Jamie's Italian (Covent Garden)

My pasta was very undercooked. The Carbonara sauce was pretty much tasteless.

I wouldnt go back.
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Kate Scanlan
4 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Sunday, January 29, 2012

A disappointment. Went with wife and three kids and while service was slick, food was average. The autumn bruschetta lacked punch (of a rub of garlic) and bread was pappy rather than crisp. My main, pasta with a game sauce, came with dry meat lumps of meat with dense often claggy pasta. My local neighbourhood italian does this dish far more successfully sticking with more traditional pappardelle and a well rendered down sauce. Pud was nice though and wife wouldn't tolerate anything said against St Jamie. Would also suggest there is something wrong with the layout. Rather than the bar area being a chilled area to enjoy a pre-dinner drink, every other minute there was a member of staff whistling past asking us to mind our backs.
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7 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 5
Sunday, January 01, 2012

Went to visit the restaurant on Sunday evening. Bad choice, extremely busy. We were advised to come back next day around 15:00 - 16:00h. Arrived there that time for a late lunch. Wonderful attentive service! Unfortunately the house wine was not served in a bottle (what wine were we be given?). It was good though! Very tasty Brussels with nice tasteful chicken liver tortelloni. All the rest of the food (bread as a starter was a surprise, desserts were also great) was lovely. I would recommend to anyone who likes to have a great meal at very reasonable price.
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Richard from Holland
9 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Saturday, December 24, 2011

Ate at Jamie's in Upper St Martin's Lane on Dec 20, 2011. I will never go there again.

On arrival at 3pm we had to wait for quite a time for our table which we were eventually shown to in the basement.

The starter was quite reasonable with a choice of cold meats, mackerel pate and fried sardines.

My main course of turkey tortellini had intrigued me. However it was far from intriguing, it was really poor and just did not work. There was no taste to the turkey and the tortellini was of poor quality. There was a strange choice of "vegetables" to accompany this (and everyone else's choice of main course) namely boiled potatoes and chick peas in an indeterminate sauce.

On arrival we were given a reasonable glass of Prosecco and I then had a glass of undistinguished 2010 Merlot.

For dessert I ate a lemon curd tart which tasted very good but its base was no more than you would find in anywhere and the fruits plonked on the top seemed an afterthought.

Unwisely I finished the meal with a coffee which was lukewarm and had to return.
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3 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 3
Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Love this restaurant - service is fantastic and food is delicious.
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Charley
10 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Went Sunday the 13th November. Table for 4 with no reservation straight away

Staff were lovely, nice atmosphere, nice beer wine. Food a big let down. Maybe I was expecying too much as it was "Jamies". I do like him and his type of food and cooking style. I've cooked several of his recipes from his various books and TV Shows. But, Like several of the other reviews, I think he needs to pop in and see what is being produced. Waiter told us he comes in once a month, early in the morning before service, I think he needs to do a suprise visit

I had the Sea Bass cooked in a bag, others with me had the chicken and carbonara. All disappointing. Fries were nice, but arrived cold. Had italian nachos for starter, very disappointing.

I do like to cook myself, nothing too fancy, but I always judge a restaurent by asking myself could I cook a meal myself just as good, Unfortunatly,I could have done a better Sea bass and chicken, which is annoying

Sadly, the likes of pizza express or bella italia is just as good as Jamies, which is a shame.

I do think there might be some nice dishes on the menu, from looking at some of the other meals that were being brought to customers...
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david harrington
5 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 2
Friday, November 18, 2011

A visitor from Australia, I arrived at Jamie's restaurant on my first night in London with a group of 10 people, at around 8pm. The waiting time was an hour and a half, but we didn't mind (there was a bar next door).

All five risottos were extremely undercooked/crunchy as was the squid ink. This was most certainly not what I had expected given Jamie's reputation.

Three risottos were taken back and a couple we weren't charged for but I wasn't even asked about mine...I assume after asking four people how their meal was and finding out it was all under-cooked, they were too afraid to keep asking!

I would suggest you get in that kitchen yourself Jamie and kick out the kid who is under-cooking your meals. Your reputation is on the line and I have absolutely no interest in going to your restaurant that has just opened in Sydney.
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Melissa Stewart
3 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 0
Friday, November 04, 2011

Where to start? We went there as suggested by some out of town friends.

First you have to get on a list to get in and eat. They don't take reservations for groups smaller than 6. Thanks for the unnecessary wait.

After we waited much more than what they told us we would, we get down to the ordering. The menu is limited but if the choice is good, not a problem, right? However there are many problems with Jamie's food.

To begin with, it has NO taste whatsowever. Why is it that they put no salt at all in it? Adding salt to it shouldn't be necessary, and I am a person that never adds salt to food, since I don't like salt that much. I ordered a truffle risotto and it hardly had a truffle flavour. It was like eating water pudding.

The portions are ridiculously small. I got a spoonful of food for the ridiculous price tag that Jamie wants to put on his food. If they are pretending to be a gourmet restaurant, I expect the food at least to be of the utmost quality and it is not the case for this restaurant.

The place was way too noisy and the service was not very good. They kept pushing us regarding what else to add, and the waitress's advice on my risotto being enough food for the night was way off. I tried the food of my partner and it was also of no taste whatsoever.

In brief: don't go to this restaurant.
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JC
1 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Been to Jamies this evening with a friend. Waiting time 20 mins.

Waitress very attentive and on the ball.

Food was amazing, really enjoyed it.

Didn't feel rushed .

An experience I will happily repeat
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Margaret Noone - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Thursday, October 06, 2011

I went here with my mum and boyfriend last night as a birthday treat for my mum. The food was amazing and the service once we got a table was fantastic. However, we waited for one hour and fifteen minutes for a table after initially being told we would be waiting for no longer than 45 minutes. My boyfriend had to go up to the girl on the reception desk twice to make sure they hadn't forgotten about us. The food is great and from that point of view I recommend it, however they need to sort out the walk in table allocation system as we saw many people who walked in after us sit down at tables before us. Although it's a great restaurant the wait time for a table left a sour taste in my mouth.
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7 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, October 05, 2011