I am from Naples and I think this is the only place in London where it seems to be in Naples. Really authentic food (pizza is made with water from Naples, I can sense the difference!). Great food at affordable price!

Has this place gone down hill since the glowing reviews by the Guardian and Time Out etc which persuaded me there? Based on these reviews and the marketing on the website, we were expecting an upmarket-pizza-chain type experience in the manner of the excellent Zizzi's, no such luck. What you get is a more expensive version of Pizza Express without anything to justify the extra cost.

On the good side: nice pizza dough on my 'Fru Fru'(three seasons) £13.95 costing and a decent quality of topping, polite staff, nice envirnoment with posh pizza oven and wine bottles in the window.

Now to the rest. 6pm on Thursday, the waiter says they have run out of Parma ham which seems a bit of a joke, will it be the Mozzarella next. Drinks order is missing one water, and the 'freshly squeezed apple juice' £2.50 does not taste freshly squeezed it tastes like cloudy from concentrate. Had some olives to start £3.30 which came with some kind of tooth-breaking big ciabatta croutons or something on the side, this was okay but nothing to write home about. Two pizzas (mine with the absent Parma ham don't know where they found that) arrived when one of us had ordered a calzone (£10.95). The replacement turned up promptly my husband thought it was the wrong one, but ate it anyway. Not surprising there were mistakes, the waiter did not write anything down and it is quite hard to communicate with the Italian (I assume) staff.'Insalatuccia'(basically a side salad at £3.95) is uninspiring...grated carrot? Cheap ingredient I suppose.

Don't bother with dessert, can't wait to leave.

Also - I booked online and did not receive an email acknowledgement, yet I did check in my spam. I had to phone up to confirm and the person who answered confirmed my booking (so it worked) but was not interested in passing on the booking problem. So watch for this if you book online.

No toilet paper in the gents either, my husband in informs me. Rubbish!

menu projects true italian cuisine. my partner and i frequently have lunch and dinner here in which we always recieve a true diamond service.

Really lovely staff, food is delicious and the portion sizes just right. great vibe would thoroughly recommend!

Been to Rossopomodoro quite a few times and the last two have been extremely disappointing.

This used to be - emphasis on the used to be! - a cosy, warm and friendly place with great waiting staff and fantastic pizzas.

Oh how things have changes. The last two times we have been the service has been terrible to the point that I will never return.

Last night being served by 4 different people, order taken wrong, when asked/ commented that the order was wrong got a simple shrug of the shoulders and the waiter minced off. Slow, slow service... food was actually cooling when it reached our table. Ordered drinks that did not arrive.

Previous time the staff were to busy bitching about customers in Italian to actually pay attention to people asking for help. Far too much attitude!

As for the food; what used to be a pretty decent pizza has gone to a tasteless topping, mostly dough, ridiculously thin and extremely sloppy pie.

I used to recommend this place to all of my friends - never again!

(gave a 1 star as there is no option for no stars!)

Been to Rossopomodoro quite a few times and the last two have been extremely disappointing.

This used to be - emphasis on the used to be! - a cosy, warm and friendly place with great waiting staff and fantastic pizzas.

Oh how things have changes. The last two times we have been the service has been terrible to the point that I will never return.

Last night being served by 4 different people, order taken wrong, when asked/ commented that the order was wrong got a simple shrug of the shoulders and the waiter minced off. Slow, slow service... food was actually cooling when it reached our table. Ordered drinks that did not arrive.

Previous time the staff were to busy bitching about customers in Italian to actually pay attention to people asking for help. Far too much attitude!

As for the food; what used to be a pretty decent pizza has gone to a tasteless topping, mostly dough, ridiculously thin and extremely sloppy pie.

I used to recommend this place to all of my friends - never again!

(gave a 1 star as there is no option for no stars!)

thinking to go there? STOP!I USE TO GO THERE QUITE OFTEN BECAUSE IT WAS REALLY GOOD QUALITY DISHES AND THE PIZZA WAS ALSO GOOD TOO.I come from Naples so I know the food. UNFORTUNATELY LAST WEEK was a DISASTER. I brought some friends because I thought it was still the same as before but it wasn't. My friend was not happy with his plate of spaghetti because there was too much oil and we called waiter. He went to the chef and came back with two options: option one he said " we can drain the oil out from your plate or we can wash the spaghetti under the water and make the tomato sauce again with the same spaghetti....I was really disappointed even the pizza was nothing to compare with the one in my city Naples,also at the end they even charged me the plate 12 £ or more.I use to send a lot of tourist there but now I can't , I heard that now the company is not the same and I saw the difference straight away. Guys go back to the menu if you want last longer.Sorry never again

Service here was fantastic, however, the food was so bad its unforgiveable. we went here for dinner as it looked like a nice traditional italian restaurant. for starters we had bruschetta and calamari. The bruschetta was ok but then again how can you get that wrong, the calamari was chewy and greasy and it came with courgettes which were tasteless.

