Kitchen Italia (Covent Garden)

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

Although the food here is passable to good (their olive oils are lovely), the level of service leaves much to be desired.

On the three occasions I have dined at this particular outlet, service from the staff has ranged from indifferent to borderline rude to downright appalling. Tonight, I have just returned from a particularly galling experience.

I arrived past 10pm during their advertised 'Post Theatre' special, which trumpets: "£9.95 for any main course pasta, soft drink, fresh juice or 175ml carafe of wine (tiger prawn, chilli and garlic taglionini and Spaghetti with Meatballs £2.00 supplement)."

I placed an order for the Mafaldine with Spicy Sausage and a 175ml carafe of Cabernet delle Venezie. Upon asking for the bill, I was charged full price for both items and when questioned, I was belatedly told that I not only had to specify that I wanted my meal to be included in their advertised special, but that the wine I ordered was not eligible for the promotion, despite their own explicit wording that 'any ..175ml carafe of wine' was part of the deal.

I pointed out that the restaurant made no explicit request that diners order by mentioning the promotion, and, in fact, with their prominent advertising, it is foreseeable that customers could logically expect their orders to be included.

I also pointed out that they were silent on what wines were and weren't included in their deal - there is no indication on any of the advertising of the deal, nor on the menu itself, of any such restriction, and at no point was the information offered to me at the time of placing my order.

To these queries, the manager sheepishly insisted that there was nothing he could do. I decided it was not worth the hassle of arguing over a few quid, but the point is that the establishment is purposefully misleading diners with these unspoken exceptions to a heavily promoted and publicized deal - introducing conditions after the fact is dishonest and the failure to offer any plausible explanation is an insult to every customer.

As I mentioned, the food here is passable, and occasionally good, but I think the shoddy and deceitful treatment they visit upon their customers should not be rewarded. In light of the fact that this outlet is situated in a tourist-heavy area, I can only imagine how many different ways this outlet's manager has come up with to rip off unsuspecting clientele.

Avoid at all costs.
Comment on this reader review

Edwin - View all reviews by this user
3 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Friday, May 07, 2010

Truly awful, such a shame as it looks gorgeous inside. I went with a friend for a pre-cinema plate of pasta and glass of wine and as we walked in down the stairs from the rain it looked cosy and welcoming. There are three long lines of bench tables down the middle and booths along the walls either side. There's a help-yourself gutter down the middle of each table, with fresh basil plants, flavoured oils and fresh parmesan for you to help yourself to. All good so far.

We ordered garlic bread, macaroni cheese and carbonara. The bread came quickly but it shouldn't have bothered as I couldn't taste any garlic, it just tasted like frozen bread that had been reheated just short of being ready. It got worse. The macaroni cheese came in a lovely copper pot but was basically pasta curls in a thin white sauce that had dripped to the bottom of the bowl. The carbonara had more to it: much more oil and more boiled bacon. Honestly, it was horrible and tasteless. Thank goodness for the basil and parmesan. I piled it on and managed to eat most of what was in my pretty Sophie Conran bowl.

The money spent on the decor was well spent but it is at the cost of the food. Really, the food tastes of nothing.
Comment on this reader review

- View all reviews by this user
4 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 2
Tuesday, February 16, 2010

I went here for lunch with my sister. A very pleasant, modern setting the restaurant has large shared benches, with some smaller side tables. I had a little trouble finding out what I could and couldn't eat with my food intolerance - some training for the waiting staff on this wouldn't go amiss- but we got there in the end. I had the chestnut and squash risotto, which was good but just too rich and I couldn't finish it. My sister had a stuffed pasta dish which she enjoyed. It is good value for money so with that and its great location just up from Diesel in Covent Garden I think I might well be going back at some point!
Comment on this reader review

Joanna James
8 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, December 15, 2009