Buon Appetito - Hackney

The food was fine but not offered any dessert and bill came without asking. We were charged £4.95 each for a pint of soda and an extra £1 for lime! When I questioned this apparently it was correct. Should have had a beer!

We walk into the restaurant shortly after 7pm without any booking. Pleasant welcome Yes there was some seating available at the long tables, which is not something I 've seen before in Australian restaurants. Menu 's arrived, orders taken and drinks arrived all in good time. Our entrée and mains arrived, which looked and tasted great. The waitress was pleasant and helpful, whilst all the other dinner guest appeared to be enjoying the restaurant. Having read some earlier comments, I was a bit dubious, but our evening visit was very good.

This restaurant is situated just off a busy roundabout and doesn't look anything special from the outside but once inside it is cosy and authentic. There are a few parking spaces behind the restaurant and a public car park a short distance up the road (q-park). The restaurant was very busy and on our arrival we had to stand and wait for a while before someone came to seat us. Once seated we had to ask for menus as we weren't given any. We ordered starters but before they arrived we were brought some complimentary small bread rolls with garlic butter which was a nice touch. Had we known that we would be given these and had we known how substantial the mains would be we wouldn't have ordered starters. All of our main meals were delicious. Service was a little slow and disorganised throughout but given how busy they were and how pleasant the waitresses were we didn't mind too much until our plates were cleared and we then waited for a waitress so we could order some coffee/look at the dessert menu. We sat and waited for 15/20 minutes and the waitresses just walked past us -in the end after struggling to get the waitress's attention we asked for the bill.

My friend sent a dish back because it wasn 't what she expected. She then proceeded to pay full price...until she was called a 'wh*re ' in Italian by the chef. When challenged, the chef then threatened to 'behead ' us ... Credit to the suitably mortified waitresses. Unlikely to return.

We booked dinner for our b-day there because we knew the place already, all our friends loved the food indeed! Everything on the menu is really good, But the pasta is absolutely excellent!.. it does remind me of my mum’s pasta! it’s always nice to go there for dinner or lunch!