Union Jacks

Went there during a solo trip to London. service was great, very friendly, welcoming and caring throughout the stay. I had the burger which was nicely cooked but only half the size of the bun… no greens whatsoever. few fries to go with the burger… way too pricey for that size of a portion and also for the quality of the food… I won’t go back or recommend it — sorry Jamie!

Excelente all the dishes we order its great to eat at one OF jamies Oliver restaurant. Not expensive. 15 pounds per person. The place IS really nice decorated

L’un des trois Union Jacks de Londres (il y en a un quatrième au sud de l’Angleterre): c’est une chaîné de pizzeria-​snacks, haut de gamme quand même puisque portant la marque du médiatique cuisinier anglais Jamie Oliver.
Situé sur une place piétonne bordée de bâtiments modernes, à deux pas du métro Tottenham Court Road. Les lieux sont très sympas, mêlant visuellement le froid et le chaud: le froid des murs extérieurs tout en verre (on a l’impression de manger dehors, mais il né fait pas froid dans le resto !) et une déco chaleureuse avec des éléments rappelant l’atmosphère des diners américains.
Les entrées tournent autour de 5 £, les pizzas autour de 10 £: pour la qualité (la carte insiste sur les produits locaux) et le cadre, c’est raisonnable. Service agréable et efficace.
Petit regret par contre, la carte des desserts est vraiment maigrichonne, pas de pudding anglais chez Union Jack !

Awesome drink
Good portions
Pizza a little too salty
Fish sticks awesome with great tartar sauce
Crab salad delicious!
Elderflower sorbet awesome
Great service

I really wanted to go to a Jamie Oliver restaurant while in London and my friend & I decided on Union Jacks as the prices are much more manageable than some of his upscale restaurants. We walked in without a reservation on a Friday night and didn’t have any trouble finding a table. Union Jacks is cute & casual but has nice table service to boot.
The fun with Union Jacks is they have British Sharing Plates allowing a person to try several different smaller dishes at a good price. We opted to dine this way and accompany it with a bottle of wine — perfection! We tried the beans with toast, sausage & mustard, fish fingers with tartar sauce, black pudding, garlic mushrooms and that all ended up being way too much food! Each plate was just about 5 quid each and everything we had was tasty. Although I did find the breaded mushrooms a bit too strong on the garlic and I’m as far from a vampire as it gets in garlic tolerance. I’d skip those on my next visit.
They have a decent selection of drinks although the beers are not extensive, plenty of cocktails and wines to make up for it. Service was lovely throughout. They have a few tables outside perfect for people watching.
Skip the pizzas and stick to their British Sharing Plates and you’ll be golden here.
Next trip to London — I’m stepping up my Jamie Oliver game!

1. they have very limited non-​alcoholic beverages on menu (well, it’s true that European drinks alcohol like water)
2. they only have still mineral water, not even sparkling option!
3. clothing smelled after leaving the restaurant. they need to work better on the system to bring in fresh air flow.
4. the waiters & waitresses were not paying enough attention to the needs of guests, so you can imagine how hard it was to find someone for help to take order & paying bills. Yes, they are young and lovely but just too much less experience in customer service
5. the worst thing to mention: my pork chop is dry, dry, dry!!! completely dried!!! although it looked really good on the plate… thank god that the sauce and the sidedish taste homemade like mother cooking recipe~ yummy :)
6. love the location, close to the tube station and among other restaurants all together in this new business complex
7. All walls in this whole building are made by glasses. although no outdoor seatings, street watching is still available while you are eating: D
8. the layout is very vibrant, main theme of this chain restaurant is everything about British. um, casual trendy style n upbeat
9. there’s even a table for table tennis in basement. a good place to chill out with friends
10. i also like the design of their toilet, ample numbers and spacious enough to move around and for less waiting time
11. last but not least, one of the owner is my fav~ jamie oliver!

A bit of an odd location but still it was a nice space, a little cheesy, very bright. Best dish I had was the potted shrimp which was solid. I don’t know if I’ll go back. When we were there, the dining room was quite empty so the atmosphere was odd. It felt like there was too much space and very little warmth. Also, not sure if it was really value for money.

Jamie Oliver’s British food and pizza place on St. Giles piazza was a great choice for a London ‘Goodbye’ dinner! The irony is that while I’ve found the tastiest dishes here all based on a meat-​and-​potatoes or meat-​and-​pastry (LOVE!) theme, I actually ended up ordering a vegetarian meal because it sounded tasty!
There are some wonderful selections of chicken curry, pork chops, lamb steak and even a beef steak salad to satiate the meat-​lovers’ cravings, as well as some great combos for pizzas and salads.
I had the Cauliflower and Chard Bake because I keep seeing chard being written about and wanted to see if I actually liked it. It was great, but then, how could you go wrong with butter and cheese added to anything?
Union Jacks/​St. Giles location is a great stop after a Covent Garden event if you want to get a little farther away from the madding crowd, and it’s about half-​way between Covent Garden and Tottenham Court tube station.
Mixed crowd, professionals, young, old, tourists, locals and we had friendly, attentive service by a knowledgable lad.

