Frascati

Diabolical !

This place tries to pose as an Italian restaurant when it is no more then a farse in disguise. I could make better Italian in Ethiopia with less ingredients !

You have been warned as this was well and truly one of the worst italian meals I have ever had. I had to keep drinking the wine to try and forget the pain of a £50 bill for 2, and I got terribly poor food for it.

My wife ordered a vegetable soup that was god awful, and I got the grilled squid (looked more like grilled chewing gum and tasted like it to). Onto the mains wife had the Aubergine with tomato sauce and cheese, freshly microwaved, mmm yummy ! As for me I got the rip off King Prawn Risotto, made to a finish with Uncle Bens Rice, cheap small shrimp, and a lousy attempt at camouflaging the small shrimp with one mediocre Prawn still in its shell on top. WOWWWW !

I have to say I have seen better presentation from the people who have come in 4th on Come Dine with Me !

About the only thing that was acceptable was the bottle of Red Wine, and that was onyl due to the fact that it was sealed from the tampering hands of this poor excuse for an eating establishment.

PS: Their is a Tesco next door ! Do yourself a favour and get 2 Tescos Finest Roast Beef Sandwiches and a bottle of cheap Red wine you will be 100 times better off ! I only hope to god that this place gets its up and comings soon.
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dieselthirteen - View all reviews by this user
3 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 0
Friday, February 04, 2011

I ate at Frascati with 3 friends on Friday night for the first time. We were able to get a table without booking at 19:45 which while a boon for us looking for somewhere to eat at late notice might have been a sign of things to come. The menu read well with most of the standard Italian classics that one would expect, which fitted well the classic old school appearance of the restaurant with signed photos of Italian actors and sports stars etc (no bad thing)...

We all ordered starters and either a carne or a pasta from the ‘specials’ menu (not inspired by the Midlands ska outfit from the 80’s I trust), and a bottle of wine. The 1st bottle (the Nero d’Avola unless I am mistaken) took two tastes to convince me that it wasn’t corked, it was rather sour and had none of the tannin or plum fruit taste of examples I have tried in Sicily and elsewhere. Our starters hadn’t been served over an hour after ordering (despite the relatively quiet dining room), so the very friendly and helpful staff brought us complimentary bruschetta, which was pleasant. My starter of ‘melanzane NW3’ oven bakes with tomato, mozzarella, and (unusually Capelli d'angelo) with when it did arrive was flavourless and somewhat chewy although at least cooked through. This was followed by ‘Tuscan sausage’ pasta, which while heroic in quantity (perhaps the chef was trying to apologise for making us wait) was also lacking seasoning and had an oddly Asian flavour..My friends who had ordered veal fared somewhat better, one with a rich tomato sauce and one with a bespoke white wine and sage sauce (in order to replicate a saltimbocca without the prosciutto). Wishing to give the wine list the benefit of the doubt I plumped for a bottle of Chianti as a second try. This was just about drinkable, but lacking in any balance or complexity at all. Something that I would expect to pick up for less than three Euros at an Italian supermarket.

All in all at a touch over £30 a head the experience was memorably dire, despite the very best efforts of the waiting on staff. On my visit to the toilets (fine) I peeked into the kitchen to notice that the cooking staff did not, shall we say, appear to be Italian. Which, while of course not being a prerequisite to mastery of a cuisine (indeed the best chefs often pride themselves on this ability) in a local ‘family’ restaurant such as this might have explained one or two things. This is the sort of restaurant that used to give London and the UK a bad name for eating out, and I certainly won’t be venturing back despite living no more than two minutes away.
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Steven Barnes
3 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, July 27, 2010