Bertorelli (Floral Street)

I am never going back to this restaurant again.

The service was initially good, but as the evening went on it got worse and worse. Our starters arrived before the wine... and if that wasn't bad enough, we were the only table not to get a wine cooler. When we asked for one the waiter completed ignored the request, so we asked again and eventually one was brought to our table. Service was slow and all the waiters looked as if they didn't want to be there and it was all a chore.

As for the food.. so overpriced for what you actually get. If you get pasta, you literally get a massive bowl of pasta, and not much else. If you get a meat/fish dish, you get about double the amount of veg than you do of the actual meat.fish.

And just to top it all off they make you pay cover charge AND service charge of 12.5%. They deserved none of it.
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 2
Thursday, August 16, 2007

We ate at this restaurant last night 11th August. It was the worst meal I have ever had in my entire life. The starter of ravioli was bland and very chewy and covered in oil, yuk! If I had cooked the main meal of pasta, braised steak and tomato at home I would have thrown it straight in the bin, it was disgusting. It sounded very nice on the menu, but sadly did not match the description at all. I complained and the meal was replaced with an equally disgusting meal of burnt lamb chops. By this time I had had enough and left the restaurant. A dreadful experience I would not recommend this place to my worst enemies.
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Susan Evans
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Sunday, August 12, 2007

Oh my God!! cannot remember a worse meal and night out. Food unbelievably rubbish (and I have a very high tolerance threshhold!),service weak. Would rather have been anywhere else. Watched another table complain and leave and wished it was me! Waste of money. My 6 year old cooks better and that's no joke!
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Nickster
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Thursday, June 14, 2007

I will defenetely disagree with all the bad review.

i have been there on a saturday night and the restaurant was very busy. The manager made very helpful to finf us a table within 5 minutes and our waiter was superb.

The food was great,delicious and they could not have dona a better job. I just think that on a saturdya night a restaurant like Berorelli does more than 300 covers and all the staff ans manageners work very hard in order to deliver the best service and experience!!
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Michelle
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Saturday, May 26, 2007

Bertorelli is, we're told, one of the oldest established Italian restaurant names in London - in fact I think I visited the now closed Queensway branch back in the 1970's. This week we had pre- theatre dinner at the Covent Garden restaurant and found it like a curate's egg, good in parts only.

A cheerful welcome from the manager who found a good table for us despite the fact that I hadn't booked and a reasonably nice ambience. Service was a bit slow - we had to remind the waitress that we had ordered drinks 10 minutes before when she came to ask us if we would like any - but nothing to get too annoyed about. Starters were OK if a bit on the small side but the main course, Vitello alla Milanese for both, beggared belief. The veal was reasonably good - although hard to understand why one was twice the size of the other - but the side dish of spagehetti was something else. If an older restaurant wants to invoke nostalgia for days gone by, probably best not to invoke the memory of tinned spaghetti in some kind of red sauce. I doubt the head waiter will take up my suggestion that I bring along some home made pasta and tomato sauce next time we visit - if we visit - but there's a lazy kitchen at work here who seems unaware of something as simple as cooking al dente pasta to say nothing of how basil works with tomato. It was an absolute disgrace.

Location and ambience go so far but a restaurant charging prices like this - £94 for two which hardly seemed value - really should concentrate a bit more on the quality of its food and ingredients and maybe find an Italian chef who actually knows how to make a simple spaghetti with tomato sauce.

All in all a terrible disappppointment.
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Patric Duffy - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Thursday, May 24, 2007

I do not normally write reviews but on this occasion I feel it is necessary. I ate in this restaurant last night and had a fantastic time.

Antonio was our waiter who has a big personality and only had our dining experience as his concern. We were recommened the Amarone red wine and this was a perfect start to the meal. The starters came out promtly of which were a big antipasti selection and one of my family had the gamberoni, all which were delicious! Then the mains came and a mixture of pasta and steak all cooked the way we had expected from the menu or asked for with the steak.

