Strada Review

“We had been to the branch outside the Festival Hall on...”

Written on: 29/08/2009

We had been to the branch outside the Festival Hall on the south bank last year, which was a better experience than at Highgate last night. The service was OK but the next table had problems getting their order. I had a pork saltimbocca, which is a fillet of pork wrapped in ham with a stuffing of sage leaves that give the distinctive taste to the dish. At the halfway stage I realised that there was no evidence of sage to be found under the ham. My wife had scallop risotto which was very oily and not very good. We were doing a 2 for the price of one deal with a voucher, so combined with the frenetic atmosphere we saw no point in sending the food back, as we were halfway through it. I asked the waitress about the missing sage, she spoke to chef who said it had been missed at the 'prep' stage and was sorry about that. Still a full service charge on the bill though, and no reduction for the omission. Maybe the mushroom omelettes have no mushrooms? Goodbye Strada.