Piazza Italiana, Exclusive Hire

We had a lovely experience at Piazza Italiana, it was the perfect venue for a belated Christmas and New Year catch up with my good friend. The venue was nicely very quiet, surprisingly so for a Saturday lunchtime. Only a handful of other tables were occupied during our time in the restaurant. As we went in traditional Italian music was playing and later moved on to a good selection of more upbeat, popular contemporary tracks. Our waitress was very attentive during the whole meal and was knowledgeable about the dishes on the Bottomless Italian Brunch menu. For £35 you can enjoy an hour and a half of bottomless pizza and pasta, alongside a starter and the dessert of the day. For £59 you can include bottomless Aperol Spritz, Prosecco and Bellinis as well, which works out better value if you are having two or more of these drinks. My friend had a Winter Berry Negroni to drink, which we were impressed had the restaurant’s logo shaped into the giant ice cube inside. The truffle and mozzarella arancini were very nice for my starter, as were the pasta dishes and pizza for our main course, with a good selection of dishes on the menu. My friend tried the vanilla cheesecake with cranberry sauce for dessert which looked very nice and well presented. The only ways in which this menu could be improved would be to have a slightly larger portion of pasta and speed up the time taken between ordering and when you receive the food, as you are on a time limit of 1.5 hours. Alternatively the time limit could be increased to two hours which would work well. The only slight downside of our meal was the steep service charge that was added to our bill (£14), though this is to be expected for London. This always frustrates me as I believe that tipping should be left to the diner’s discretion and not expected by the restaurant. I had my half of the service charge removed, though annoyingly the waitress questioned this and asked if her service hadn’t been good. I gave a £3 tip as it would have been mean not to, especially as my friend had paid theirs. The other noteworthy part of this restaurant was the bathroom with rather unique lavatories in them. There were flannels to dry hands with in the bathroom which was a nice touch. I would definitely recommend visiting this restaurant if you enjoy Italian dining and are looking for somewhere a little posh. The décor of the restaurant was really nice as well, with comfortable armchairs, columns and a high painted ceiling. The restaurant is situated in an impressive Grade II listed building and is the former home of the British Linen Bank. The menu is designed by Sicilian-born culinary maestro Remo Mazzucato.

Very grand place, very nice service Maybe the food is too authentic that it was not suited to our taste buds. Carbonara is too salty and the cheese coagulated too quickly before we finished the pasta. Lobster linguine was quite yummy but with just little lobster flesh and also bit on the saltier end as well. Lemon and passion fruit mousse was nice and tangy. The herby (lemongrass?) oil was a weird touch. Calamari was by far the yummiest calamari we ever tasted. Was my birthday so had a nice complementary gift- though the almond biscuits were too hard and cold to be enjoyable (waitress did warn me) cocktail was yummy I know people don’t come here for value but there’s better food in London at this price range that I am more willing to get