
N MGoogle review • a month ago
Google
Great Pizza, Unfortunate Front-of-House Chaos
We visited Vicolo without a reservation, and the front-of-house team was kind enough to make room and seat us, which was a great start. Unfortunately, the service quickly derailed from there.
The main issue throughout the meal was a complete lack of coordination, caused by a carousel of three different waiters handling our table without communicating with one another.
The Drinks: Our drinks took forever to arrive. I could literally see them sitting on the bar, but nobody picked them up. When someone finally did, they took them to the wrong table downstairs, causing a total kerfuffle. Even after I went up to the bar to ask about them, it still took a while to resolve. The tap water we requested alongside our initial order didn't show up until we were almost finished with our main meals.
Cutlery Issues: When the food arrived, only two of us had cutlery. We were left sitting with hot food, waiting for what felt like forever just to get knives and forks for the remaining two people.
The Food: This was a real mix of highs and lows.
Pizza: Absolutely fabulous. As someone who makes a lot of Neapolitan pizzas at home, I am notoriously fussy, but Vicolo’s wood-fired pizza was top-tier. If you want a genuine, high-quality wood-fired pizza, this is the place to get it.
Pasta: My wife ordered the Etna pasta with chicken (£18), which arrived lukewarm. After trying it, we pointed it out to the staff. They took it back to reheat it, but it was clearly just put in a microwave for a brief moment—the middle was slightly warmer, but the outside was still cold. She ended up leaving nearly half of it. At £18 a dish, this was a complete waste of money.
Service & Resolution: Because the drinks were so severely delayed and the food arrived so quickly, we had literally taken two sips of our drinks before our meals were served. When the plates were cleared, the staff asked how the pasta was, and we explained the temperature issue again. Later, when asking for the bill, we requested to have the service charge removed and explained that we really hadn't enjoyed the experience. Despite addressing the issues twice, no effort was made to offer compensation or make things right.
The pizza chef clearly knows their craft, but the chaotic service and poorly handled pasta situation made it a frustrating experience overall.