Description: With tickets to Mama Mia in hand we headed off to find a restaurant close the theater in Old Compton St.
This in an area known as Soho in London just a block north of Shaftsbury Ave. There are a great many restaurants in this area as well as bars and clubs; it’s a little wild and a little crazy.
Piccolo Diaolo is less than a block past the theater. We got one of the last tables available at about 6pm. Usually this is early to eat dinner in London but here it was packed. We were in the far rear of the room and the tables are packed as close as humanly possible. The waitresses have quite a squeeze to deliver the food.
We started our meals with salad Insulata Mista and Insulata Verte, the basic difference was that the mista had peppers and tomatoes joining the lettuce and cucumber. There was no choice of salad dressing, it came already dressed. Al had the Biagio Antipasto, salami, ham and cheese on radichio. They were okay, nothing special. We were given a breadbasket but only one piece each at our table of four and we had to ask for a bowl of olives like every other table in the place.
The main dishes were plentiful and quite good. I had a very nice pesto, plenty of basil and pine nuts and just enough garlic and olive oil to make it interesting. Al and Bob had Spaghetti Bolognese, which had a thick meaty sauce; Bob asked for extra sauce and got plenty. Joe however wasn’t sure he got the right meal it didn’t seem to fit the description of what he had ordered. The people at the next table had a similar problem. It wasn’t that it didn't taste good, he ate it all and enjoyed it, but it just wasn’t what he had ordered. The waitresses seemed to have a bit of problem understanding English or maybe just American, I don’t know but I suspect if she had checked back with us sooner he might have asked for an explanation.
This is a hard restaurant to rate. The food was good, not great. The service was fair, not good. The atmosphere is non-existent but the owner or manager greets you at the door and sends you off with a smile, that has to count for something. Also, if you are going to see Mama Mia , you can’t find a restaurant closer to the theater. Would I go there again? Maybe. I think one visit makes it hard to judge a restaurant’s overall quality. Oh, did I forget to mention prices especially for the main course were very reasonable.
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