La Lupa

My partner and I decided to go to La Lupa for a meal to celebrate our anniversary. We booked a table in advance. Never again!!

On arriving at the restaurant, which was very busy, we were hurried to our table, which was in the corner of the room and next to the stand holding all of the sauces and oils. This meant that the waitress was constantly passing us. We felt completely out of it, and could never get the attention of the waiter and waitresses, who were just rushing around the place.

We didn't have a wine list on our table, and couldn't get the attention of any of the 3 waiters/waitresses to order drinks. When the waitress came to us - 15 minutes later - to take our order, we asked about wine. Rather than giving us a wine list, she told us, rather bluntly, 'well, you can either have a bottle or have the house wine. Which do you want?'. We still weren't offered the list!! Her attitude was very blunt, and we were made to feel as if we were being a pain just for being there, despite the fact we had booked in advance.

We ordered our starters and mains, but were not offered anything while we waited. We waited a further 45 MINUTES for our starters. When they arrived, the waitress passed my plate over the table and over my partner's plate. My starter was stone cold, with the plate bulked up with a very pitiful looking salad, and my partner's fish was burnt! We tried to get the attention of the waiter/waitresses, which took a further 10 minutes. My partner then went off to speak to the main waiter, while the other two waitresses also joined in. This meant that while my partner was making his complaint, there was nobody on the restaurant floor to serve the other customers, despite the restaurant being full.

My partner calmly explained how disappointed we were with both the service and the food. We were offered the wine and starter for free, but were not willing to stay there to see what disaster the main would be.

We eventually left without paying for our barely eaten starters and our half-drunk bottle of wine (which was not very good at all for a house wine). We ended up going next door to The Italian Way, and were given fantastic service and food, with our mains being served within 10-15 mins of being seated.

I definitely would not recommend La Lupa. Service, food, atmosphere - all appalling. And barely an apology.
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Rachel
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Monday, February 15, 2010

Decided to go to La Lupa as it has been mentioned and reviews looked good. Dinner was for a party of 6.

Got there ok and we were seated promptly. However, that was the only good part of the evening. Service was the worst I have ever encountered.

We sat there for 15 mins before anyone asked us if we wanted drinks, we had a shortage of menus and when we asked for more menus, they didn't appear. An older man came up to ask us if we were ready to order. He didn't wait for us to reply and just walked off. We waited another 10 mins and then asked if we could order to which we were told that we were asked but we had said no??? The older guy walked off in digust and it was another 10 minutes before we could catch another waitress to take our orders.

Drinks arrived and there was DEFINITELY something wrong with the two glasses of house wine we ordered. We asked if we could send these back and we'd go for a bottle of wine instead. The waitress said no one else has a problem with the wine, but it smelled like sherry and I think it was corked. They did however, take back the wine and brought back a bottle.

We eventually ordered and one of our party ordered 2 starters and told them 3 times to bring it with everyone else's mains. A few mins later, they were bringing out her starters, which we had to explain not to bring. We then sat there for 40 mins waiting for our meal, we asked the waitress and she said because we hadn't ordered starters, then we had to wait??? We waited another 20 mins before getting our food. (One of our party had 3 pints before his mains arrived)

Whole we were there, the fire alarm went off 3 times while we were there, no one apologised for the noise of it or tell us if it was safe to stay or not. After the 3rd time, the room started to fill with smoke, again, no one told us anything, so we weren't sure what to do. We all just paid after that and left, we also forgot to check if they charged us for the two glasses of wine. On a good note, the food was very good and there was loads of it. The only thing is, if you've ordered drinks, you're half sozzled by the time it arrives, so it probably doesn't make much difference if the food is good or not, pity, but never again.
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Maureen
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 4
Tuesday, November 24, 2009