The real downfall was the mains, i had lamb, and my partner had sword fish. both dishes were disgusting. the lamb was horrible as was the sides. the sword fish was accompanied by endives and capers which tasted like chewy rubbish.

The waitress was superb and the staff very friendly with a nice atmosphere but shame the food was absolutely dire.

Steak dient Taste like ansehung, Pizza has Top much dough, Service is slow

Delightful place - flavours are very tasty, service exceptional - friendly w/out being obtrusive - the mgr ran after us to give me my coat!

The pizza is good, but the rest of the menu comes in ridiculously small portions at high prices. Plus the staff tries to be so excessively friendly that they trespass the limit of impudence. The service charge is supposed to be optional, but they add it to the bill without asking, and then we have been mocked by the waiter for not having left any further tip. Moreover, the waiter offered an extra liquor to only one of the girls at our table, without considering if it was welcome by her and with disrespect to the rest of the people at the table.

When somebody told me I could have eaten genuine "napoletano" food in London, I did not believe in it. Yesterday with my girlfriend we went to Rossopomodoro in Covent Garden: the Staff from Napoli are really friendly, warm and easy, just as we all from Napoli are. The wine list is essential, with a selection of wines you can really just find in Napoli. The food and the pizza: I still cannot believe it was exactly the same as if I was eating in Napoli, everything was so real: the smells, the coffee, limoncello, the cakes, the water. I would definitely recommend it to everyone, together with my girlfriend, and from now onwards I will only go there, as it rejuvenated my soul feeling so home :-)i would give them 6 stars or even more if there was the option on here. 10 e lode! Bravissimi! Guglielmo and Szilvia

I found the food hugely disappointing. The salads were bitter and uninteresting and my friend had huge lumps of ungrated Parmesan in her cheese sauce. All the sauces were heavy and not well cooked. Saying that, the service is very good, shame about the food.

This is the worst restaurant ever, honestly. We went there yesterday and I am still appalled by their food and service. Awful.

First it took them 30 minutes to bring a glass of wine and a coke, and the bar was 10 metres away from our table. Then, the brought the starters which were cold, and they got quite rude when we complained about it. It was calamari, so what they did was take them back and put them in the microwave for 30 seconds, and obviously when we tried to eat them again, it felt like pure chewing gum. Disgusting.

Also, it took them 2 and a half hours to bring us the main course. The people in the table next to us even left without paying for their drinks because they had been waiting for an hour just for the starters.

The salads were quite awful and the pizzas had 1/4 toppings and the rest was pure chewy dough. Also disgusting.

Because it was a birthday we brought our own cake, so they have us some plates to eat them.

So when we said that we did not want to pay for the service charge because it had been horrible, they complained about it! Seeing is believing, apparently bringing out 10 dessert plates makes up for a dinner that took us about 4 hours! They were quite agressive and they seemed offended about the fact that we didn't want to pay for the service charge.

As I said, they should be grateful that we even paid for those "things" they served us that they dare to call food.

Awful. I'd rather have gone to McDonald's (and I hate it).

Reading multiple reviews by the same user makes me wonder whether they are genuine or whether the owner is advertising his restaurant!

what amazing dinner yesterday night at Rossopomodoro restaurant!!
It was the best experience that I ever had here in London!!

I had my best Easter dinner in Rossopomodoro last night. The real Italian pizza and a special pasta with king prawns. Amazing!

thank you guys....I spent a great night yesterday...you are the best Italian restaurant in London!!

I spent an amazing night last Friday at Rossopomodoro restaurant. Everything was perfect!

great pasta, great pizza and great service!!

I recommend Rossopomodoro restaurant in Covent Garden. Everything, pizza, pasta and the service, is amazing!

Rosso Pomodoro is a place where you can eat true Italian pizzas, all cooked to order. I recommend this place to those who like Italian food.

