Jamie’s Italian

Jamie’s Kitchen feels a bit like a TGI Fridays or a Strada; a restaurant chain, however with a celebrity name attached to it. Thing is, if I was Jamie Oliver I would be ever so slightly embarrassed by this product. The décor is modern Italian and has a nice feel to it. Service is good, but nothing spectacular. The in house wine selection is surprisingly tasty. The food, however, is what lets the chain down. The menu offers nothing unique, and the food quality is below average. My most recent visit included trying the crab spaghettini — the sauce was bland, the portion of crab meet was smaller than what you would expect in a starter, and the spaghettini had clearly been left in the plate for too long before hand as it had dried and stuck together. I also tried the Italian Nachos which were overbooked, bland and although a nice concept, a poor delivery.

— Service was a tad slow. Our server seemed to be over extended. At one point he was serving over 20 people in 8 different tables. It took us over 15 minutes to get our water
— the pastas were well cooked, but I would not recommend the crab bruschetta.

Avoid!!! Uncooked spaghetti. Tasted horrible. Big chunks of spaghetti and tasted raw. The menu specified garlic and chilli but it had none of sort. I didnt even finish my dish and after I told the waiter that, his response was oh sorry I will tell the chef and I still paid full price. Oh also the ham didnt taste good. Overall the whole experience was catastrophic I had a bad lunch and wished I never went there.

Very disappointing. Jamie supposedly champions good food for everyone, but the tiny and mostly tasteless porchetta I had for £13.95 makes me think he is a sell-​out (see photo). You would expect these restaurants to exemplify Jamie’s recipes, but, as another reviewer noted, you could do a better tasting and certainly more filling version of the food here by staying at home and cooking the recipes yourself.

I really love Italian and I like Jamie’s cookbooks so I assumed little could go wrong at Jamie’s Italian and it was a safe eating choice. How wrong I was!
Where do I start the staff were rude, inattentive and rushed us through our dishes as quickly as they could despite taking over an hour to serve us in the first place!
The décor is meant to rustic but it feels plain dirty. At first I thought that was just the look the restaurant was going for until I had the traumatic experience of visiting the toilets which were not rustic just dirty.
Most of the pasta dishes come in two sizes and what we had was nice but pretty average considering the cost and poor service.
If you want to experience Jamies my advice would be just stick to using the cookbook at home!

Decent food but a tad on the salty side overall. Service was efficient and when we complained about the excessively salty risotto it was replaced with no questions. The bruschetta was quite large and we would have preferred if it was pre-​cut as it was a bit hard to share/​eat. Polenta chips were more like polenta chunks but in any case they were pretty tasty.
BEAUTIFUL BRUSCHETTA FOR 2– With pea & mint ripple, grilled asparagus, smashed broad beans, smoky mozzarella, spinach, mint & chilli.
OUR FAMOUS POLENTA CHIPS Crispy fried with rosemary & Parmesan
FILLET OF FISH BAKED IN A BAG– South coast fish with clams, mussels, fennel, chilli, anchovies & Sicilian cracked wheat
WILD TRUFFLE RISOTTO– Finely minced black Winter truffle with butter & Parmesan. A real treat

Been to Jamie’s twice, and won’t be back. The first visit was for my birthday. The wait was annoyingly long, though this wasn’t really the restaurant’s fault. Took an hour to be seated. Food wasn’t bad, and the portions were ok. Second visit: Wait was annoyingly long. Food came in tiny portions (ordered mushroom panzerotti, wasn’t expecting a large plate, but I certainly expected more than 4 or 5 pasta parcels in my plate). My friend ordered tagliatelle but was disappointed that the pasta wasn’t properly cooked. We asked the waitress for a new one. She said it was meant to be al dente. It wasn’t al dente, it was undercooked! She gave us a new one, but by the time my friend got her food, mine was cold. Needless to say, the meal didn’t warrant 5 stars.

I suppose the fact that I have been to Jamie’s three times in just two weeks speaks for itself … my induction was a birthday party on a busy Saturday night. The restaurant caters extremely well for large parties, and the sharing platters are ideal for starters — decoratively served on wooden planks which are balanced on tins of tomato. We were sat at the far end of the restaurant which has a rather difficult shape as it is very long and narrow. This section at night makes you forget you are at Westfield (a good thing!).
Went back for a girlie mid-​week lunch. We were lucky that we didn’t have to wait too long to be seated — this time in the café area nearest the main Westfield entrance. We found ourselves in yummy mummy land which was a bit overwhelming, but made perfect sense considering Jamie’s family oriented image.
Third time lucky and another encounter with those high-​tech buzzy things which tell you when your table is ready. A bit of a longer wait this time, but the bar area is ideal for an apéritif. Still a lot of babies around at 8 pm, including one parked on the bar table between glasses of prosecco and martini …
This time we were seated in one of the American diner style booths in the mid-​section of the restaurant, right by the loos (which are decked out in «Crappers» by the way — very Jamie Oliver) but never mind.
I never realised I was quite this fussy, but as I don’t eat red meat or shellfish I have now exhausted the dishes I can eat. Unfortunately, the daily specials catered mainly for carnivores as well.
The pumkin pasta was my first choice and remains the best so far. Last night I gave the grilled chicked a try. First impressions were those of a German BBQ feast — very meaty and very juicy. Unfortunately, a bit too greasy (fingers still dripping with olive oil from the bread basked — good remedy for dry skin!) for my liking and also very heavy on salt and spices. The tiny handfull of rocket on the side wasn’t quite enough to make me feel less guilty.
The most impressive factor at Jamie’s Italian are the staff. They are all not just good looking but extremely well trained and naturally attentive — top marks for service!

Fab food and a nice house red.
New building but decent atmosphere considering.
Good portions which really taste just a bit better than the other Italians in Westfield.
Try all 3 courses it’s worth it.

I have reviewed Jamie’s Italian, Cambridge already so shall not spend too long on this review.
The atmosphere isn’t quite as special as the restaurant up in Cambridge but I suppose that would be difficult to achieve given this restaurant was opened in a new development and the other was opened in a grade 2 listed historic building (the old Guildhall) with stunning eating hall and glass domed roof.
That said, the food here is just as good.
I nip in from time to time for a quick hot chocolate (the best around) and sometimes stay to eat.