Jamie's Italian (Threadneedle St)

Came here with 9 work collegues for our Christmas Do, so had the Christmas set menu.

The venue is lovely and the service was good (the waiter was efficient and friendly).

The olive-wood boards laid out with a varied selection of italian starters was fantastic (but agree with the other reviewer - what is the tin can thing?). The desserts were to die for - chocolate pudding with pistacio ice cream, gorgeous.

But...the main meal was very average, what a disappointment after the wonderful starters - a skinny leg of chicken with an odd tasting sauce, the vegetables were served in a twisted foil bag and the lighting in the restaurant is very low, so we couldn't see what they were. Pity about the main (the pork was better apparently).

Still a good night out, but a bit expensive.
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8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Thursday, December 08, 2011

Went for dinner with 3 friends and we were all very disappointed by the experience. Our waiter explained the specials and 2 opted for his recommendation of pork. After waiting for 40 minutes we were told that the chef was not happy with the dish and would not serve it to us so suggested we make another choice and left the menus with us again. We waited further 15 mins for waiter to come back to take the order again. Asked for manager but he didn't appear and I had to ask again. Eventually he came to our table and I explained our sitaution and he said the only thing he could do was give us a free dessert. Anyway after a long wait our mains arrived. 2 of the dishes were so bad they had to be sent back. I asked for a medium burger and it came so well done it was black and difficult to cut through even with a steak knife.
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RMS - View all reviews by this user
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Sunday, December 04, 2011

A friend invited me to lunch today at Jamie's. My first visit - and apparently the first one warranting a review here!

I thought it was pretty good - and not bad value. Whether it was "pukka" or not, I'm not sure! However, there were things that could have been done better, both in terms of food and the dining experience.

Food: my "18 hour cooked" belly of pork was not tender enough. After 18 hours cooking it should have melted in the mouth, which it didn't and secondly it wasn't as hot as it should have been. Not sure the plates were warmed?

Plates: I realise that bits of wood are now trendy things on which to serve food, but a small piece of wood topped with a paper napkin is not ideal to plonk a (delicious!) chocolate brownie and a (too small but delicious) mini-dish of vanilla ice cream on. It would have been all too easy to have the whole lot in my lap. Yes, I am clumsy...

And while I'm on my hobby horse, the next table had a long "plank" of antipasti which was ceremoniously balanced on two tin cans! What's that about?

Chairs: OK - I own up! I am over 6 feet tall, but the little dining chairs are more suited to a junior school.

Table Napkin: 10 out of 10 for a decent sized cloth napkin - but 1 out of 10 for it being a somewhat "furry" tea towel and leaving little white bits all over my dark navy suit.
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8 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Thursday, November 24, 2011