Est Est Est Italian Restaurant

Booking is essential - this place seems always to be full to brimming.

Slightly up-market from the standard "Formula Italian", the menu includes Carpaccio and Vin Santo, options not always found. The staff were attentive and efficient.

The occasion was an anniversary with relatives, so the emphasis was on company rather than food, but the food was pretty good, with one exception...

Those dishes with tomato based sauces on our table all suffered from what appeared to be slivers of wood or bone. When we complained (after eating the dish!), the head waiter took the dish away, and returned later to tell us that what we had picked out from the sauce was the woody stem of Basil. This explanation was apparently enough for the head waiter. Although we would perhaps have preferred a more apologetic approach, we were not in the mood to bring down our outing for this shortcoming.

The verdict is that I had a pleasant evening almost in spite of the meal, rather than because of it. I suppose Est Est Est has to cater for the mass market, and suffers because of this - particularly as this is one of the very few restaurants I've been in which expects you to vacate the table for the next set of diners - we were booked in for 18:45, and were expected to vacate by 20:30. Although we were, on this occasion, finished around about the time specified, this was probably because we had a child in our company - had we been all adults, this "rushing" would not have been tolerable.

Verdict - I won't be going back under my own steam, although if invited by others I wouldn't complain too much.

Sandro

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