Trattoria Verdi

Quirky and delightful — Good value but not perfect
The staff really make this place — from the servers to the bartender to the pianist everyone seemed happy to be here and they really make you feel like family invited to a party that they host every night. The décor is a bit homely with tile floors, banquet chairs and amateurish paintings adorning the walls.
The restaurant specializes in seafood but we were in the mood for lighter fare so we ordered a selection of pizzas — all of which were uniformly good (though not perfect). One of us did order Gnocchi with pesto which was overcooked.
That said, they did have an Amarone which was delicious and very well priced. The desserts were all quite fabulous — particularly the tiramisu — as was the limoncello. In short, if you are looking for an evening of fine dining this is not the place for you. But if you want a fun evening with good food at an attractive price you could do far, far worse.

I try to stay away from the tourist traps and chain restaurants, instead wandering into small restaurants catering to locals and business travelers. I was not disappointed here, the atmosphere was quiet and relaxing and the staff friendly and attentive. The caprese salad was a little light on mozzarella but the fettuccine Alfredo was buttery and very filling but not heavy on the stomach. The house white wine was sweet and not too dry, inviting me to have a second glass and the tiramisu was a wonderful ending, the coffee obvious in both the flavor and moist texture as is often missing in the states. I will definitely come back again.

Resto sympa, nourriture de qualité, attention au sups, pain, eau,.qui peuvent saler l’addition.
Pour le reste une bonne table et un bon pianiste.

I love local restaurants, as much as possible when I travel. Trattoria Verdi is a good find. Just a few steps away from the Hilton Doubletree hotel on Southampton Row and two blocks from Holborn Tube it’s worth checking out
Very friendly staff from Italy. Fresh food, nice specials. I had the Tre Colori Insalata, with fresh avocado, fresh mozzarella and tomatoes. The chicken special, Cesar Polli was excellent.
Live piano music was especially nice as well.
I highly recommend this place!

Finally a restaurant in London that has good service!
I stopped here this evening for dinner. After having the past two days of typical UK non-​existent service where you have to hunt someone down to get a refill or anything else including the bill, I was pleasantly surprised to get great service here.
I ordered the caprese salad and grilled seabream. The salad was good and the mozzarella was very fresh. The fish was excellent and came with a white wine dill sauce that was good. I’ve never had seabream before so I don’t know if this is typical or not, but I had to be careful eating it as as there were a number of small bones (15 total). The fish came with some potatoes and steamed vegetables which were tasty.
The food was good, but the biggest thing that impressed me though was the great service. Everyone there had a service mentality and this was a nice change. I will definitely be back if I am in the area.

This is a fairly standard Italian restaurant with a big pasta menu and a cosy atmosphere, located very centrally, near Russell Square station.
I went there tonight to an enormous dinner (50 people) after a conference. The organisers had booked an entire room downstairs, which was cosy and pleasant, although the décor was slightly odd (skis and pictures of Venice?). The staff were friendy and helpful and coped fantastically with such a big group (bigger in fact than the original booking had stated). The courses came out quickly and they managed to serve everyone at the same time, despite the fact that we had all ordered different dishes: this was impressive!
The food, however, was not enormously exciting and the meal turned out being quite expensive for what it was (about £20 for a starter and a main). I had the minestrone starter and a vegetarian pasta main, both of which were fine but nothing special. Some of the fish and other pasta dishes looked more interesting, but nothing looked amazing. The parmesan was not freshly grated…
I would recommend the place for a big booking somewhere fairly central, but I wouldn’t feel passoniate about returning there for the food.

Decent food, but overpriced. It’s nice to have the piano player though, who plays classical music.
I came with a (boy)friend late one rainy Saturday evening around 11PM and when we asked, «are you still serving» was promptly seated with an «of course!» We sat by this pretty mural of the tourist highlights of Italy (Venice to the left, Trevy Fountain in the centre, then the Colosseum in the top-​right background, with Piza in the front. While not at all geographically accurate, it was still nice to look at while waiting for our food, dining, and listening to the piano.
My friend had the whitefish, which came fried (he didn’t like it that much, I thought it was okay-​for cooked fish… but then again, I don’t really like cooked fish).
I had the stuffed mushrooms and the «Maryland» chicken. The mushrooms were good, and I should have gotten bread with it to soak up the delicious butter sauce that it came in, but I wanted to save room for my entrée. For the «Maryland» chicken, as someone who lived in the DC-​Maryland area, I honestly would have expected Crab, NOT chicken as the pairing. I guess their interpretation of any American city is that everything is fried, which is how the dish arrived. Deep-​fried, at that. Deep-​fried chicken (still looking for Chicken Parm in this city, they obviously know how to do it, and this WAS an Italian restaurant). Deep-​fried pineapple. Deep-​fried banana. For what it’s worth, the fried pineapple and banana were delicious. The chicken wasn’t bad either. It’s just that by the end of the meal, I was wishing for a sauce of some kind (mainly tomato, for the chicken…). It’s not that the chicken was dry – actually, it quite moist for fried chicken (–oh wait, that’s grease not natural moisture). It’s just that after eating several fried things, my mouth wanted a bit of moist variety to go with it. (and get your mind out of the gutter.)
The dessert cart was sitting right next to me, and I do have to admit that I eyed it longingly before ordering. After finishing the food, (which wasn’t bad, just not fantastic) I was too full to want to eat anything else. I definitely will return to try their desserts though, because they looked amazing. I imagine sitting, eating the delicious tiramisu, listening to the piano… ah, it’s a nice idea.