I had a fast dinner in here after spending a while trying to find the Shaftsbury Theater on foot from Tottenham Court Road Tube. I didn’t think Id have time to eat before the show and I was hungry. I explained to the manager that I was pushed for time and the service was very fast. I sat at the bar. The food was decent and a good choice of starters. A good selection of fruit juices.
This is the fastest service I experienced in London.

My uncle was in London for the Olympics from Los Angeles. He’s an avid urban farmer and loves eating local, seasonal foods. Knowing these were his preferences, I thought that this restaurant would be a good selection because Jamie Oliver shares similar ideas about food.
Boy, was it a mistake. We ordered the woodman pizza/​flat bread. I liked all of the ingredients on it but the combination didn’t work out too well for me or my boyfriend, who was also dining with us. We also ordered the gem salad, which was just lettuce and dressing. The lettuce was very good, but I would have preferred something more interesting — it was my own fault to select it. My uncle ordered the broiled fish with a side of potatoes and our server took it away before he was finished! She didn’t even ask if he was done, it just disappeared. I asked him if he was finished eating after she left, and he said, «It doesn’t matter, it wasn’t that good anyway.» His fish was overcooked and he had a nice pile of charred bits on the side. We weren’t the only ones unhappy — the couple next to us sent back an appetiser.
That brings me to the service. Besides looking like she just rolled out of bed and threw on a hodgepodge of clothing, our trainee server and her assigned «trainer» were not great. She constantly reached over people instead of walking around the table to place dishes down and bumped me in the head with a plate when clearing them. She didn’t apologise or even seem to notice what she had done and I was too grumpy at that point to bring it up. We had to prompt them to refill our water (we purchased drinks, too). My uncle ordered bread and had to remind them about it when it didn’t appear with our food. I used to train people in retail sales jobs, and any potential she had was being wasted because her trainer wasn’t together and giving her good guidance.
I absolutely love dining at Jamie’s Italian, but I would never, ever go back to Union Jacks or recommend it to a friend. They need to figure out their kitchen and get someone who actually knows how to train people to help upstairs. What a mess.

Met up with some visiting friends last night and their friends who they were staying with. As there is a baby involved, the friends of friends suggested Byron Burger. I maneuvered them away from Byron (as I find it quite average) to someplace new, Union Jacks. I didn’t know much about it, but it seemed kid friendly (and was capable of getting us a reservation for 8 people on the same day), so I was looking forward to trying someplace new.
First, I was slightly concerned when I saw it. It looked to, well, new. I’ve lived in London now for two years, and coming from the U.S., I expect places to have atmosphere. Old buildings and classic architecture, that’s London. Not windows and newness. It just seemed to American and chain-​like. That being said the two of us went in to grab the table and wait for the others.
Well, we looked for beer. We saw they had some Chapel Down ale. Well, Chapel Down is the name of our favorite English winery, so we looked over the wine list and saw that it was all Chapel Down! What a pleasant surprise! Our friends showed up and a few of them got cocktails, but we did get some English Rose sparkling wine and some of the Flint Dry white. What a great way to start the meal!
They have what they call British Tapas, which are basically starters with traditionally British themes. We shared a few, but they could definitely be done as starters. To my chagrin, one person even ordered the flatbread (pizza) that I wanted for my main. We had fish fingers, garlic mushrooms, sausage and bacon, potted prawns and the red ox flatbread for starters. I liked them all (except the fish fingers, there’s something about not getting fish as a giant fillet which kind of turns me off of fried fish).
For mains, my other half and I split the red ox and old spot flatbreads. The red ox is braised oxtail and brisket, red leicester, cress and fresh horseradish. After having a bit for a starter, we both decided we still wanted it for the main! It was that good. The old spot is roasted pork shoulder, stilton, cress and crackling. That was extremely tasty as well. Quite different from the other and hard to tell which was better. Two people got the empire chicken (a kind of Indian inspired chicken dish), and both of them really had good things to say about it. Everyone really seemed to enjoy their meal.
Desserts were a tiny let down, but I really enjoyed my ice cream with a bit of sweet dessert wine. They have a variety of flavors, and they are not your standard ones. Eton Mess, Marathon (snickers) bar, Sticky Toffee Pudding and Green Tea with biscuits were just a few of the flavors available. Two people got the arctic roll which is like a swiss roll with ice cream, and they weren’t that impressed.
The toilets were old school looking from Thomas Crapper which everyone seemed to be amused by.
The restaurant really tries to mix modern and traditional Britishness into an enjoyable dining experience. If I knew I was going to be meeting a large group on a Saturday night and needed a last minute place to come to this would be it. The place was quite empty, which could be due to the opening of the new restaurant in Covent Garden. So if you try to get in there, and can’t, just walk a little bit north and come to this location.

