Osteria Antica Bologna

A lovely place with an imaginative menu and quietly friendly service. Delicious and well presented dishes and just overall a really calm, yummy atmosphere. No loud music or harsh lighting either. A sweet place. Enjoy!
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Monday, January 21, 2008

Truly wonderful, an unpretentious gem. What a joy to have an excellent non-chain restaurant still surviving amongst ridiculously increasing rents on the Northcote Road. Every time I go to this restaurant I'm reminded what a treat it is to find unpretentious but truly wonderful flavours in a restaurant that instantly transports one to Italy. In my 20 years of living in London I've never found another place as good. Sure you can pay four times as much to eat at a celebrity owned place, and have far fancier dishes, but you won't get that lovely couple of hours of feeling like you're in rural Italy.

Make a point of going there in an attempt to stop if from being the saddest casualty of the rent-greedy landlords. Just think, it could be replaced by a Pizza Express.....
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, September 11, 2007

We chose Osteria Antica, as it was a sunny day, and we wanted to be al fresco.

The service was attentive, and the time between courses was just right.

Bread and olives to eat whilst looking at the menu.

Queen scallops for starters, pasta with rabbit sauce, veal with parma ham and mozzarella cheese, and saute potatoes.

Peroni beer, and house white wine, perfect.

Coffee, no desserts, too full!!

We were not hurried, and were left to have our coffee leisurely.

Will return without doubt.
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Friday, August 24, 2007

Took my fiancee here a few months ago and was so disappointed. I've been coming here on and off for the past 10 years. The food used to be really delcious and value for money. On my last visit the food was bland, over priced and the service was less than attentive. Sadly, I will not be coming here again as there is a huge choice of much better restaurants in the area.
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Galloping Gourmand
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Monday, June 18, 2007

5 of us ate here midweek for my father's birthday. Interior straight out ot 1970's had a lot of charm at first glance. Service slow and distracted - eg attempted twice to take orders before our appetisers had arrived. Starters mixed - toasted artichoke and bresaola salad good, soup of the day - tasted like the day before yesterday's. Mains, pretty awful - quail stuffed with sausagemeat - also stuffed with bones, shank of lamb, possibly boiled for 3 hours - maybe twice? Deserts, almond tart had by 2 raised eyebrows as it nearly tiddlywinked across the table it was so dry. Wine list, some nice pino negro. Our table was opposite a rowdy group of rah teenagers who the management should have kept in check (as opposed to cheque). Extract fan added to terrible acoustics. Gents' WC slightly sleazy - missing picture, hand dryer also adjoining urinator dryer. Overall, pretty complacent and badly managed establishemt which I will avoid in future.
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Mattflaneur
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 5
Tuesday, January 16, 2007

We love it.

Earthy, flavoursome and inventive Italian menu; the Pappardelle verdi con ragu' Bolognese is as good as my mum's (my family is from Bologna!).

The atmosphere is warm and cosy, and the staff is very friendly and attentive.

We discovered the Osteria 6 years ago when my husband and I were still dating, now we take friends and relatives and our little boy (23 months old) adores their Olive all'Ascolana. The wine list is very well chosen and good value for money. Great place for all occasions.
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Laura+K+Orlando
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, August 22, 2006

We visited Osteria a number of times over the years and had some lovely meals, so I was a little worried when I saw some of the reviews as we were planning on meeting some friends there last weekend. We decided to ignore the reviews and go any way and I'm very glad we did.

The service was very good, despite the restaurant being full, and the staff went out of their way to help us. The wine we ordered had run out so we were offered a better bottle for the same price. The food was excellent, as always, good quality ingrediants very well cooked - I can recommend the Sea Bream with Langoustine.

However, I did find it a little cheeky that they automatically add a 12.5% service charge to your bill.

We had a really lovely evening and wouldn't hesitate to visit again.
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 6
Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Not good. Went over a year ago and it was ok, tried it again on a Thursday night a year later but immediately regretted it, waste of £70. Starter of scallops was OK. My main of aubergine ravioli with a mussel sauce was cold (plates were cold as well which should never be the case). Sent it back and they put it in the microwave! My boyfriend's pasta was hotter but didn't fill him up. Portions are small. We filled ourselves up with a decent cheeseboard although the gorgonzola ended up being stilton. Terribly expensive for a small, cold meal.
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Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Friday, January 13, 2006

My partner and I visited to this lovely

and very Italian Style Restaurant yesterday for dinner and I am glad we did it.

The food was delicious and very well presented.

The service was friendly and professional.

We will definitely be back.
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Luigi B.
Monday, October 03, 2005

I read all the reviews about this restaurant and ignored them. I ignored them firstly, because about six months ago I enjoyed a superb seafood pasta here on a sunny Saturday, and second, because it is about 300 metres from my house. And a damn good thing it was to ignore those reviews.

Okay, okay, the service did still have a few holes in it – they forgot to bring us bread. But if you are going to restaurants for the bread alone, you are either a baker or an idiot. For the most part, waiting staff were attentive and friendly.

We shared an entrée, a sort of vegetarian lasagne of tomato, eggplant and mozzarella. Not quite as hot as it might have been, but certainly not lacking in flavour and well presented.

We went for seafood main courses, possibly to reignite the memories of past seaside meals in Italy. To be honest, our two dishes were at least the equal of any seafood we’ve eaten on an Italian coastline. Monkfish wrapped in crispy bacon was decently sized, moist and flavoursome, whilst the swordfish steak stuffed with spinach was outstanding.

As a couple on a Wednesday night, we faced the dilemma of either a glass of wine each or slugging our way through a whole bottle. It’s not a problem at this restaurant, as they have a selection of wines available in 500ml carafes – we had a terrific lightweight red.

All in all, this was a restaurant well worth visiting.
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Mango - View all reviews by this user
Wednesday, September 28, 2005