Taormina

I'm a regular at this restaurant and have been since my parents started taking me there as a baby so some thirty years now. Over the years it's become a firm favourite with friends and colleagues and visitors from out of town. It's welcoming, friendly, the food is great and I love that I frequently see other regulars greeting each other. We've had large groups and romantic dinners there - so I was pretty surprised to see the other review on this website. I guess every place has its off nights, but we love it!
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Lisa
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Tourists and Locals: Avoid Taormina Italian Restaurant in London! It's awful!

How the romantic dinner for 2 in Taormina Italian Restaurant, London, turned out to be a huge disappointment for 2.

Being a total novice to vouchers and coupon discounts, I have purchased a promo voucher for "£19 for a two-course Italian meal for two at Taormina worth up to £47.50 - save up to 60% on main courses, desserts, wine and coffees!" . In anticipation of a romantic dinner and fine Italian cuisine, my boyfriend and I went to Taormina on Friday evening only to learn that this would be a total disaster. It only took another 10 minutes for an extremely unpleasant experience to unfold. (Tip to all: when you get to an Italian restaurant on Friday, 7pm and find it empty – beware, it’s not a good sign.)

Instead of a warm welcome that you get from the host, their staff told us that the offer is not valid on Fridays despite the fact that we reserved and mentioned the discount a night before. Then they told us the promotion is only valid for pasta and pizza and a bottle of wine - absolute shock to us considering that none of this was advertised neither on the offer nor on the website. So the not-so-friendly staff was arguing with us saying that they have no idea about this promotion (!) and is not going to recognize it. We asked to speak to the manager who was available only by phone and when explained the situation he said that he also no idea about this offer and that "we are trying to steal from him!"

Lastly, we decided to leave the place and asked for the £19 back that we paid through the website - and they completely refused to compensate us stating that they got no money from this promotion.

Our advice – stay away from it!
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Margarita
3 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, May 31, 2011