Strada

What I Loved:
Location. Location. Location.
Right on the South Bank and set in a shop centre with a huge glass entrance. It was beautiful for a Strada.
Opportunities for Growth:
To keep it short. The food was average, I think it came out a bit cold and just didn’t have that extra touch of love that you might get if you chose a non-​chain, family restaurant. The bread was good, but the seafood pasta and the chicken alfredo-​like pasta were both a bit below par for me. Then again, I am an Italian food enthusiast.
I’d go back again, mainly for the ambience and social aspect, but I hope the food will be better in the future.

I tried hard to find something positive to say about our visit to Strada at the South Bank. The new Bly thing that was okay was the Tricolore salad, but it’s hard to screw up a salad.
First, we waited half hour for someone to take our order and the place wasn’t that busy.
The pasta was heavy and just not tasty.
The place was coming cold…
In short should’ve gone to ZIzzy or Carluccio’s

I had heard of this chain before but never visited for some reason. To be honest, I left disappointed. Bad service. Awful drinks. The pasta was nothing special for its price. And it was coooold. The staff was opening the side door every two minutes… I’m going somewhere else next time. Sorry.

I was visiting London and came off the water taxi. Since I was staying at the Marriott. Already ate at most of the famous places nearby. Came across this by accident but was tired and cold. I was a little apprehensive of the chain restaurant theme. But was pleasantly surprised. Great low end bottle of red wine and the food was above average. I was very surprised and would not hesitate to return.

Worst chicken milanese that I have ever had in my whole life! It was like eating a leather shoe! If you come here avoid this dish at all costs because you will hate it! Guaranteed!

SO GLAD WE CAME, unplanned after we walked out of Giraffe (two doors down) b/​c none of the workers there bothered to serve us… at Strada the cooks were workin’ so fast that the waiters couldn’t keep up!
it’s located right on the River of Thames & very close to the London Eye, which was convenient after our ride
great food at this London italian chain & very accommodating staff!
–goat cheese salad: flavorful with tons of roasted veggies & very filling as far as salads go
–salmon & sea bass: both fish dishes were cooked perfectly
–tiramisu: yummy & just enough rum and espresso flavor
–Bunet (like chocolate mousse): just okay
NOTE: as usual, if you don’t want to pay for bottled water, you’ve got to specify tap water, which isn’t the norm

I’m not sure why somewhere as busy and lovely as the Southbank struggles in the restaurant department. It is mostly a series of chain restaurants punctuated by restaurant which aren’t taking the best advantage of the river location (Oxo Tower), or those which serve plain awful food (Skylon, but that’s a chain too). It is calling out for a great restaurant.
Strada of course is a chain. We ate here because there was nowhere else that grabbed our fancy/didn’t have a huge queue. Plus points-​outside seating, although you might have to wait for one to become free. Staff are a bit haphazard and forgetful but nice enough. Had a seafood dish that was low average. Risotto was made with regular (ie. not risotto) rice-​seriously odd for an ‘Italian’ restaurant.
Go for the ambience of the bustling Southbank and for eating outside. Go if you are with friends who will be all the distraction you need. Don’t go if you want the food to be the main event.

Ok I might have ranked it a bit high, but I feel like everyone is really not happy with this place. I found the service to be slow, but I didn’t mind. Maybe it’s because I was coming from Paris where dinner is supposed to take 3 hours, but I had such a fun time here that I didn’t mind the waiting. The atmosphere was lively and I really enjoyed the food. I also didn’t think it was all that expensive, but maybe that’s because I was expecting it to be crazy expensive in London.
Anyway, I loved this area on the South Bank and I wish it was warm enough for us to sit outside, but I enjoyed the pizza and the wine!

i had to wait for over half an hour for a table which wasn’t really their fault. they served flat champagne, brought the wrong food which was all cold and the bill was very expensive. i had a similar but subtler experience a time ago but decided to try again.

I went on Saturday and found myself rather impressed. Usually chain restaurants such as Strada would be a place I went to out of desperation more than anything else. Saturday night was indeed a slightly desperate situation. I had been to the film festival at the BFI and sat through 3 films almost back to back and I was starving. No where seemed open as it had gone 11pm, but Strada was. This was the joy I needed as it would have otherwise meant getting a manky sandwich from Waterloo station.
The staff were very polite and because it wasn’t too busy they moved our table as initially we were by the door and it was quite a cold place to be sat.
I had a pizza almost as big as the table, and my partner had some pasta. Everything was cooked well, had great punchy flavours and it felt like pretty decent Italian, particularly at half eleven at night.
I will definitely be back here if I fancy some late night pizza after an epic film extravaganza.
Prices were very reasonable too.
It was the perfect stop off and again the staff seemed relaxed about when we left too.

I went to Strada during my first month in London, enticed in by alluring signs of risotto. I love risotto. Delicioso! So, uh, yeah, I was going to get some risotto!
There were three of us, and all was going according to plan. We ordered our sodas, and, in turn, three different risottos. When they finally came, I tried mine and was a bit disappointed. Tasted bland. How was everyone else’s? The same. So I tried them. They were literally the same! Despite having three distinct descriptions (and slightly different colors) they had about the same flavor variation as water from different faucets in your house. So, flavorless, pointless and expensive.
Needless to say, we did not order dessert.

Popped in here last night, with no specific plan to eat, but with the amount of drinking I ended up doing, this was probably a very good thing.
But, I wasn’t hungry enough for a full meal. I ordered a mini antipasti platter for one, and no one batter an eyelid that I hadn’t ordered a real meal. Instead, I got to pay £6.75 for yummy bread and ham and cheese. I win! I’d have liked a few more olives, but this was meant to be a mini little starter thingy, so it was very good indeed. The oiled ciabatta was lovely. I enjoyed my dinner.
That said, the large glass of wine I had was the same price as my dinner. I’m not sure if that means I ordered cheap food, or my wine was expensive. Probably a little bit of both. The wine wasn’t great (a touch too sweet, despite me asking for dry) and next time I’ll order beer. But if you’re not very hungry, go for the antipasti options.
They get three stars rather than four for these reasons: The floor is so varnished that you can’t walk on it in heels. That’s weird, dangerous and very silly. And considering the place is so big, just two loos in the ladies is a bit pathetic.

Very mediocre food, very slow (arbiet friendly service) and not cheap. Not somewhere I will ever return to.

Came in here last night when it was pretty busy.
I mentioned to the waitress that we had to catch a film in an hour and was there a long wait and she said she’d try and speed up the kitchen for us.
She made it happen — 10 minutes we waited! (much to the annoyance of the people at the table next to us heh heh heh)
Aside from the great service, the food was, as ever, lovely. i had the risotto with scallops, chilli and panchetta. Pizzas are always gorgeous here with an authentic stonebake base.
Reasonably priced, good wine list and specials, great service and a brilliant location.
Fill yer boots, peeps.

Had a terrible experience there! The waitress took our order and completely forgot about us. My friend ordered a dish that was quite common at Strada. The waitress managed to forget our order, so another waiter took our dish and gave it to someone else. We waited half hour and finally informed the waitress about our order. Then she realized that we had ordered our dinner and said it was on the way. The manager tried to tell us that there was no mistake and the food would be ready soon. We were so peeved that we simply walked out of the restaurant. Urgh, there is no personal charm to this place.

ITs in a marvellous location, beside the Thames, really has that good feeling factor, food awesome wine was definitely drinkable