Rossopomodoro (Chelsea)

Went there for dinner with some friends and it was a nightmare.

Got there at a reasonable time, 21:15. It took us 15 minutes to get a menu after being seated. We then ordered wine, and that was plonked on the table by a very rude waiter who didn't believe it was his duty to serve us. When we ordered we had to point at the menu for the waiter to understand our selection. One would expect such an establishment to have waiter who knows the menu.

After all that hassle, they still got my order wrong, gave me pizza instead of a calzone, although i had clearly pointed to the right item on the menu!

And when the menu came, it appeared that my friend who had ordered a mozzarella di buffola priced at 11 pounds (already quite pricey) , was actually served a special priced at an even more incredible 15.50 pounds.

Now as regular customers, we though it would be reasonable to have a word with the manager. We were told that we were wrong, the pizza instead of calzone issue was my fault as I had made the mistake, and regarding the mozzarella we were told it was eaten so tough luck. We also believed the service to be poor so asked for the 18 pound service charge to be removed.

We were insulted and told we were cheap. Safe to say we won't be going there again.

So be warned, if you want an expensive dinner, bad service and an insult with your coffee this is the place to go.
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1 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Saturday, October 01, 2011

ok - the food was pretty good, but I've had better Italian in the neighbourhood - food not the issue, ambience was fine too. To be clear, myself and brothers/cousin, we'd been out for a couple of ales, but were more than presentable; by and large we get politer after ales... didn't want to put them out, quick pizza befrore bed etc

All was pretty good - the food was middling to fine in terms of quality Italian pizza restaurant...

here was the issue: we arrived, we ordered, maitre d' was so enthusiastic almost anyone would have hired him as a manager in their business irrespective. Problem was, we thought we had ordered a bottle of red (no we did not specify house, but it was one of those "we've just ordered some £10 per head pizza can we have a bottle of red" type situations...

come the end of the meal and the bill it turns out we "have ordered" the most expensive botle in the establishment..... at £52 per bottle!!!! twice...!

legally, the mairtre d' was probably right, I can't remember what we specified, but we certainly didn't come in and say, hey, we just had a pint, take us for a ride....his solution was to give us an extra bottle of the same wine he had just sold us two bottles of at a fantastical markup...

he was so chirpy I would probably still have asked him to deliver my next offspring. However, I did mention, fairly acitvely, that I felt he had taken us for a royal ride and whilst we would pay for the wine (which bumped the pizza/restaurant bill up to nearly £60 per head), it was highly likely that in doing so we would feel that he had basically used our credit cards to his own benefit and the chances of us returning to this admittedly extremely close by and open post 11pm establisment would descend to nil...

..which he took with a grin and handed me the bottle of wine..

There is maybe no right and wrong here, maybe I should have been eagle-eyed on spotting that the 'botttle of red' with a pizza was the most expensive botle of red he had ever sold...

maybe so, but you have been warned - I shan't go back and if you go I hope the pizza is to your liking and the wine bill also...
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worm2000
6 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, June 15, 2011

What a treat to bump into this restaurant! I have to say when we first got in we thought we we're just going to have a quick average italian before the chelsea game. How wrong we were. It was absolutely fantastic! Everyone was extremely kind and friendly and the food...wooow! Best pizza i've ever had and my wife's pasta was amazing too! Will surely go back asap! Great!
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Laury - View all reviews by this user
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, May 18, 2010

THIS IS THE "REAL" ITALIAN PIZZA MADE IN NAPLES !!! high quality ingredient (mozzarella and tomatoes), water from Vesuvian source. The best.
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Matteo
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Sunday, April 04, 2010

This is truly the best pizza you can find outside of Naples and we've tried a fair few. This is good, honest food with staff who yell at each other in Italian and a couple of pizzaioli dusty with flour, skillfully shovelling pizza around the wood burning oven.

If you're looking for a quiet, private, little romantic place then this isn't going to make your inner foodie purr but if it's a cheery, bustling place you're in need of then this is your badger.
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Cara Arpino
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Friday, February 19, 2010

Me and my wife (Italian) wanted to give Rosso Pomodoro a second chance, since our first time there was a disaster, bad service, high price and not very nice pizza.

So we went in on Saturday lunch and was quickly greated by the concierge and seated at a table. After this we saw many people coming in, many tables leaving but no one even looked at our direction (we were seated in the middle of the restaurant. Usually you at least get some drinks but nothing. After 25 minutes of trying to get attention we stopped the waiter and he was quite rude and left.

We did leave this establishment directly after that with the word, "Have a great day" from the waiter.

I would actively discourage people from going to this place!
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J Swensan
2 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Friday, January 22, 2010

Went yesterday with two friends, returning there after two years with the first attempt disappointing in what is most important, the pizza.

This time, service was slowly but not unfriendly. Strangely, there seemed to be as many pizzaioli (three in number and largely with not much to do) than waiters.

Pizzas were generally good, although mine was a bit too small, if with much cheese in it.

What we found truly disappointing is the extortionate price for the beers, with £ 3.70 for a half pint of Peroni on tap and unbelievable £ 4.70 for the Peroni Gran Riserva 33cl. This is not acceptable by any standard and things will have to change before we set foot in the place again for this reason only.

Two of us also ordered a dessert (a kind of tiramisu with not so much chantilly cream but overabundance of nutella, well presented but not so goo din the end) and the third a limoncello, being charged for it (nothing strange in that but I've read they tend to give it for free...).

Whilst the Pizza has certainly improved, the beer prices (and prices for beverages in general) make the place unattractive and one feels ripped off for a pizza quality which is not better in any way (and rather a bit inferior) than the Italian competition of, say, Madeinitaly, Marechiaro and Spaccanapoli.

Summa summarum, Rosso Pomodoro did not pass the test, although this time by a lesser margin than two years ago.
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Septimus Harding - View all reviews by this user
5 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 2
Tuesday, September 01, 2009