All-in-all, this is as bad a concept and execution in a restaurant as I have come across in years. It’s not even so bad that it’s amusing! It’s just so bad, it’s utter tripe. No, scratch that I'd feed my dog tripe.

Worst restaurant I have ever been to, absolutely awful.
I never usually write reviews but I would like to warn everyone on how bad this place is.
We booked a table of 4, pretty standard of any other restaurant but certainly not this one. The place was empty yet food took nearly an hour to get out to us, the service was appalling waiters had no idea on how to run a restaurant (my nan dog could have done better).
Food was even worse and to top it off my friend got food poisoning from this awful place! Oh and if you want a laugh check out the really huge fat man that reckons he owns the place! What a disgusting sleaze ball!!

Before I go any where to eat, I always make sure I read reviews. The reviews I read were reasonably positive, so I thought I would give it a try. I can honestly say this was the worst restaurant I have ever been to, in my whole life. The problems? Where do I start? I booked a table for 8 they gave me a table for 3. After waiting for 45 mins for a table to become free, the waiter snorted at me and ushered my party to the table. Waiting another 20 mins, a waiter finally came over to take our orders. I have never smelt any thing so offensive in my life. The waiters body odour was like a man that was an illegal sweaty squatter that hadn't showered for months. Our drinks finally came! And they managed to get 3 out of the 8 orders right. At this point we were ready to leave this cesspit of a restaurant! The ambiance of the restaurant was good minus the lingering smell of body odour. One good point was that the food came quick! Too quick. My Pan Fired lamb chop, was well seared but completely uncooked in the middle! The crushed potatoes were hard in the middle and not cooked properly at all. All in all it was absolutely hideous! What made it worse was it was £18.00. We couldn't get out of this squatters paradise quick enough! We got the bill for £630! And then they wanted a £70 service charge! I told them to get lost. I spoke to their manager, Frank, I believe his name was. He was a rude, rude man and when he told me to "f" off, I couldn't believe a restaurant manager would act so disgusting towards a customer. Never in my whole life have I been so so upset with a restaurant experience. I have eaten in the back alley slums of Calcutta, and have had better service and food. Will I go back to Il Giardino again? Probably Not.

I knew we were in trouble when the restaurant called to confirm a reservation I had made, a week in advance, saying they needed to confirm as were "busy" that night and asked to speak to Alan not Helen. We arrived and were seated at a table for 4, I had made the booking for 2, we were led out to the reception desk again when I pointed this out and then led back to the same table, took our coats off and sat down and were asked to move across the room to a table so inferior, I could see the shame on the waiters face, as it was jammed between the wine cellar door and the bar with a view of an overloaded bin. We duly moved to a table which hadn't even been cleared and ordered a glass of prosecco each, they arrived warm and flat which was how we were beginning to feel....lets look on the bright side it can't get any worse, oh what optimists we were.
We ordered our food and my husband ordered the cold meat platter for a starter and was told "you can't have that" when my husband enquired why he was told "because it will take too long" when we insisted we didn't mind waiting for the slices of cold meat, off the waiter went with our order, only to return 5 minutes later saying "you can't have the meat platter the chef won't make it he hasn't got time we are very busy tonight"!! I don't think I need to comment on that any further.
The evening dragged on, inferior greasy food, swimming in sauces, which managed to be both watery and oily, reheated potatoes, frozen fish. We poured our own wine and were never asked if things were ok, I think it was pretty obvious they weren't. We decided against pudding and asked for the bill, another tables bill arrived, we then asked for ours again and when it did arrive and we mentioned our experience to the waitress, she stated she didn't work there but was waiting as a favour and that they were planning to demolish the building...best news we had had all evening, absolutely appalling night and £100 bill for 2

Sorry to say our experience at Il Giardino was not something we would want to repeat. The waiting times were simply unacceptable. Our order was taken quite normally but we couldn't believe the delay - not just for the starters, but between courses. The food, when it arrived, was quite good, but even the finest food could not compete with such enormous delays. Won't be returning.

Very disappointing - my wife and I booked a table here for 8.30pm. The restaurant was relatively empty (there was one other table of 4 people) but we were kept waiting half an hour before the starters arrived. The food was very average and the portions were on the small side. After being kept another 40 minutes, the main course arrived and again was very average. Our whole dining experience was further spoiled by the very repetitive overly loud piped music.

Needless to say, we won't be returning.

Went to Il Giardino for a friend's birthday. Great food and staff were very helpful. Will definitely be returning.

Una piccola parte d’Italia a Chelsea. La costata d’agnello che ho mangiato due settimane fa é stata la più squisita che ho gustato mai. Or, in English, the best rack of lamb I’ve ever tasted in my life. Great atmosphere & service too, and the antipasti (free) are deliziosi. We'll be back soon for more.
CM