Pane Vino

I took my mum there last night as a belated birthday treat. The restaurant was half full and there was a pleasant buzz of conversation and most importantly no cheesy italian semi operatic pop muzac. I liked the feel instantly, rustic furniture squeezed in to an improbable space and a badly scribbled specials board. We were greeted by (i guess) the propieter and matriach of this family restaurant.

We were sat at our table, our drinks orders taken and we were left to consider the menu. I chose, with helpful recommendation from our host smoked duck carpaccio with apple and nut salad and my mum went (rather safely I thought) for the Calamari for starters. Both were impressive, the duck was tender, gently smoked and the flavour was lifted by the sweet apple salad . The calamari was fresh and sweet but was given a touch of difference with the addition of semolina to the batter, making it slightly crunchier with a nutty edge.

When it came to ordering the mains we were again indebted to our host. My mum wanted to order the grilled eel with wild rice and celery sauce. However my mum doesn't really like celery and tried to order the dish minus it. "Don't worrie it is a fresh and delicate sauce not to overpowering". So reluctantly she went with it. Wow the celery really lifted the dish. The nutty brown rice and meaty eel may well have been lost with out it.

I had the Fregola with porcini and octopus. Perfectly cooked the octopus was sweet and melted in the mouth, the porcini were meaty and tasty and the fregola was perfectly cooked with a nutty pearl barley characteristic with some beautifully sweet cherry tomatos exploding on the palate within a lightly spiced sauce.

We were (on request) given time to digest our ample meal so far, before ordering deserts. When enough room had been made we ordered a Tiramisu and a semolina pudding with vanilla Ice cream and sweet wine sauce.

Again my mum went for the safer option citing her dislike of semolina. But alas she lost out. The tiramisu was the only ordinary dish of the evening. Not bad but not stand out either. However I had to guard my desert avidly. Birthday or no, there was no way i wanted to give away more than the tasting i gave at the beginning of the deserts which she loved. The semolina was light and fresh with a hint of lemon and the icecream was a simple foil to it. I could have done with more sauce, not that the desert needed it i just loved it so much.

One bottle of wine and a beer, two coffees for less than £100. Bargain!!! As we said last night, I cant see how the place would function when full to the brim. But it doesn't matter, the time between courses is a time to converse, relax, take a drink of wine. It is an Italian state of mind. If you can't get past the Londoners NOW NOW NOW mind set then don't go...........and don't bother going to Italy either. Allow 4 hours minimum for your meal and chill out. P.S. The wine list is good too
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Mark D
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Friday, July 11, 2008

I think Pane Vino is an EXCELLENT restaurant and would recommend it to all....BUT if you are looking for lightning service and neutral decor it may not be for you. Go to Wagamamas and leave more room for the rest of us to enjoy the Pane Vino experience!

The food is excellent, authentic (well I think so...although I'm not Italian), and well prepared from fresh ingredients. The restaurant itself is very unpretentious inside with checked table cloths and all sorts of paraphenalia stuck on the bar and walls....very like any restaurant you might stray into in Italy. It has a jolly atmosphere and is a nice relaxed place to eat. Its true that your dinner may take some time to arrive - this is because they are preparing it from scratch in the kitchen, but unless you are in a tearing hurry (in which case you might do better somewhere else) you have a glass of wine, some bread and chat to your friends while you wait. Or check out what everyone else is eating so you can see what looks best! And at least they don't snatch the plates away while your fork is still in your mouth and hand you the pudding menu before you've finished chewing!

I have never eaten less than well there...most dishes are absolutely delicious. Best pizza in London for my money. I love the fact that you can enjoy a leisurely dinner without being rushed to the door...you often walk by to see people still sitting over a coffee and brandy at midnight and the charming manageress never seems fazed by this.

Its true that I have been there when one of the waiting staff has been less than dynamic, on the other hand I've been in there when they've been down to one waitress flying from table to table and had excellent service. I've never come across rude staff there, and I hope I never do.
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Tisiphone - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Having read other reviews my expectations were not high, but the friend I was with insisted we eat here.

It was a Tuesday night, almost full, only one waitress (possibly the bad one referred to in other reviews) and the manageress.

In a nutshell, the food was very good (my main calves liver) and the service was perfectly adequate (not necessarily with a smile!).

I had a good view of the kitchen from my seat and could see that there was only one chef and a helper, possibly on a busy night if a lot of customers arrive together things could slow down a tad if they don't have more help.

