Ave Mario - (Near Westminster, South East)

1 /5 kyle cog: The service manager really needs to be fired here. I’ve eaten at several big mamma group locations and the service I received here was by far the worst I’ve had at any. Honestly worst service I’ve had at a restaurant in years. They had us waiting outside in the cold for 25 minutes past our reservation time after saying it would be “about 5 minutes” when we arrived on time. Service inside the restaurant wasn’t much better, 2 different waitresses serviced our table and neither knew what the other had done so they kept asking the same questions about whether or not we’d ordered drinks or appetizers. Despite having 2 waitresses it still took 15 minutes after giving us the wine menu for them to come back and take a drink order and then another 15 minutes to take an order for food. Very upset I had to pay an obligatory 12.5% service fee after service like this, and I’m someone who usually voluntarily tips 20%. Food itself was okay, very small portions for the price and taste was below average for a mamma group restaurant but still above average overall. Overall, this is undoubtedly the worst mamma group restaurant I’ve been to and corporate needs to come down hard to fix this place. No clue how the ratings are so high. PS, try to request a seat upstairs. The tables downstairs are extremely loud which I’m guessing is why a party seated before us who requested upstairs when they made a reservation but was given downstairs seemed very upset.

5 /5 Tim Danton: Ive just spent a fantastic evening here. Fantastic food from start to finish, excellent service and the atmosphere down in the basement was a lot of fun -almost like being at a party as it was so relaxed. We skipped the starters and dived straight into the main course - perfectly cooked pasta, tasty sauces, great presentation. The wine was top quality and excellent value, but it was the desserts that made the evening. Congratulations to everyone involved. We had to wait 30 minutes for a place at the bar, but it was so worth it.

3 /5 amy marriott: Having visited a couple of the big mamma group restaurants across London, I was looking forward to the Ave Mario experience as the other restaurants sit highly recommended. Knowing their booking system and how challenging it can be to get a table at the other branches, I was quite surprised to find that tables were available to book the evening before our intended visit. We ended up winging it and turned up at 1pm on a Saturday and waited 20 minutes for a table. The restaurant was busy and staff were friendly. The two person tables are very small and there is nowhere to hang coats ( not even on the back of the chair because of booth design in the ground level seating area) so we felt very uncomfortable but made do. There also was not much space for the courses when they came to the table. If visiting we would recommend the focaccia. The burrata was lovely and the seafood linguine was nice (apart from some shell pieces). We were disappointed with the pizza. It was hard to cut and the bottom was an odd texture - a rubbery hard texture. Overall the food wasn’t on par with the Circolo Popolare (highly recommended). We felt slightly rushed and unable to enjoy the full experience due to having to keep arms in as people walked past, which was very often. I can now understand why it’s super easy to get a table here. Unfortunately, we won’t be revisiting this one, though we are happy we have ticked it off the list.