Bacco Restaurant and Wine Bar

In short, spend your money on a lovely evening elsewhere.

Pros: Decor, Welcome

Cons: I was visiting my girlfriend in London and after much deliberation, sounded out this restaurant for our meal last Friday night.

The restaurant had a quite nice, mainly wooden decor, and our welcome was pleasant with the manager taking our coats. Upon being seated, we ordered some drinks and accepted the offer of some water. To cut to the chase, the food was served in quite small portions and was generally bland. For example I had the crab and avocado mousse which served fresh and chilled, but a little tasteless. I then had the calf liver with polenta, and this was flavoursome, but the polenta was overcooked to verge of cardboard-like. My girlfriend chose the swordfish based on her love for olives, but this arrived without a single olive! To make matters worse, our food arrived cold. After persuading the waitress to look at the menu, who insisted the swordfish was fine, we sent the food back and they a few minutes later with the grand addition of 2 olives. After two courses we decided to end it there, even though hungry.

Our overall frustration came in the service, which was too quick and far too attentive; for an intended leisurely anniversary meal we were rushed through the evening by the third wheel of the waiting team. Every sip of water meant a waiter diving in to re-fill the glasses, we were asked twice if our meal was okay, and plates were consistently swept up on the last mouthful.

Given these reasons I challenged the bolt-on 10% service-charge. The head waiter apologised and said he would inform his waiting team, before returning moments later in a beautiful irony to sweep away our glasses the second we'd finished. The water we accepted on arrival? Icing on the cake to find a cheeky £4.00 charge without any kind of warning. Maybe that explains why the waiters were so keen to top us up every thirty seconds.

Having travelled all the way to London for a celebratory meal, this was simply an evening of massive disappointment. I chose the restaurant based on Tripadvisor other reviews so be warned. With so many other wonderful places around, perhaps look elsewhere.
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Tim Wood
4 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 2
Sunday, November 06, 2011

Took my girlfriend for dinner at Bacco Restaurant in holborn last night - excellent service, delicious food and very good choice of wines.The restaurant had quite a few dinners, a lot speaking Italian which must be a good sign for an Italian restaurant. highly recommended
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steven cook
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Saturday, September 17, 2011

The only time i used this restaurant i swore i would never use it again. The sardines for starter were tasteless and the chicken with mushrooms for main were awful, the mushrooms tasted as though they were dried and uncooked and the sauce tasted like a Sunday roast gravy. A Southern comfort, glass of Merlot and the meal came to over £70. Not worth the money. Don't use it.
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Mixter
2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Monday, August 22, 2011

We went to Bacco Restaurant and wine bar last night we really enjoyed some lovely fresh pasta at this restaurant on a quiet street just a few minutes from holborn station. Service was excellent & so friendly.! BTW I m Italian, will certainly go back!!!
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alex billi
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Friday, July 15, 2011

Disappointing to say the least. Ordered a red wine which cost about £25 and suspect they paid about £6 for it. The house red much better but still overpriced. Didn't like the way one of the waiters gave a waitress a dressing down simply because she put a dessert in front of the wrong person. This is bullying. Heavy white plates looked cheap and were not warmed. No steak knives. They didn't even have the grace to put a salad garnish on my main course of aubergine parmesan. A side of green beans was £3.75. They were well done and buttery. Aubergine tasted good too but not substantial enough for the price they charged - and it was a vegetable, for heaven's sake, not a steak or seafood platter. We got our 50% off but, cynically, prices have been jacked up accordingly to make you think it's a bargain. It isn't.

They wouldn't put the wine bottles on the table & filled before glases were empty trying to make us drink more. (There were 10 of us.) It didn't work. Service fussy and too many waiters (a very rare complaint i know!!)

They offer swordfish which is an endangered species.

Luckily, unlike poor reviewer below, there was no loud music - none at all. Place was packed and that was bad enough volume-wise. All in all just another London rip-off. RIP Bacco soon i hope!! March 2011
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Terry Jones (Ms)
4 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Friday, March 04, 2011

i dined out at your restaurant and i though the food was good and the service but i was a little bored waiting for my meal as there wasnt any entertainment. other than that your restaurant is fantastic !
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Zac Smith
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Friday, January 14, 2011

A truly dreadful experience!

Our party of four went to Bacco last Saturday (13/03) looking forward to good food and a relaxed and enjoyable night out..

What a disappointment! Over-pushy staff whose sole aim was to rack up the drinks bill by constantly overfilling our glasses, overpriced and poor food and the impression that they wanted us out the door served to make it a night to forget.

It's a good job I'm a Madonna fan as listening to 'Like a Virgin' at deafening volume while eating insipid minestrone soup might have sent me over the edge.

By the time we were shoving the flabby and lukeward veal escalope around our plates 'Like a Prayer' was blasting out.

The truly awful thing is that the staff, including the Maitre D knew they were ripping us off. Try this place at your own risk and make sure you take your earplugs.
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Henry
3 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Sunday, March 14, 2010

Went here with some friends last night, booking through London Eating to get the 50% discount. The place was quite busy, well decorated, had a very nice atmosphere and was professionally operated, also most of the staff were Italian which is a good sign.

We were a little surprised when the starters arrived as they were quite small but actually they were really good and tactfully portioned. The smoked chicken salad was delicious.

We all had pasta mains which were in fact quite generous portions. All dishes went down well, although sauces might be rather rich for some tastes (particularly gnocchi with pesto). Pappardelle with hare ragu was very tasty, but the pasta was a little overcooked and stuck together. Veal meatballs were also praised.

While it was a great evening, I would recommend taking advantage of the 50% discount. The full prices displayed were a little steep, but with the offer it was good value and a nice evening.
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Isotype - View all reviews by this user
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Friday, February 19, 2010

We went here a little while ago and were really impressed. Nice service and really very tasty food at a great price. Go for the deal, or go off the deal the food is great. Lamb cutlets cooked to perfection. Scallops were delicious. Neither of us had pasta but other people's pasta plates looked very good and plentiful. We've booked ourselves in again and would highly recommend.
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dinah
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Thursday, January 28, 2010

Went there with my friends and we all were really impressed. Service was really good, food fantastic and atmosphere is very cosy and italian. It is a great place to go for a romantic date as well as just meet with friends or family for a quiet nice dinner. Really good white house wine. i would recommend it to everyone.
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marzena
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Saturday, January 02, 2010