Salieri Restaurant - London

Have a upcoming booking for 26 feb to celebrate 60 birthday booked through open table. Restaurant has cancelled booking with no reason given and not answering phones, am thinking they must have closed down? So book at your peril

Service and food have always been first case, when any delay on seating has arising, always given a glass of bubbly while waiting. Haven't been able to visit for a few years now, I do hope Mr Samuels senior is doing ok and hope to see you all soon on our next visit to the city.

Spur of the moment pre-theatre dinner. Christian seated us quickly and provided excellent service throughout the evening. Our meze starter was delicious, followed by a stuffed eggplant and chicken in a tomato sauce, paired with a fantastic bottle of Chianti. The food was great and the service from Christian was exceptional. Highly recommended and we will definitely be returning.

This was apparently a very old family run restaurant that was incredibly popular in its day. It’s in a fabulous location on the Strand, directly opposite the Savoy. Unfortunately, it now looks like it has been taken over and is being run by a relatively young team, who basically haven’t got a clue. They’re clearly riding on the coat-tails of what it used to be, but are just not cutting it. I’m pretty certain that I’m not the first person to come to this conclusion, as nearly every restaurant in the Covent Garden area is packed out for pre-theatre meals, but Salieri was suspiciously empty, with only three other tables occupied when we went in. The menu was hugely disappointing and not what I expected of a decent Italian restaurant. To give the staff their due, they try really hard (possibly too hard) to be polite and helpful, but what they’re offering is too feeble to match their enthusiasm. When my food arrived it turned out to be the most bland, tasteless, under-seasoned version of a pasta dish I have ever known. You would get more flavour out of a 99p microwave “ping dinner” from a supermarket. In the time we were sat there, lots of passers by were obviously looking for somewhere to eat and stopped to consult the menu. Every couple or group looked at each other and shrugged indifferently and walked on. Not one single person came in. I found myself wishing I’d also looked at the menu before walking in, but didn’t as I was led to believe it was the wonderful family run restaurant it used to be. Given that the staff are welcoming and enthusiastic, this place needs to sack the chef and replace him/her with someone who knows how to cook basic pasta dishes and can bring a creative update to the horrendous menu. Until that happens, I’m afraid I wouldn’t touch it again with the proverbial barge pole.

We eat here regularly when we are in London. Booked for 13 May through Open Table. Received a text 12 May to confirm attendance which we did. We turned up to find the restaurant closed!! How on earth could we book a closed restaurant.