Not a very pretty restaurant, but everything else was great.
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S,Honeyball
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, August 22, 2007

I had a nice birthday dinner here a couple of weeks ago, with my boyfriend. The food did take a while, but we were making an evening out of it anyway and we could see the chefs busily cooking away for a large party - it kind of added to the authentic Italian feel of the place! Waitresses were nice enough, but we were sitting in a dodgey place next to the kitchen and bar.

We decided to splash out and both had a pasta dish to start, and then a main course. Which is loads of food! My squid, with squid ink pasta was delicious. But I was not so keen on my chicken liver main course - which was really greasy and lacking much flavour. My partner liked his chicken a lot.

I would definitely go again, but maybe stick to antipasti and pasta. I am not sure that the mains are worth the money.
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Kay
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Great menu, unfortunately the dishes didn't quite live up to what they promised.

I ordered a nice plate of pasta, paccheri with mussels and sausage, which was good, good portion size, well prepared, nothing amazing but also nothing to complain about, just good.

My boyfriend was less fortunate, he ordered a plate of squid ink pasta with chilli and squid. The portion was very big, unfortunately the pasta was overcooked which is very dissapointing especially when considering that the people there are Italian. The dishes didn't arrive at the same.

The waitress who served us was very reserved and didn't give us the warm welcome and service we are used to from typical Italian restaurants. We ordered one bottle of still water but got two sparkling ones and we were even overcharged on our bill.
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Anna
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Thursday, June 21, 2007

I eat here about once a fortnight and the food is always superb - espcially the linguine de mare.

It's true that the staff can be a bit distracted, but have any of you actually tried talking to the waitress? She is actually really sweet and friendly with a great sense of humour if you make the effort to be friendly.
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Anon
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Thursday, June 14, 2007

I agree with comments made about the waitress (Polish - not that this has stopped other Polish waitresses elsewhere doing a great job, mind you).

She is awful - distracted, bored...emptied a glass of water over my mum and could not even manage to pour the wine without spilling half of it on th table.

That was 4 months ago.

Unfortunately she is still there!

I am very tempted to let management know how shockingly bad she is - judging by other readers' comments I am not the first.

All that said, this food is probably the best you'll get in London - I am Italian and the quality really is superb.

I have eaten here about 5 times over the past year - surly waitress aside, I have always had a delicious meal.

My mum took me and my husband to eat here when we celebrated finishing buidling works on our new flat, a month ago: we had a fantastic meal.

Afterwards she wrote me a text saying, rather wryly: "Had a fabulous time and at least we didn't get anything thrown over us by the miserable waitress this time".

Yes, it's not ideal - a good waitress would do wonders for this place...but please don't let that put you off sampling the best sardinian food outside of Sardinia!
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Arrived at 9pm, ordered two plates of pasta and no starters, had to wait nearly an hour. The waitress brought the wrong dishes, and the only other people in the restaurant through all this were a table of 4 who were on thier desserts when we arrived.

The pasta when it arrived was OK, but certainly not £15 quid per plate's worth.

Linguine with Bottarga had no real taste beyond butter and garlic.

Maybe good for Pizza if you can get served, otherwise dont bother.
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tomp
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Thursday, November 30, 2006

I went last night after work with my wife. The room was full, but since this is a restaurant and took the bookings my expectation was that we would be served on time. Whilst the food overall was good, service was absolutely shocking. Not only did it take 1 hour 45 minutes to get two plates of pasta, but two groups of whom I can only assume were 'friends' of the establishment came in well after us and were served ahead of us. I have to agree on the surliness of the waitressing. It appeared only one waitress understood us, and then took an age to bring our drinks order. To cap it all off at the end of a very long and uninspiring evening the daughter of the owner, who could not have been more than twelve years old, was serving us drinks and taking the bill.

A real let-down and I will not be returning.
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David Jenkins
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 3
Friday, October 20, 2006

I am probably biased as this is the best local restaurant, but even so I don't recognise some of the descriptions of other reviewers. There must have been a rogue waitress earlier in the year whom we were lucky enough to miss. We have been about once a month for the past 4 months and every time have had delightful service with very good food, from authentic pizzas to excellent cured meats and other traditional (I'm told) Sardinian dishes. We are going again later this week expecting to miss the dodgy waitress.
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Hugh Norbury
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, September 27, 2006