Jamie's Italian St Martin's Courtyard

Never being a great fan of Jamie Oliver I have avoided going to one of his restaurants. However we were short of time and as we were passing through Upper St Martin's Lane thought we would give it a try as we are fond of good Italian food. We ordered Lasagne and Carbonara with a side green salad. The Lasagne was dry and not especially special and the Carbonara sauce was very glutinous. The salad looked unappetising and badly presented. We soldiered on ordering Lemon Meringue which looked very processed and mass produced and my companion could only manage to eat half, my so called Amaretti Crumble was equally unappealing. The best part of the meal was the coffee which was good. I will not be going to another Jamie Oliver restaurant. Perhaps his organisation has become too large and parts of it not checked out enough. Carluccio's is far better, if only we had gone further down St. Martins Lane!

As we were a party of six we booked in advance. We reserved a table for 5pm, we had theatre tickets for 7pm. On arriving at about 4.50, we were told that the table would be free shortly as the previous diners had finished and were about to leave. We waited and waited and waited, the diners showed no signs of leaving, but were killing time waiting in the restaurant. The manager was particularly unhelpful and unfriendly to the point of being hostile, saying “our policy is to leave people at their table for as long as they like”, with no concern for others who might have made a reservation. The restaurant was chaotic; no one seemed to know what was happening and on one was taking any charge or responsibility… At 5.40 we were shown to another group of tables pulled together to accommodate us as our table was still occupied, although the party had finished their meal nearly an hour earlier and were killing time watching children colouring, possibly waiting for the rain to clear! At 6pm we managed to get some bread and order our meal (I hour and 10 minutes after arriving WITH a reservation). We then had to rush the meal. Despite the wait, service was slow and patchy when we did get a table. We were not offered a wine list and had another wait after requesting it. Our first waiter disappeared and was replaced by another waitress. The food was at best adequate, but nothing special. Bland overpriced pasta. But having waited over an hour and having had to deal with the appalling chaotic service and dreadful manager, I doubt anything would have tasted good. Just avoid this place until they learn the basics of customer care and service. You would get similar food and superior service in any school canteen!

This place is always busy and there's a good reason why! The menu is small but varied, the drinks are reasonably priced and the waiters are cute to boot!

Very busy and enjoyable bistro type atmosphere. Serice was very efficient and friendly we ordered a number of items for starters including a wondeful marinated fresh anchovy dish. the only snag is the tables are rather small and there wasn't enough room !!! Jamies own prosecco is wonderful, do try it and at around £23 not too expensive. We ate one the ‘specials’ which was fresh mackeral seared on a charcoal grill served with a salad of peas and mint and it was gorgeous. my only gripe was the over use of large flatbread, which on one courde and given a prevailing wind could have taken my friend and I on a tour of covent garden. I will return

With no pre-booking allowed, we arrived mid-week at 12.45pm only to find that we were to be alloted one of the last few remaining tables. No bread was offered although the waiter was pleasant and welcoming. I chose one of the daily ‘specials’ for a main course but then there was an enormous gap of about an 45 mins between the starter and the main course. At this point, I was told that my chosen main course was not available and that I would have to chose something else. I queried whether I would need to wait a further 45 mins but was told it would only be about 10 mins. A further 20 mins later, the food (it was only a pasta dish) finally arrived. Both courses were very nice – the starter being a crab bruschetta and the main, a carbonara. The salad that arrived with the main course was positively tiny (served on something not much larger than a coaster) – not enough for two sharing. The waiter offered free coffees to make up for the lateness of the meal. I suspect that the table of twenty in the middle of the restaurant considerably slowed things up for everybody else and I would suggest that perhaps this style of restaurant is not suited to large parties ordering ‘on the hoof’. I noticed that the couple next to me had queried their bill so I checked mine carefully. I found that I had been charged for the meal that they had run out of, as well as my second choice – not good. One of my colleagues had previously visitied this restaurant and found that the waiting times were excessive. It is a shame because anyone on a lunchbreak would be hard pressed to enjoy their meal without rushing at the end. The kitchen definitely needs to speed things up and the management need to check their bills before handing them to the customers.