Loved it.
Had the curly kale salad with crushed hazelnuts, bacon bits & roasted garlic. The «chilli freak» flat/​pizza is no joke having a variety of 6 chillis which satisfied my adoration & craving for spice & heat (but was too intense for my dinner date). We finished off with some of their homemade ice cream, yum! Before leaving, we saw Chris Bianco wander along & he stopped at our table to say hello!

We were nothing short of pain in the ass customers. I mean we walked into a restaurant specializing in flatbreads and one of our party needed gluten-​free food and doesn’t eat meat. The host was so accommodating and helpful in navigating the menu and finding something she could eat.
It is a bit of a chain /​sterile feel (I think a lot of these modern building restaurants exude that feeling) and that cool yet simple Jamie feel.
The winners on this menu are the oxtail, brisket, horseradish and leicester cheese pizza; the breaded mushrooms, and the fennel salad. I also enjoyed the purple sprouting salad. The plain pizza was disappointing.
Although the ice creams sound amazing, I wasn’t overly impressed. And the waitress who waited on us was a bit aloof.
I highly recommend the above-​mentioned pizza. It was really something special.

Union Jacks is Jamie Oliver’s somewhat more original take on a Pizza Express that prides its self on using British ingredients such as Stilton.
Was my slow roasted pork pizza tasty, yes. Was my friends oxtail horseradish pizza tasty, yes. Was either pizza much better than your typical wood fired pizza place, errr not really. Also, please let me know if you ever figure out why these pizzas are called flats and not pizzas. They’re shaped like pizza heck they even taste like pizza.
The ambiance is a bit off… Union Jacks is located in the middle of the brand new colorful Renzo Piano designed St Giles complex, which striking from afar but up close seems more like a modern glass enclosed shopping mall. Our server, however, was friendly and prompt to take orders and bring out our food and drinks.
The pizza, err sorry I mean flats, are actually good, nice crust, with somewhat unusual ingredients. However, given the buzz about this place I expected more, much more.

Lets start at the end. my wife looks up at me and says.
«That wasn’t very satisfying now was it»
That about sums up the visit to Union Jacks. I actually felt like the victim of a joke.
We made the trek over on a particularly frigid day to try the good old comfort food after watching Jamie’s British food series. The joint smelled great with the wafting aroma of the wood fired ovens bringing a certain sense of warmth to an otherwise unappealing modern steel and glass building. The décor was a bit retro kitsch with a sort of American diner vibe. the music loud and trendy. this is a place striving to be hip.
We were excited to try the locally sourced produce and dishes, but that excitement didn’t last long. For a starter we had the POTTED PRAWNS with MORECAMBE BAY SHRIMPS & DEVONSHIRE CRAB. The dish was quite small and had huge chunks of cold butter amidst the prawn and crab mixture. It seems it didn’t blend as it should have. We also had numerous pieces of crab shell in the mix.
I ordered the Chili Freak (6 chilli varieties, roasted & crushed with tomatoes, curd, rocket, mint & lemon) as I am a self described chilli freak. When ordering I said I wanted to «pimp». their word not mine. my dish with brisket, but was told I could not. that was only for the Margaret. I guess the celebrity chef could be offended if you tried to add to his vision.
The flat bread. which is not a pizza according to them. was more like a glorified over sized cracker that was crisp at points and mushy at others. Burnt some places undercooked in others. It was covered with a chilli purée heavy on what tasted like tinned tomato purée. The heat level was very low despite being warned it was extremely spicy. There was the occasional leaf of rocket and some lemon flavor and that was it for topping. It was basically a large cracker with spicy ketchup and some leaves.
My wife had the Woodman (Mixed field & wild mushrooms, Westcombe Cheddar, pickled red onion, tarragon & chervil) and it was basically the same as above but with different ingredients. She also was told she couldn’t add any topping. The red onion did not seem pickled just merely sliced and fresh. The amount of toppings was respectable but not plentiful.
We left hungry and dismayed. Though the food was not by current standards expensive, it was certainly not cheap and did not seem to be a value for the money. Our bill was £26 and we still felt hungry. As we left we were offered two badges, one emblazoned with the the logo, the other with the name. We declined to take them.
I couldn’t imagine Jamie inviting his mates over for a meal like he does on his shows, and serving anything like this. The menu needs a rethink and flexibility with toppings should be extended to all the dishes. Otherwise save your money and head to a pizza joint that lets you decide what you like and how you like it.

