written by on 28/09/2010
2 persons ordered fish of the day (red mullet). Portion was truly abysmal, three pieces of 6cm long, 3cm wide and 1cm thick. McDonalds' kids' fish-finger menu is certainly more filling, costs abt £2.5 and comes with a toy! Strada's red mullet came with nothing apart from the cost of £14.75!!
(and to set the record straight the comparison is purely on quantity of the fish, not quality)
When we complained to the manager he admitted the portion was way too small to fill up an adult and said that he is not the one who decides on portions. We said that the fish should have come as a whole fish, to which he replied that normally this is how they serve their fish but the red mullet is a much more expensive fish so the portions are smaller!! Does this mean that with red mullet, at the price of £14.75, we only get to sample the dish????!?!?! It was a starter portion, not a main, not even for us 2 who are female, 5'2" and very very cautious with how much we eat!!
After a long discussion (which made our tiny red mullet portion cold), as an apology, the manager offered us either coffee or limoncello. The latter came in the wrong glass and had 5 ice-cubes in it!! Who on this earth would imagine that they would go to an ITALIAN restaurant and get to have limoncello in the most NON-ITALIAN way ever?! Adding 5 ice-cubes to 2 drops of limoncello will not make it look like a bigger portion, just shows that STRADA cannot assess the customers' intelligence, even after the same customers have exemplified that they are not stupid.
Both the above are indicators that Strada are on a serious cost cutting exercise on the expense of insulting the intelligence of their customers.
It is sad because in terms of quality of their food, Strada could be described as Italian-like. But after today's experience we would not say the same about portions or traditional Italian drinks!
P.S. Nothing personal with the Manager or the waitors. In fact we could see their reaction to our reaction with regards to the portions of the fish. They were equally as shocked and I know I would be the same. In fact, I would refuse to serve this to anyone as a main to begin with.