I'm one of the 5000 people who used to enjoy their time at this restaurant....I love it: the atmosphere is friendly and the food tasteful....
Franco

Rossopomodoro Covent Garden must die! We had lunch there today and it was the most disgusting, horrible and unpleasant eating out experience for ages! Bruschetta as a starter was tastless and uneatable, then we've been waiting for half an hour for our pasta to arrive! And, finally, after few reminders to the staff members, who promised that our pasta will be delivered in one minute, which turned out to be another 10 minutes (do they have different time measurement in Italy?), and when it finally arrived. It was cold, tasteless and uneatable. They were so cynical to approach us and ask if our meal is O'k, I replied "no, it's not O'k, your bloody pasta and meat balls are cold, hello!"guys, don't waste your time and money, please please please ignoge this shit hole in covent garden and let it die, they deserve it!

Congratulations for the best pizzaiolo in town... and beyond..., Michele Pagano! His pizza is by far the best in London!
Also, the friendliness of Luana and Serena make the whole 'rossopomodoro' experience a must in the London dining scene...!
Keep it up, guys!
Raffaele
:)

Very disappointing!
I had dinner with some friends (group of 9) at Rossopomodoro Convent Garden last night. When we entered the restaurant, we noticed a very strong latrine stench accompanied with lots of lemon air freshener. I've never experienced such a terrible smell in the restaurant. The waitress told us that the lemon smell is coming out of the kitchen and she pretended that the can't smell anything else. But the really bad thing was that the very same waitress didn't wash her hands after using the toilet, even though my friend was standing at the sink watching her leave. I've sent an email to the restaurant to complain but the answer (from a Mario) wasn't very promising. He is sorry and will look into it but he didn't even mention the lack of hygiene from his staff. Overall a very bad experience and none of us will come back. It's a shame because the branch in Fulham is brilliant. Please avoid the restaurant in Covent Garden, visit the Fulham one instead.

This was the best pizza I ever had here in London!
The restaurant was very full but the service was brilliant and fast and very fresh and tasty food! I'll come back again! Thank you very much!
Angie

Although the deco is brilliant everything else about Rossopomodoro Covent Garden sucks. I went there with three Italians as one of them recommended the place. Actually they thought it would be the same as the famous chain in Italy, but it was very far from eat. We had wait ages for someone to come to the table and they weren't very interested in advising us what to choose. And what's probably the best, they were cheating with cheese on our pizza!

I would never know myself, but one of the Italians recognised that something was wrong and we called the manager, who decided to replace all our pizzas! They were still trying to charge us tips automatically, but there was no way we would pay for hours of waiting and a wrong cheese on our traditional, old fashioned Italian pizza. Never go there again!

I had lunch here with some friends last Saturday. The restaurant was full so we took seats on the first floor. Great atmosphere, delicious pasta, amazing and rich pizzas and very kind staff. Thank you very much.

great Italian food, real Italian atmosphere, excellent service from the staff. So it was just a lovely experience. Thanks to all of you and to Martina in particular.

Very disappointing. Rude service, we were a large group but were prevented from ordering anything for at least half an hour after we arrived because it would apparently cause chaos if we didn't order as a group when everyone was seated. Food was poor quality and over priced for what it was. Too noisy and overall a bad experience, comparable to a pizza hut.

Very disappointing. Rude service, we were a large group but were prevented from ordering anything for at least half an hour after we arrived because it would apparently cause chaos if we didn't order as a group when everyone was seated. Food was poor quality and over priced for what it was. Too noisy and overall a bad experience, comparable to a pizza hut.

Very good Rossopomodoro at Covent Garden I ate there many times.

I found the real italian way of cooking! I liked pasta! The waitresses were very good, but I was always served by Martina!

I went to this restaurant few days ago and I spent a really fantastic night. The welcome was very kind, food was delicious.

I found the most authentic italian restaurant where I have never eaten. Both manager were welcoming and the staff was really friendly.

I was served by a very kind and brilliant waitress, Martina, who helped me suggesting the best food.

So, this was a great experience and Rossopomodoro restaurant is my recommendation to spend a lovely time.

Unfortunately I read the View London review as we came upon this restaurant yesterday.

Always a gamble trying somewhere in the West End without recommendation but after a check on my phone saw the 4 stars and thought great.

Sadly our experience is almost word for word of the last review in May. The service was appalling, the attitude of the waiter was the most appalling I have experienced in 4 years in London and that says a lot, the girl tried but still fell short.

So if the food had been good perhaps I would have overlooked and not bothered with a review but if an Italian restaurant can't even cook pasta 'al dente' they may as well give up - 3 separate dishes 3 plates of undercooked hard pasta...

