Il Siciliano

Visited Il Siciliano on Saturday 4th February. There were 19 of us, celebrating a 60th birthday. Staff made us very welcome and were attentive but not overbearing. They offered bread with olive oil and olives without any additional charge. The food was excellent and all arrived at the same time. We were in a room upstairs which we had to ourselves and could therefore take our time and enjoy ourselves without disturbing other diners. One of our party needed to leave early and requested a taxi. The restaurant tried to phone for a cab but were told that there would be a wait of 1 hour, so the owner stood outside despite the fact that it was snowing heavily at the time, and flagged down a passing taxi. We chose Il Siciliano based on the fact that it was close to the theatre and to our hotel, but I have to say we were very pleased with our choice and felt they helped to make our celebration a lovely relaxing successful occasion.
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Jane - View all reviews by this user
10 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, February 26, 2012

This restaurant is truly terrible. I went here with two friends, the food was awful, one of the things we ordered never came, we had to ask twice for our beers (and the place was not busy at all) and the bill was pretty high considering what we had.

Avoid at all costs.
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Marcello
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, May 18, 2011

A friend and I had a very poor meal with surly and inattentive service at Il Siciliano. Anyone who appreciates good food, well prepared with fresh ingredients, should avoid this fourth rate excuse of a restaurant.

Our shared starter of Chili shrimp warned us of the supermarket type fare in store. The sauce was thin and watery, and the shrimps were tiny, more useful for fish bait than for dining. The main pasts dishes were even worse. The pasta was not home made and not even up to the cheapest brand available in any supermarket. The sauces were a disgrace, without any substance or in the case of my companion's seafood sauce, without ore than two small pieces of (yet again) shrinp bait.

The male waiter, who might be the owner, made us feel uncomfortable and ignored as he was busy either talking on his mobile phone, or outside the restaurant leaving the main telephone to ring for 5 minutes as no other staff would answer it.

We were charged £6.00 each for an airplane size glass of house wine (and I use that term loosely - plonk is more accurate). The bill came to £68.00 for a small plate of olives and 4 pieces of bread, one starter, two pasta dishes and 4 undersized glasses of wine. A complete waste of money.

As for approaching the restaurant directly, that is laughable. The waiter refused to give us the complete bill detailing what we had eaten,("we need this"), and walked off when we tried to protest and discuss the miserable dinner.
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0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Saturday, April 16, 2011

This is my first time writing a review but I decided to do it to warn people who might be thinking about going to this restaurant. The restaurant is cozy and charming but the service is terrible. We were first sat in the middle of the restaurant and then suddenly in the middle of the meal the waiter ask us to move to another table because more people were coming over.

The food is reasonable but at the end of the meal we had a surprise. First, they charged us for a plate of vegetables that we did not order. In fact, they served it as if it was part of the meal. Secondly, they charged us 5 pounds for a single coffee. Third they charged both coverage and service. When we said something to the waiter, he was rude as if it was my fault. My advice is for anyone is to avoid this restaurant at all costs..
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Paolo
3 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Sunday, April 03, 2011

I never bother writing reviews online, however I purposely made spare time to review Il Siciliano on Dean Street and not for good reasons! My wife and I decided to try a different restaurant in Soho for a change from the usual. We found Il Siciliano on Dean Street which initially looked very authentic in appearance and had a pretty decent menu.

Inside Il Siciliano it was very idyllic and certainly had good first impressions, however when the main course arrived, suspiciously quick, resting in a bed of watery garlic sauce, I was far from impressed with the quality of the food. I got the King Prawn dish which wasn’t anything special and the presentation was at school dinner level! We didn’t get a starter, had two sprit drinks and 1 soft drink, 2 mains and 2 deserts, which we expected to pay £50-£55…. We were charged £87.50!!!!!!!!! This was ridiculously over priced and when I double checked the bill (which I never usually do) the cunning waiter added the amount incorrectly and his first attempted to amend the bill was still £5 too much. In the end the bill was corrected to £72.50, which included 10% service charge and £2.50 table charge!!! Il Siciliano is a NO GO and the waiter was extremely rude too. I think we’ll stick to the usual routine and eat in Pizza Express at least you’re not expecting amazing food or an overpriced bill.

PLEASE AVOID “IL SICILIANO”
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Liam
2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Saturday, February 12, 2011

I am genuinely surprised by the bad reviews on here! The staff were lovely and very friendly. Service was 5*. And the food was yummy. Great atmosphere and would go again. This was on a busy Sat night - 2 weekends ago. That's all you need to know!
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Lilly P
10 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, November 24, 2010

All of the food served was consistently bad. Quite high prices plus a cover charge plus a service charge. Much better food than this can be purchased ready made from just about any supermarket. The owner's behaviour was tempermental and rude. Can't comment on the desserts because after the extremely disappointing starters and main meals we decided not to risk it. Left feeling hungry.
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Jenny Jones
2 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Monday, November 08, 2010

I have been coming to this restaurant for years bringing countless amounts of friends and family and they all have always loved it, anytime this restaurant is mentioned in my household everyone gets all excited.

Everytime i go to the restaurant im greeted by the very warming manager and sat down immediately and given olives and bread for whilst we look at the menus, everytime im there the boss arrives usually during my meal he is very very charming and pleasent and comes to the table to see how we are doing and if we need or want anything else, the service is always great and i love coming here, will be back very soon
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Ezio Pietro
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Friday, February 12, 2010

THE worst place I have ever eaten in my life. Went there last night with three friends. Kept waiting for a table and then taken to one that hadn't been laid with stains on it. The waiter - who was trying his best, but had far too many tables to look after on his own - kept forgetting to bring the things asked for.

Starter - one salad was dropped on the way up, and replacement arrived as we were all finishing.

Main course - dull pasta dishes that didn't fit the menu description, and the one person who ventured for fish had to send it back. No apology. We were treated as though we were at fault.

We gave up any idea of a pudding, but after ten minutes of waiting for the bill we went to the counter.

The manager totted up the bill - and 'accidently' managed to add it up to a higher total than it was until it was pointed out, and even then tried to argue until eventually admitting his error.

Even with the correct price the bill was extortionate for the lower than average quality.

I will never set foot in here again - a shame for the restaurant as I work round the corner and could have supplied regular business.

And I recommend no one else goes here either...
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Emma
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, January 31, 2010

toook my family of 8 here xmas eve 2009 food very good portions, tasty just lovely my family are italian and if they said it was good it was good. just what we wanted old type trattoria and the tradiontal sweet trolley. priced at 28 pound for set xmas menu which had enough variety for everyone very good value. expect to pay a little more for drinks and wines but thats london. but would return and reccommend the food. waiter looked after us and the background music of lucia dalla and andrew bocelli just topped it off.
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lorraine rizzotto
9 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Sunday, December 27, 2009