Le Dolomiti

I've changed my mind about this restaurant over the 2-and-a-bit years since I last reviewed it. It might still be a decent place to eat on a normal evening, but it's to be avoided on days when the set menu is in operation - such as today, Mother's Day!

The choice on the menu was uninspiring to say the least. I chose the breaded mushrooms with garlic mayonnaise; three mushrooms arrived, lukewarm. It was an edible starter, but really such a boring option... there wasn't a lot of choice, but prawn cocktail and minestrone soup were among the selection - I thought it was 1987 all over again.

The options for the main course were no better - 3 different kinds of roast, veal, salmon in hollandaise sauce and canneloni come to mind (the canneloni was the only vegetarian dish). My vegetarian husband had the canneloni and said it was 'flavourless'. I went for the veal, which was tough.

The service was also poor. It has taken far too long to be seated over my last few visits to this restaurant - diners are basically left hanging around in the bar area until they are compelled to find a member of staff. Maybe this is because the restaurant hopes that we will get bored of waiting and order an extra drink while we hang around?

Food was served without a smile, plates were passed across the table to us rather than served properly, vegetables were spooned out across the person next to us (my husband nearly got an elbow in his face as the waiter stretched across him to serve my vegetables)... the peas arrived while we were well into our main course. In addition, half the plates for our starter were cleared while the rest of us waited several minutes to have our plates taken away, we waited about 30 minutes between finishing our main course and being served pudding.... the list goes on and on. I suppose that good service was not a priority because the service charge was automatically added to the bill. I appreciate that it was a busy day, but if a restaurant is going to extract £24 or thereabouts from each diner for a mediocre, poorly-presented meal, then they need to ensure that they have adequate staffing.

Needless to say, I won't be going back... I doubt my parents will either, despite eating at Le Dolomiti many times for 20 years or so.
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dawnage - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Sunday, March 18, 2007

I went to this restaurant with a party of 16 on Christmas Eve 2006. The evening started well enough as we all met in the bar area and were served by the polite bar staff. Then we were shown to our table...or should i say tables. They had split us into two tables of 8, way too far apart to talk to eachother - even after agreeing over the phone that we would all be eating on one table. Another promise they had made (we had two stipulations for booking a restaurant this xmas eve) was that the menu wouldnt be 'set'. It was.

We were supplied with a choice of around 3 courses for starters, mains and dessert, all of which looked very tame.

After speaking to the manager we were given the usual menus....not before he had uttered the unforgettable line "I know we said that it was a la carte but please, you must understand, it has been a busy week" - a busy week??

Anyway, we all ate two courses and shared a bottle of wine between each couple. It was ok, but nothing you couldnt of made yourself at home. The bill came to £84 per couple, which, i think you will agree is a rip off - i'd been to Langans in Green Park just the week before and paid only £110. This included 3 courses each and two bottles of fantastic wine...oh and the service charge.

The decor is nice, the staff are too...its a shame the manager has lost interest in the people that made his restaurant a success in the first place - his customers.

Dont go to this restaurant, spend your hard earned money somewhere they earn it.

3/10
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 0
Thursday, February 01, 2007

Le Dolomiti is a large, friendly Italian restaurant with good quality food at a reasonable price. The service is good and the atmosphere at the weekends when the place is full is very lively. The only drawback is the open plan style which tends to make it very noisy when the restaurant is full.
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gill
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Thursday, January 19, 2006