 2
Thursday, January 28, 2010

If you're looking for an excellent restaurant withour pretension, this place is for you.

I took my wife to round off a rare Sataurday afternoon's shopping in the West End without the nippers.

I knew we'd want a warm welcoming place. I'd never been here before, nor had I heard of it, until I read a recent Michael Palin article where he raved about it. It lived up to his praise in spades.

The room is small and packed with tables and chairs. Exactly as you'd find thousands of neighbourhood restaurants to be in Central and Northern Italy. Same goes for the menu: very, very simple. Very short. very tempting.

I went for the spaghetti with meat ragu and the calves liver (definitely order the exemplary roast potatoes on the side) - both excellent. Desserts were just what you'd want. £25 fixed for 3 courses was very fair.

The wine list is a bit limited under £35, but several reasonably priced wines came by the glass and were far better than run of the mill House.

The service was impeccable. It's clearly a well run ship, with a serious but personable owner/manager prowling around intent that everything is done correctly. The staff are not, however, scampering around like scared headless chickens in awe of him - as you see too often. They managed to combine skill and effeciency with a smiley-happiness in their work that you very rarely see. My only, very slight criticism, was that the first and main courses were brought a little too close together.

We had booked an early table and the place was packed by 8pm. Full of groups of friends, parents with grown up children, couples...everyone relaxed and happy. No piped music just the immeasurably cheery sound of happy and convivial conversation.

It was more than a meal - it felt like a couple of hours of the most pleasant, relaxing holiday.

Don't go for glamour, fancy primped food, or silly ceremonials. Go for the joy of good food with good friends, done well.
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Kwev
9 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Lovely restaurant with a great atmosphere and delicious food. Starter of a salad with roasted vegetables and goats cheese contained some of the creamiest, most delicious cheese Ive ever tasted while the mains of Porchetta was so tender. Service was good and considering the quality of the food, £100 for three courses and a bottle of wine for two was good value. Only criticism is we would liked some vegetables/accompaniment to our mains but maybe that is not the Italian way?! Overall a great restaurant. PS. Tiramisu VERY highly recommended.
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KB
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, April 22, 2009

I have eaten in some of the best restaurants in the world and I found this restaurant through a very good friend when we dined there on Saturday night, Our meal was nothing short of superb. Beautiful home made pasta cooked to perfection with very tasty sauces. My calves liver was to die for and I believe the value for money to be second to none. Jack Straw was on the table behind us and he seemed to be having a great time too. You gotta try it.
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Gazza - View all reviews by this user
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, March 22, 2009