Kitchen Italia (Covent Garden)

Appalling. How can an Italian restaurant run out of pizzas and lasagna at lunchtime! Without exception every dish we had was very poor quality - the pasta dishes you had to search for the meat and likewise with the salads. Service was poor, and the ambience id depressing.

How do places as bad as this survive in this economic climate?
Comment on this reader review

Paul Francis
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, December 31, 2012

My girlfriend and I were in London looking around Covent Garden when we had the sudden urge for some pasta. Due to our hunger we just went into the first Italian place that we saw. Big mistake. After being greeted by an obnoxious waiter and sat down we had a look through the menu and after finally grabbing the waiter we ordered our drinks and food. Both of our cocktails were quite good and the starter of battered squid was also very tasty, but after that was when things started to go downhill. After about 15 mins the waiter decided to come and tell us that they had run out of meatballs (this was at the beginning of lunch) so we needed to re-order. I then learned that my second choice of lasagne was off the menu so after looking through the fairly limited menu I settled on some sort of cheese pasta while my girlfriend went for a chili kick pasta. Hers was completely tasteless and mine was just awful. In addition the garlic bread was a disappointment. We paid and made a quick getaway, and realised that there is no shortage of other, much better looking Italian places in Covent Garden so there is really no reason to visit this rubbish little cafeteria.
Comment on this reader review

2 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 3
Thursday, December 20, 2012

Went there with a group of 20 people, table booked in advance so they knew what to expect. We all ordered pasta or salad, very simple dishes that are quick to make. One of our party ordered garlic mozzarella bread, which arrived cold and had to be sent back. The waitress was clearly inexperienced, overwhelmed and spoke very little English. I ordered pesto spaghetti and waited for one hour. My food never arrived and I had to leave without eating, as I had a meeting at work. When I told the manager she could cancel my order, she argued with me that we are a big group and that I should stay cause my food was ready. Really, one hour to boil some pasta? I don't think so. Never again!
Comment on this reader review

Lea
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Friday, November 30, 2012

Never written a good or bad review before, but this place is so bad I can't hold back.

Booked the restaurant for 9 for a Saturday night. When we got there there was no table, and after being ignored for 15 minutes we sat down. The service was terrible, half way through the meal our waitress went home! Everything was slow, and we had to ask and when the starters arrived they were cold.

When the mains arrived they came in ones and two's, obviously serving the kids last! Two of the kids dinners were wrong so they took them away and I had to go up to the kitchen 20 minutes later to ask where they were.

Shocking service, shocking food, a complete shambles so under no circumstances go anywhere near this place. How this place is still trading is beyond me.
Comment on this reader review

Michael - View all reviews by this user
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, November 19, 2012

I was booked in to this restaurant by Last Minute.com as part of a deal for dinner and a show. It was a Friday evening so we had expected it to be busy and it was. Firstly our names were not on the list so that was a ten minute wait for that to be checked and confirmed with the manager, we were then shown to our table with a set menu and left for 20minutes without even being offered a drink. The initial service was slow and a few people had complained and left in the time we were waiting. When our order was eventually taken the food was ok, and the time between starter and main was acceptable. We didnt have to pay for drinks because of the length of time we had initially waited even though we hadnt complained.

The restaurant itself was noisy and felt like you were eating in a canteen of a factory at lunch time hence the low rating for atmosphere.

The food was average and i have tasted better food but this was reflected in the reasonable pricing. You get what you pay for and it filled me up before the show.

Would go again to actually see if the poor service at the start was a one off as the place was clean, toilets were kept clean and the food was ok. They did seem quite short staffed.
Comment on this reader review

Casey Boyles
5 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 6
Friday, August 24, 2012

If I could give this place 0 stars I would! I've never written a bad review on a restaurant and never normally even complain in a restaurant! But I just have to stress how AWFUL this place is. Genuinely the WORST meal I have ever had! Shockingly bad service and the food was even worse!!

Went on a Saturday night, was just 2 of us and we got sat on a table of 8. After that we were ignored for about 30 minutes before we managed to get someone to take a drinks order (asked a few waitresses who said they would come back and never did...) Took 20 minutes after that to get a food order taken!

