189 Piccadilly

Entrés là un peu par hasard (OK, parce que j’avais faim, froid et mal aux pieds), nous n’avons pas été déçus. Le tableau extérieur proposait des menus italiens et espagnols pour pas trop cher (2 plats pour £13.90).
Nous avons tout deux opté pour les «Mozzarella in Carrozza», de la mozzarella panée. C’était bon et surtout assez copieux. Ensuite, Monsieur a opté pour une pizza fungi, qu’il a trouvé plutôt bonne. Pour ma part, j’ai choisi la pizza aux quatre fromages que j’ai aussi beaucoup aimée. La pâte était super fine comme j’aime, d’une taille idéale pour une personne qui mange bien et super bien garnie.
Nous n’avons pas pris de dessert ni de boissons autre que de l’eau. Le serveur était agréable, italien, très gentil et le service était assez rapide. En fait l’attente était juste ce qu’il fallait pour préparer les plats. Quant à l’ambiance, difficile de juger puisque nous n’étions que 4 dans le restaurant (un dimanche midi hein…) donc c’était assez calme. La musique d’ambiance était assez éclectique, mais le son assez bas pour qu’on l’on puisse s’entendre tout en reconnaissant les chansons. Bref, très bien.
Si vous passez dans le coin, pas de souci, vous pouvez y entrer, c’est très bon et on est bien servi.

Went here on the weekend for a birthday as they’ve started doing Karaōke in conjunction with ‘Brazen Monkey’. There’s a karaōke room upstairs above the restaurant, and the current offer is that you can eat (any two courses) for £25 and then have 2 hours karaōke. Sounds to good to be true, right?
Yeah, it is.
First up, the food. The two stars are for this alone. I ordered mussels followed by tagliatelle amatriciana. Mussels were in a tomato /​garlic type broth, which was nice. No real complaints. The tagliatelle was ok too. Cooked very well, and nicely seasoned, but the bacon lardons were full of gristle which I ended up spitting out into the (never cleared away) starter bowl. This may have been a fluke, but it didn’t fill me with confidence.
Someone else ordered the duck and mashed potato. The mash was INSTANT. Seriously?
But all in all for the price, I had no major qualms with the food. It was OK. The big problems came in two areas: service and karaōke.
The service. Oh, where to begin. They were understaffed for a venue of such size, but they also didn’t seem busy. Throughout our meal, the waiter gave the impression he felt he was doing us a favour by being there. Everything we asked got a flustered «Yes, yes, I’m doing it now…» and none of the staff seemed to know how to clear a table. My starter plate was still there while others in my party were eating their dessert. I’ve been a waitress, I know it’s dull and badly paid and customers are annoying but I’ve never experienced such grumpy, begrudging service before. No smile at any point.
When we asked when we could go up to the karaōke (which was booked from 10) his gave us incredulous look, gestured upstairs and said «Yes but they have to LEAVE first!» We knew that, but wasn’t it his job to chivvy them along? This was at five past ten. We eventually got up there at twenty past after loads of messing around over what part of the bill we should pay at that time. All this time it still felt like he was serving us incredibly begrudgingly.
Now onto the karaōke. This is hosted is in a ‘room’ upstairs above the second floor of the restaurant. There’s a good sound system, two microphones and a HUGE song list, and once we got singing, it was really good fun. But I use the word ‘room’ tentatively — it’s more of a walk-​through between the kitchen and the restaurant, partitioned by a constantly open door and a curtain. As a result we had staff members walking through every five minutes the whole time.
The room’s also not soundproofed in the slightest, so everyone in the restaurant below can hear you singing. This didn’t bother me, but I bet it bothered anyone below us! The room also has wooden flooring. We ate downstairs before moving up, and when you have fifteen drunken blokes jumping up and down to Bön Jovi while you’re eating, it basically sounds like a herd of elephants are trampling above your heads.
As far as I know this karaōke thing is new and I just don’t think they’ve quite got it sorted yet. Perhaps it will improve in time. Right now it all feels disorganised and badly planned and the restaurant staff don’t see to want to get involved in it all. It wouldn’t surprise me if the staff were so crappy with us because they don’t LIKE the idea of a restaurant turning into a cheap karaōke joint, so they’re deliberately treating the karaōke clientelle badly because they resent them.
Whatever, I wouldn’t recommend this place at all and left feeling really bad because it was a friend’s birthday and it should have been fun all night, but ended up being a bit stressful in places. Thank heavens for a bit of comedy Savage Garden karaōke for getting things back on track!

Went here for a networking event, so didn’t actually try the food. However the bar has a fantastic beer selection, with options form all around the world. Not a bad place to stop if you’re in the area.

Just come back from a rather pleasant dinner here at Biagios.
I usually avoid eating too close to Piccadilly as it’s a bit of a tourist hotspot but I was watching a movie at the Appollo and wanted to have some food fairly nearby. And something non asian for a bit of a change :)
This place seems to have several floors — the ground floor is some sort of bar/​café, with a restaurant on the first floor. The décor is fairly modern, with comfortable chairs and a cosy feel. The staff and very friendly, and very italian, which is always quite good for an italian restaurant I guess!
I ate a starter of asparagus and parma ham from the specials menu which was well cooked and very nice. Portion size was just right. My main was the linguine with langoustines — perfectly seasoned, the sauce was very very good indeed.
So the food was good, we had a very reasonably priced bottle of Valpolicella, and complimentary bread and olives. We weren’t rushed at all through our meal, and the food came with perfect timing. Oh yes, and there were quite a few italian customers having their dinner too.
All in all, we had a lovely meal and I would definitely go back there again.

Ich war dort auf einen Teller Nudeln. Die waren sehr schmackhaft und für englische Verhältnisse mehr als durchschnittlich. Ich kann nicht klagen.