Caffe Unico Ltd, Epping Review

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3.4 stars
Average rating for this product is: 3.4 out of 5

From 5 ratings and 13 reviews

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eponymous6's Review of Caffe Unico Ltd, Epping

28th Apr 2007

Overall Rating

3 stars
  • Value for money
    2.5 stars
  • Average cost per head
    £10 - £25
  • Atmosphere
    Family-oriented
  • Quality of food
    3.5 stars
  • Food Type
    Italian
  • How often do you eat here?
    Once or twice a year
  • Quality of service
    3.5 stars
Good Points

Lively atmosphere.


Bad Points

Pricey.
Mediocre standard of food.
Surly Italian waiters.
Loud.


General Comments

It is one of the two restaurants in Epping offering Italian food. Originally, before a local hotel sold it's dining area to the Prezzo franchise, the restaurant was the only place in town serving up Italian fayre. Due to this, and the fact it suits large parties as well as couples, it has been enormously successful. Although, this success it seems has become its burden, as it receives continually bad reviews in the local press.

The menu at Caffe Unico is extensive, and offers an array of pastas, pizzas and antipasti, as well as meat and fish dishes. When ordering, one must be careful not to order too many dishes, as a meal for four can easily become a veritable banquet, such is the size and quantity of the portions. The food is by no means poor, but I can't help but feel that it doesn't quite merit the price, and it is more quantity rather than quality. The dishes themselves are often rather hastily seasoned and garnished, and on occasions resemble more cafe than restaurant cuisine. I would even go as far as to say it was unacceptably mediocre. But having thought about it, the Unico dining experience is more a frivolous and fanciful slice of Italy, not to be taken too seriously. The restaurant is incessantly noisy and hardly subtle, as Italian music blares out and waiters yackety-yak in Italian, but the general air of the place is nonetheless light hearted, fun and wholly inoffensive. Admittedly, the waiters can be a tad rude and surly, but it goes with the clich d image of Italy that Unico evokes and exudes.

I suggest that if you go to Unico, make sure it's with a large group, and that it's more for the social rather than the dining experience.

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