The meal was a lovely relaxing way to spend out evening with Antonio on standby in case we needed anything! Which turned out to be dessert even though we all felt like glutens after the first two courses! You have to try the Affogato Nero! Like a chocolate icecream bomb with an espress poured over it! Mmmm!!

Anyway just wanted to add that from start to finish the meal was excellent and would have no hesitation in recommneding this restaurant to anyone who is looking for a friendly authentic Italian restaurant!
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Shirley
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, May 23, 2007

I have to add to the last review - we too had appaling service at this restaurant last night. When we arrived we were ushered downstairs to the cafe depsite there obviously being tables available in the restaurant downstairs. One of our party requested a dish off the main menu, with a slight alteration, the waitress who took our order siad this would be fine however the dish came out wrong (and badly wrong at that), THREE times before my friend actually gave up and resorted to eating a side dish of spinach as her main meal! The attitude of the staff to try and get thsi right was appalling, one waiter actaully waved us away when we tried to speak to him the get this right. I would not receommend this place at all to anyone!
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Hannah Wright
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, May 16, 2007

I have been a regular at Bertorelli for some 20 years and have always enjoyed the food and the service. I ate there last night however and had a wholly unacceptable experience.

The main restaurant was full, so my companion and I were invited to sit downstairs in the "Caffe" - alhough we were not advised that the menu is different.

The tables were very cramped, and the air conditioning was on so high that my friend had to wear her jacket throughout the meal.

Our starters were delivered to the couple at the table next to us (a perhaps understandable mistake since we were so close to them!) and were acceptable. After a very long wait, our main courses (steak for my companion, veal milanese for myself) arrived.

The steak was fair, although not cooked as ordered - it was on the well-done side of medium rare. The veal was laughable - a large plate with a modestly sized escalope and a piece of lemon. A side plate - the size of a jam jar lid - with a tablespoon of spaghetti: this for £16.95.

I expressed surprise to the waiter who nodded in a rather careworn way and said he would speak to the manager. Ten minutes later our side orders (french fries and courgettes) arrived.

During the longeur, we chatted to a couple close by. They had arrived before us and were still waiting for their starters. Eventually their starters arrived - which they wolfed down before they had to leave to make their theatre show: no main course for them!

When the bill arrived 15% had been deducted - and 12.5% service charge added. I requested that the service charge be removed, and tipped the waiter personally (the problems were not of his making).

The whole experience was a great disappointment and I suspect it will be some time before I risk spending the best part of £60 on a very inadequate meal at Bertorelli again.

A shame.
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Viv
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Monday, May 07, 2007

I am not exaggerating - I had the worst restaurant experience of my life here last night.

On arrival the staff and the manager could not have been less interested in us, even though the restaurant was largely empty.

We had both been to the gym and had kitbags with us but they have no cloakroom facility - and there was no room at the tables for our bags so we were stuck. And this in a pretty expensive restaurant .

They placed us at a cramped table in a dark corner then when we asked to move to the empty one near it they started criticising us (in front of us) in Italian. Oh dear - my partner is Italian and I also speak the language a bit. So that led to an interesting interaction.

They then asked us 5 times if we had ordered within three minutes of us having had the menus, in each case interrupting our conversation.

We then waited an age until they brought our main courses, forgetting our starters. The attitude of the staff by now was such that we expected they would come back later having been microwaved.

They then brought just one starter. "Oh did you order 2?".

At which point we both, for the first time in our lives, decided to leave a restaurant.

Really appalling service. And who knows what the food is like? We never received any.
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, April 17, 2007

We ate here at 1700 on 25th January, just before a performance at the ENO. I can not fault the service, the food was excellent, particularly my lamb leg steak on an almond potato puree, and the house white a perfectly acceptable Soave. I got a complimentary coffee as I clumsily spilled mine and, while I do object to an imposed service charge, my husband and I agreed that the service could not be faulted. The restaurant filled up rapidly after 1730, and a few people were getting slower service thatn us. However I would expect that. We would always allow at least an hoyur and a half for a meal in a restaurant, and to expect a meal to be produced in 45 minutes or less is unreasonable.
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LadyB
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 7
Friday, January 26, 2007