Luckily wine and beer were from a bottle and produced elsewhere. Final insult to injury was the automatic 12.5% tip, admittedly we should have refused but couldn't deal with a scene and just left.

Worst service, terrible food, would never go back and never recommend - DO NOT EAT HERE

I never complain about restaurants normally but I just had to this time!

It was one of the worst lunches I have ever had.Poor service, bad attitude and awful food. WARNING!!! If you ask for a lunch special the only thing 'special' about it is the amount you get.

The bowls of pasta were served in child size portions with adult sized prices. The rest of the food was no better and some of it was inedible.

Our waiter was surly and he looked like he just didn't care. He spent most of his time outside smoking and the rest of the time avoiding our table even though there weren't very many other diners.

I'm not surprised the place was half empty at 1pm in a busy area - their customers have obviously voted with their feet.

Its a real shame, as this place is well decorated and in a good location, but I will never go back there again and I strongly recommend that you avoid it as there are lots of other places to eat that are much better value for money in such a popular location.

Do not go here ever.The booking time for the lunch was wrong, although as there was NO-ONE in there it made little difference.

The waiter did not tell us about the lunch specials and they are not presented on a menu so you have to guess (or if you are lucky they might tell you).

After asking for the lunch specials the waiter talk us through the items on the main menu that were included.

In essence only the basics are included in the lunch menu. I can hear you thinking that sounds good I like a margarita pizza now and again. Don't be fooled.

The food (bearing in mind the restaurant was empty, and we only ordered pasta pizza and a very small chicken dish) took over 30 mins to arrive and the quality was poor.

The pasta lunch special would not fill my 4 year old nephew up, it was so small we thought it was a joke.

The sausage on the pizza contained more fat and gristle than meat, the cheese was not cooked and the food tasted bland.

The chicken dish is actually a butterfly chicken breast (very small) with a sauce and some salad leaves. All of this cost 6.99/7.99.

The only positive from the meal were the 50% discount we got off the bill because we complained.

This review has a 1 star rating only because 0 stars is not an option. There are a couple of places that far exceed this.

There is an Italian on Old Compton Street opposite Eds diner if you fancy Italian or Belgos do an express lunch which is fast, filling and tasty.

In fact go anywhere apart from here.Other points to note the waiter popped out for a cigarette during his busy lunch service even though the place had only been open for 30 mins.

We know this because he stood by the window smoking. The manager wanders around with chest hair spouting out of his shirt for all to see and there are 2/3 waiters who wander around aimlessly.

I cannot believe in these times that

Awesome!I've been there with my girlfriend last thursday and I really enjoyed it.Finally a real Italian restaurant.

Everything look italian, from the food to wines and staff as well! There's nothing more authentic than Rossopomodoro.

If you're looking for the real Neapolitan Pizza, forget everything else.The service is warm and kind, the atmosphere is genuine and warm.

My girlfriend had linguine with fresh lobster which was the special main of the day.

I asked for a pizza and we've been served very fast, as we asked for a quick dinner as we were going to the theatre.

A very good experience that we'll try to repeat weekly now!

Brian Capodimonte

NO STARS!!We came for a friend's birthday last Saturday which had been organised well in advance at the restaurant. The whole experience was a let down from the get go. The service was slow and the staff unpleasant and unattentive.

We had to ask for cutlery at least twice as some place settings had none. The food came sporadically and was not given to the person who ordered it (which would have been expected as the waitress took the order by seating arrangement).

The pastas looked plastic and inedible, the pizzas were salty and swimming in grease. There were also discrepancies in the sizing of the pizzas. No one finished their meal and tellingly almost no one ordered dessert. A complete let down from start to finish. I tell everyone to give this chain restaurant a wide berth!

Without doubt the worst dining experience i have ever had!!Table of 4 each of us were disappointed and 3 of us were later ill. If you are looking for pizza it may be worth a shot however the calzone was not the "experience" promised. I ordered cod which i assumed would be fresh as after being to naples know that italians would not eat frozen fish! However the cod was dry and tough. (How cod can be tough no matter how frozen is beyond me) The piss poor £20 bottle of wine had been corked too. When it came to complaining we were met with rudeness and hostility until we asked him to try the wine and the fish where he accepted they were not good enough and removed them from the bill. However no apology was offered. The manager was so rude in fact other diners left the restaurant. My advice would be never go to this place and hopefully it will be replaced with something a little more authentic!