Strada

Sehr lecker, schöné Portionen, der Service hervorragend! Gerne wieder!
Den Stern-​Abzug gabs für die Preise ich finds einfach unverschämt, wenn man zu Zweit für Hauptgericht und Wein und Oliven dazu locker 70 Pfund zahlt.

*in english below*
En ce moment il y a une reduc de 40% sur les risottos si on rempli un papier donne a l’entrée, du coup, moi si on me dit reduc, j’arrive fissa!
donc c’est une review speciale RISOTTO
J’ai pris le capesente (st Jacques, poireaux, chilli, basilic) et mon ami a pris le Pollo e lemone (poulet et citron) mais les 2 avaient le meme probleme: pas hyper cremeux comme un risotto devrait l’etre (d’apres moi) et c’etait tellement sale qu’on a du boire chacun un litre d’eau durant le repas!
Au final, c’etait pas mauvais mais pas tres bon non plus, et meme avec la reduc, je né reprendrai pas de leur risotto (avec la reduc ca fait autour de £7−8 le plat)
Par contre, la bruschetta etait clairement une arnaque, £5.65 pour une tranche de pain a peine grillee, avec des legumes marines decents et des morceaux de chevre de supermarche… No, no…
— — — — — — — -
there’s a 40% discount at the moment on risottos if I fill a paper at the entrance of the restaurant. (not sure if its always like this)
I hear discount, I come!
so this is a RISOTTO special review
i took the capesente (scallops, leek, chilli, basil) and my friend took the Pollo e lemone (chicken and lemon), both had the same problem: not very creamy like we’re usually used to and so salty we had to drink during the meal a liter of water each!
In the end not bad but not good neither, I wont try other risottos even with 40%…(that made it around £7−8 the risotto)
oh on the other hand, the Bruschetta was a scam: £5.65 for just one slice of bread barely grilled with decent vegetables and supermarket cold goat cheese bits… hmm that’s a no no…

OK… this is a chain, I don’t normally review chains, but I’ll make an exception here.
Strada, all of them, are fine for lunch, alright for an evening meal, they’re not first date places.
I come to this particular Strada occasionally because it’s close to where I work and a couple of colleagues like it. There are often lunch deals and fixed price set lunches, which may be relied upon to never include anything I’d like to eat.
This particular Strada gets very busy at lunch times due to its proximity to all the offices on Bishopsgate. If you are the sort of person that likes to complicate an order by asking for a particular salad ingredient or dressing to be included or excluded avoid doing this at all costs. The plate will be served and volleyed between table and kitchen many times before the agreed menu deviation has been achieved. A request for the bill also seems to hit the staff as a complete surprise and they fumble about for ages trying to work out what the exact process is and how to get the machine to work or just pondering the great unanswered questions in life and whether their customers have to go back to their offices after dining.
The food is fine, as you would expect, never spectacular, never terrible. Strada is a place to eat on the way somewhere rather than a destination restaurant.

I went here yesterday using one of those buy one get one free vouchers, so in terms of value for money this place gets a tick. The food was also lovely, my friend and I both had a pizza, she opted for the piccante and I had a cotto. The base was lovely as was the sauce and toppings, just the right amount of cheese made this a very lovely pizza. Strada’s pizza blows pizza express out of the water.
So reading this why have I given it 3 stars? The service.
I had to ask for a drink twice as the staff appeared to have forgot and then I got very frustrated when I wanted the bill. We had to ask on numerous occasions and I looked at my watch and it took them just over 15 minutes to finally sort the bill to which they got wrong! We had handed them the voucher which was massive and in red and still they tried to charge us full whack, then to add insult to injury when it became obvious we weren’t going to be paying a tip, the waiter asked why and seemed perplexed that we hadn’t had good service!
I found it quite remarkable that he was alert enough to look for where his tip was but prior to that, couldn’t be bothered to bring our drinks or even our bill.
The other elements of this branch of Strada were perfect, just such a shame about the really bad service they have there.

First visit to any Strada, was pleasantly surprised by the big pizzas! I used to think Pizza Express was good, but the one I had in Strada tasted better and was so big that I had trouble finishing it, which never happened in Pizza Express.
Service was also very prompt at this branch. The only downside was that both my friend and I ordered side salads, but ended up eating very little of them as our main courses were massive. Come to think of it, the side salads in Strada are a massive improvement over the limp, small salads you get at Pizza Express too.
Sorry if I’m bashing Pizza Express, I don’t mean to, but I am just in shock that I have not discovered Strada before, and it just seems like a whole lot better than Pizza Express. In addition, there are currently vouchers for 2 for 1 main courses, which makes getting a full meal for under a tenner quite easy.

Well it all started off pretty badly to be honest. A booking from toptable (sorry Qype!) gave us the pretty thrifty offer of two courses for a modest £12.50 in this credit crunching epoch. Had a quick squizz at the menu and started off swiftly ordering two glasses of pinot grigio blush. Five, ten, fifteen minutes elapsed to the delicate sounds of the howling wind thrashing the awning, in the safe knowledge that one hurricane style gust could send the steel railings through the sheer window front and stab my girlfriend and I through the heart. Now you understand why we needed a beverage! However, it didn’t arrive until the maître d’ finally admitted they couldn’t find the wine, so we opted for a softer rosé which did the job perfectly.
That’s the bad part out of the way (typical English, focusing on the negative!), the rest of the evening was rather pleasant. Once the angry awning had been rolled up, we tucked into starters of antipasto mixto (satisfyingly meaty) and polenta with a salty mushroom sauce. Polenta was a tad overcooked but good, hearty, nourishing food for the excellent value.
Mains consisted of a wholesome, thin based pizza picante with just a smidgen of chilli oil drapped over a colourful array of salami and olives, minus red onions (a particular dislike of mine and terrible for post meal snogging). The second main dish was the pollo alla milanese, sautéed chicken in seasoned breadcrumbs with a tomato, garlic and basil sauce. Served with green beans and roasted cubetti potatoes. The chicken was moist, the vegetables rich with flavour.
Post dinner a rustic Illy cappuccino cup cradled the macchiato, rounded off by two complimentary (yes complimentary) marchello liquor which hit the spot and certainly made the journey to the bus stop fuzzier and more warming.

Tasty gourmet food great wine list, friendly staff.

Yeah it’s ok here. There are some plus pointsComplimentary bottles of filtered water being one of them! And our pizzas were pretty good. Not wonderful, but y’know, ok. I’ve had better, but we were starving so they served us pretty well!
We managed to nab a 2−4−1 voucher in the Observer and this meant that we tucked into a fiorentina and something with ham and mushroom and olives on which was yummy.
Garlic bread was. average. A bit burnt and frankly hardly any of it. Annoying. Roast potatoes were neither roasted or cooked in an oven by the time they reached us. Annoying as we’d really been looking forward to them.
So we were full and happy but my friend was convinced she’s been here a lot and it’s been better every other time she’s been.
The best bit? Well even with the extras, with our magic little voucher, dinner for four cost us just over four quid each. And I can’t argue with that no matter how much I try.