Osteria del Portico - London

This is a great, little Italian restaurant, with a lovely, warm, homely and authentic feel. What's more, i just discovered that hey can do any of the pasta dishes gluten free! I can't wait to go back to try those. Great staff, lovely food, very cool interior.

My family and I went to this restaurant for an early dinner on a weekday and easily found a table. The service we received was outstanding and our drinks were served promptly. We had time to look over the menu before ordering, and our food arrived at just the right time. The owner even helped us choose a great wine to accompany our meal. The pizza and pasta dishes were delicious, especially the Spaghetti Vongole which I highly recommend.

I would call this restaurant average at best. We arrived early evening and sat outside. The service all seemed very casual. The waiter seemed almost bored. We ordered the sharing plate to start with some bruschetta. The plate was very average the bruscehetta very good (probably the only part of the meal we could say that about). The waiter returned to take our main order and we had the mixed meat platter and some side. We had the Chianti wine which was again nothing to write home about. The waitress offered us some Limoncello at the end of the meal. We paid the bill, which seemed quite high until we examined it afterwards and found that we had been charged £12.00 for the 2 Limoncello and the service charge had automatically been added. A total of £192. Really not worth it. It has made us appreciate our local favourite Italian so much more

Unfortunately, we were disappointed with our experience at this Italian restaurant, despite high expectations based on previous reviews and local recommendations. Booking a table was simple online, and we opted to sit inside. The waitstaff were very attentive, perhaps a bit too much so, as they wanted to take our food order at the same time as our wine order, even though it was still early in the evening. Unfortunately, both the calamari "suppli" starters were underwhelming, with overbattered calamari that seemed to have come straight from the freezer. This same batter was also used for our side of fried courgettes. Our mains, the Parmigiana Salmon Pasta, were decent but nothing special, and perhaps seemed overpriced. Our desserts, tiramisu Baba, were disappointing as well, with one of them being overly soaked in liquid to the point of being inedible. The wine was the highlight of the meal, but at £26.50, we expected high quality. The service was friendly and attentive, although we were disappointed to see that a service charge was included in the bill.

Outstanding service and food, fresh and tasty with very good surroundings and atmosphere in the place, clearly a restaurant on the up