The Wine Theatre

Used a 50% offer via a 'card' rather than the Top Table offer (unfortunately)> Place was empty on a saturday night, had really weird music playing quite loudly (Blur, metal, etc). Service is ok. The menu is interesting but fails to deliver. My starter sounded really cool - mushrooms souffle with cheese foundue. Was a mushroom flan which was nice but overloaded with garlic, and the fondue was a splash of cream by the side. My main was seared tuna, ok but forgettable. My husband's lasagna looked like it had come out of a packet - was swiming in bechamel/creamy sauce and super hot. When we asked for the bill, we were charged the full price. When we reminded them of the card (used to book and before ordering), they told us to make use of the offer we had to order two courses each - since we had not, only one person's main would be discounted. All around, a rip off.
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Fried Egg Fred
4 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 3
Monday, December 14, 2009

I have been here on the 10th April 2009 with 8 friends for my birthday and I have to say I made the right choice.We started celebrating with the house Prosecco which was of incredibly good value and picking food from the Aperitivo buffet on which we found an amazing selection of home made food including canapes, pasta salads, hot pastas, charcuterie and cheese platters.

We then decided to spend the ret of the evening at the wint theatre. The staff promptly prepared a table for us and advised us on the best courses and wines.

the service was detailed and quick, all of this, combined with beautifully cooked food made my day special. I will definitely come back with some more friends.
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Lucia
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Friday, April 17, 2009

This place seems to have got poor press and the format has changed since the Timeout review, but of course that is stuck there for all to see.

I however really liked this place-I'm not going to say it has the best wine list in town, it doesn't, and you would expect more interesting Italian offerings. But the prosecco we had was better than average and good value at £5 a glass, and the chianti was really very good- quite complex for only 20p more. Yes you'd hope to see more interesting wines especially from Italy, but what they have seems well chosen, and if not cheap then its not graspingly priced.

What made us like it, and what made the drinks great value, was the aperitivo buffet, the format has changed as i said, so you now buy whatever drink you like and then hit the free buffet till 8pm, so in theory a fiver could see you well fed and watered. On our visit the buffet wasn't cleared till about 8.30, so there was ample opportunity to try it.

I don't know whether things have changed since Timeout review or whether I just have a different resective, but I thought the buffet was very representative of the type of aperitivo you get in good bars in Italy, I wouldn't say 80s but it is meant to be simple, there was good pasta salad, excellent oily and garlicky shredded carrot, two types of good salami, some cheese, some bread with ham in it and an ok olive oil to dip it in, some good spanish style omelette, basically a pretty decent spread of simple things, all pleasant or better.

During and after the buffet we had two glasses of prosecco and one of chianti so for just over £15 each (ok, £17 inc excellent service) we had good drinks and pleasant food in a very civilised bar.

The manager was great, giving my friend tips on where to go on her forthcoming trip to Sardinia, and this really should be much busier than it is.
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8 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, April 08, 2009