Finally, FINALLY, after months of searching: I love a restaurant in London.
I ate there a few days ago and have told every single person that I’ve encountered since then about Union Jacks. That is not an exaggeration. Every single person I’ve talked to. I’m that excited about eating here.
Union Jacks delivers for all five senses: Huge glass walls let you people watch efficiently, the wood smoke smell from the ovens is comforting and appetizing, the music is selected by the staff and is shockingly good, the food of course is amazing and… wait the fifth sense is touch? I don’t know… the seats are alright I guess? Forget that. No one cares about the five senses. The take home here is supposed to be that this restaurants satisfies in every way.
What I meant to say is that the food is beautifully thought out with care and concern behind the sourcing of every ingredient. Why did they pick this specific basil? Don’t worry about it. Someone else already went through the trouble to get the best effing basil in the UK. Now all you have to do is eat and be happy.
The service is hands down the best I’ve received in London. Yes, I’m here on business so I’ve been to some white table cloth spots were the staff is super fancy and extremely knowledgeable. The staff here is still the best staff. I don’t know how, but everyone at Union Jacks cares so damn much that you can’t help but be happy. God, I want to go back right now.
Finally, I know the pizza/​flatbread is the main attraction here, but do yourself a favor and don’t skip appetizers or desert. The shrimp cocktail (prawn and more camber bay shrimp cocktail) was bang the fuck out. I realize that that phrase doesn’t mean anything and I don’t care. Get the shrimp cocktail and just try and convince me that it isn’t actually bang the fuck out. You will fail, happily.
In a city with enough restaurant options that you could go months without returning to the same spot twice, this is a place that I can’t wait to go back to.

Upon reading Anthony L’s review about Union Jacks, I knew that I had to go experience Chef Bianco’s work in London first-​hand. It’s been years since I went, but I still clearly recall waiting outside in Phoenix’s beating August afternoon sun for nearly an hour to get into the first seating at Pizzeria Bianco. And how worthwhile it was. I had high expectations of the offerings at this collaboration with Jamie Oliver… and wasn’t disappointed.
Considering this venue has only been open to the public for roughly a week, the servers are exceptionally on point. Professional, welcoming, and knowledgeable, we were explained the menu (primarily locally sourced products; small bites and ‘flats’) and listed off the daily specials.
I opted for the on-​menu Red Ox flatbread, featuring oxtail and brisket in a Worcestershire sauce, Sparkenhoe red leicester, watercress, and fresh horseradish. Though I couldn’t really taste the sharpness of the horseradish, I –was– impressed with the delightful crust (which I requested some oil for for dipping in; they don’t have olive oil, but provided me a beautiful orange-​coloured grapeseed one instead) and the richly flavoured cheese.
To top off my meal, I actually got to meet and shake hands with the legendary Chris Bianco himself. What a friendly fellow! The food nerd in me was elated!
Note that you’ll find Union Jacks across the street from The Angel in Soho-​ish. The mapping was a smidge off — I don’t think that Google yet recognises St Giles Piazza yet. Also, I called and they’re not currently accepting bookings until the new year.

Having lived in Phoenix for three years, I was incredibly excited to see that Chris Bianco was bringing his pizza magic 8,500 km to London. Oh, he has arrived, indeed — and with Jamie Oliver at his side, you’d better bet your bottom pound that Union Jacks will knock your pizza — excuse me, «flatbread» — socks off.
My margherita — excuse me, «margaret» — pizza was worth every pence. High quality organic ingredients on Bianco’s amazing wood-​fired pizza dough alone would make for a delicious meal. But, wait, there’s more — at Union Jacks you can «pimp» your pizza like a wealthy Eastern European businessman doing business on the red-​coloured canals of Amsterdam. I added «shoulder of pork» to my pizza to prove I am no vegetarian, and my pizza was complete… for just about £8.
My friend from university ordered the «red ox» pizza, which was a stunning combination of oxtail & brisket, slow braised in Worcestershire sauce, served with Sparkenhoe Red Leicester, watercress & fresh horseradish. His pizza clocked in at about £12.
For those of you who have never visited Bianco’s Arizona pizza shop, these prices are more than fair, and a pizza in pricey London will cost you no more than a pizza in provincial Phoenix.
Dessert? You betcha! It was a necessity after two brilliant pizzas — we both had a delicious scoop of homemade ice cream for a mere £1.50 each. Again, a good value — the scoops were fairly portioned.
Some new restaurants seem to need training wheels as they get their start, but Jamie and Chris have opened a restaurant — open for only one week — that is already on the fast track to success.
Great value, delicious food, stunning ingredients, brilliant service, enticing décor, wonderful concept… you get the idea.