We ordered starters (garlic focaccia with cheese, breaded mozzarella) and mains (goats cheese ravioli, lasagne) as we had a 241 tastecard. Garlic focaccia turned up 2 minutes later (no cheese) so we sent that back, they just returned the same bread, now cold, with a bit of cheese sprinkled on top! Mozzarella turned up 10 minutes later, ok but fairly un-inspiring, sauce to accompany tasted of nothing.

To my surprise my main, goats cheese ravioli, turned up about 2 minutes after the last starter when we were still eating. This is where it got really bad, the goats cheese ravioli was the most awful thing I have ever tasted. It was beyond inedible. It had cold/almost frozen roasted veg on top. It was truly awful. My boyfriend will eat anything and he took one mouthful and pushed the rest away it was SO bad.

The second main meal turned up 15 minutes after mine. We thought you cant possibly do lasagne badly! How wrong we were! It was a huge dish with a tiny portion of dried up lasagne in the middle! We were both starving though so gave it a shot. The top was rock solid and the middle tasted bizarre. There was barely any meat in it, just a strange tasting paste, and the rest was just sheets of pasta. We managed half because we were so hungry! It was edible but way below average for a fairly standard pasta dish! Not 1 person asked us if our meal was ok, even though 1 plate was clearly sat on the edge of the table untouched and we didnt eat all the lasagne.

When the waitress eventually cleared the plates we had to tell her how bad it was. She was not very apologetic but said she would tell the chef. We were asked if we wanted desserts, definitely not, so they bought over the bill automatically! The waitress started saying as a gesture of good will they had taken off the goats cheese pasta. Hardly a gesture of good will given that it was inedible and we had 241 with the tastecard so 1 of the meals would have been taken off anyway! We mentioned this and said something else should be taken off, either the lasagne or drinks. But they said that couldnt be done as we had eaten some of the lasagne!

We couldnt be bothered to argue so we paid and left. It was just awful. From start to finish the worst meal I’ve ever had. NEVER EVER GO TO KITCHEN ITALIA!!
Comment on this reader review

1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Monday, November 28, 2011

Terrible service in this restaurant! I am usually quite easy to please when it comes to dining out as I have work as a waitress and know it's not always an easy job but the staff here were plain rude. Our waitress came to take our drinks order - one of our party order a wine and the rest of the table obviously did not answer quickly enough as she abruptly walked off. My food order was incorrect and by the time my dish came the rest of my group were nearly finished. The final straw came when I saw my dish and it was half the size of everyone elses. When I questioned this I was told it was because it was served on a different plate. I got the impression that this is a trick they pull quite often as it seemed quite rehearsed. All in all not a good experience!!
Comment on this reader review

2 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Sunday, November 27, 2011

Went there last night and although the decor is nice, and the menu seems appetising, the food was below average. The worst though was the service: really unpleasant staff, particularly unhelpful and grumpy ... and furthermore our food arrived at separate times (there was only 4 of us, can't have been THAT complicated!!), couldn't even get our drinks to arrive before our food. Surreal. Another Covent Garden scam which functions on tourists never coming back ... DON'T GO!!!!!
Comment on this reader review

4 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 7
Monday, November 14, 2011

When I walked in i straight away thought what a lovely restaurant. Nicely laid out and was looking forward to eating. We were ushered to our table and decided on what to eat.

When i received my food first i had to wait 10 minutes till my friends received their food. When that did come i asked for some parmesan cheese and as the one on our table was empty. The waiter got one of another table and dumped it on ours without saying a word. It was like i was bothering him. The restaurant only had several people in it and I thought the service and attitude was shocking. Normally when you go to an italian restuarant you receive some fresh bread nibbles while you wait. Not once did they offer even though they were there to see. There was also a situation when i looked up and two waiters were looking at our table sniggering. What is all that about?? Disgrace. Me and my friends have never felt so uneasy when eating out. We couldnt wait to leave. It was a disappointing end to a great day.

I cant fault the food as my pasta was superb and my friends also enjoyed theirs, but due to the unwelcoming we received while we were waiing and eating, we will never go back.
Comment on this reader review

sam howe
3 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 5
Sunday, July 03, 2011