San Marco

Yesterday was cold and stormy, San Marco proved to be a good place to hide from the weather for a long lunch.

I had the set lunch special for £8.90 and from the list chose soup of the day and then spaghetti with meatballs and muchrooms, the £8.90 includes a free drink and I chose a nice, cold Peroni.

My soup was a lovely vegetable soup, good stock, nice vegetables, with rice and chickpeas also. The spaghetti was cooked well and the sauce and mushrooms were good aso. The meatballs were a little under-seasoned, just a little more salt or herbs would have made them more interesting.

My husband chose bruschetta which were large, fresh and tasty, then ordered the cod with lentils and garlic puree. He felt that his cod could have used more salt, but the lentils were soft and well seasoned as was the large serve of garlic mash. He said he didn't really need quite such a large portion of lunch but we still managed to share a portion of profiteroles.

I will definitely be going back, and looking at other diners' plates I will be trying the Calzone
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Gillian - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Sunday, November 02, 2008

I have never felt the need to write a review of a restaurant before, certainly not a positive one. Having been in the industry myself for over a decade i know how incredibly hard it can be maintaining a positive attitude both as a server and as team manager, especially in a busy, non stop environment.

Visited San Marco Friday 4th January as a party of 6, have been a few times but this time i have to say we were all quite blown away by the friendly energised serving team. Their interaction is what makes a place such as this heads above all the ultra trendy, too cool to smile restaurants that London is now saturated with. A positive team mentality and sense of fun directly affects the experience of the customer. Hats off to you, sincerly hope you guys keep it up. Refreshing change.

Food also really tasty and reasonable, particularly recommend their pizza's, had a pepperoni thang, with extra smoke cheese on top...divine!!

Drank like fish, filled our bellies, had a laugh with the staff and then got a round of very toxic free shots to wrap up with.......about £25 a head, come on!!! Loved the evening so much that i am returning for my birthday celebrations on the 12th.

Go!
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Drew
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Friday, January 11, 2008

Went there for the first time last night as we thought we'd try somewhere new for a change. Unfortunately, the stench of burning which kept wafting across from the kitchen throughout our meal, combined with abismally poor food and disinterested service means we won't be troubling San Marco with our custom again any time soon. It's a mystery how they keep their doors open.
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Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Thursday, December 06, 2007

I went there last Friday with 2 mates. It was busy and buzzing, and had a great atmosphere. We got seated quickly, served good food, and great beer (the bottled Menabrea lager is fantastic and really hard to get hold of). The food was great value (£6.50 for a massive lasagne and £7 for a large pizza), really unbeatable.

We only stumbled across the place by accident, but loved it. I read some of the comments regarding the staff, but I have to say every waiter and waitress we saw was very pleasant. There were 3 of us at a table for 4, and they kept coming and sitting on the spare chair chatting to us. They kept us topped up with plenty of free limoncella liqueur shots, and recommended some local pubs to go to.

3 blokes and and drank heartily and still had taxi change from £50. Unbeatable. Thoroughly recommended
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Luke Mantle
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Monday, April 02, 2007

Waited two hours for our main course, they delivered my freind the wrong risotto and she then had to wait fifteen minutes for the new one.They are more focussed on you spending money on drinks,so make you sit there for ages.It was so noisy, all the chairs are on top of each other and toliets dirty.For a restaraunt that has been here for this long, the service was terrible.Dont waste your time or money here.
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Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 3
Saturday, September 02, 2006

Went here in January 2006. This restuarant was so bad that two months later, I can still remember it. The restuarant is noisy and uncomfortable, but these are forgiveable sins. But the food! I ordered a pizza with smoked cheese - but they had used the wrong cheese, a variety (i think portuguese) which doesn't melt. It was absolutely vile but by the time we were served, I was so hungry I ate it. My partner ordered lamb shanks. This had not been cooked for the requisite 2 and a half hours, and the meet was still stuck to the bone only half cooked. It almost made him sick but he did complain to the waiter and manager, after taking a few bites of it. I then complained about my inedible pizza mostly eaten by that time. Their response was astonishing. They simply ignored us and gave us dirty looks. We paid and left. Never to return again.
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scott
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, March 31, 2006

Went on a busy Saturday night and overall I was pleasantly surprised. The prices are very reasonable and the food itself was much nicer than the usual pizza / pasta you get in most Italian chains. The pizzas were particularly good with nice thin and crispy bases and generous toppings.

The restaurant itself has a pretty lively atmosphere and the tables are a bit close together, but its not really a problem unless you are looking for a quiet romantic dinner.

The only downside was the service - it took us a while to get menus and drinks ordered, and they were pretty slow with bringing the drinks. The male waiter who served us was very friendly and cheerful, but seemed more interested in chatting up the girls at a nearby table, and the 2 female waitresses that (eventually) served us were pretty miserable.

Despite the service, I would definitely go back.
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Ed
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Monday, March 20, 2006