Al Duca

The décor of this restaurant is a bit jarringly bright and modern, without the typical comforting look that so many Italian restaurants have, but don’t let that put you off… the food is purely traditional Italian. My favorite pasta was the Red chili tagliolini with crab, rocket, chili, white wine and garlic. Wow, it was yummy. Service is good, with lots of servers taking turns attending to the tables, and prices were reasonable, especially considering it’s in a fairly touristy neighborhood. Worth a stop if you are in the area and like traditional Italian food.

Rude staff. Subpar food. Corked wine. Can’t recommend this restaurant. Not very accommodating.

My friend picked this restaurant, because an Italian friend of his said it is authentic. I was quite looking forward to discovering a hidden gem in a part of town that i don’t normally go. Boy, was I disappointed.
The restaurant itself is very plainly decorated and quite boring looking to be honest. I am not looking for flashing design, but just a bit character. So I tell myself to focus on the important stuff: The food. Unfortunately, the food matched the look of the restaurant. I had the beef carpaccio to begin and it was good. But the pasta dish I had was bad. As a crab lover, I ordered tagliolini with crab, white wine and chili. The dish was over seasoned, because I could taste little other than salt and butter. It was so greasy I barely fished half of it. After that dish, I was not about to try my luck on the dessert menu.

Good classic Italian restaurant. Service a bit indifferent, but food good. Had the grilled calamari appetizer and the halibut, both very good, perfectly prepared.

Visited this restaurant last week with my family…
The Good:
* Accommodated a 6 people with very short notice.
* Food is good and beautifully presented. I had the Seabass which was small in size but tasty. My husband had chicken which was the best looking of all our dishes.
* Bread basket is phenomenal. I could have eaten the entire thing.
The Okay:
* Some dishes are too rich… for example, my daughter’s truffled pasta was dripping in butter/​oil. It wasn’t very good.
* Service was a bit strange… my husband’s soup was placed in front of him and he literally had his spoon in it, when the waiter snatched it away with no explanation. When he came back he muttered something about a missing garnish. So confused.
The Bottom Line:
Food is good but not extraordinary. Service is adequate but a odd. Not sure I’d return here when there are so many other Italian restaurants in London.

The décor is nothing to write home about, however I found the service friendly and the food quite good.

The perfect storm of awful. One of the worst meals I’ve ever had.
Dinner is prix fixe and you can choose the number of courses you’d like to have. We both chose three courses, splitting the opener and dessert. Things started nicely with the fresh mozzarella app. But, went quickly downhill from there. After putting away our starter, we must have sat around for an hour wondering just what was going on. Pours of our wine continued with no mention of what was up. While we grew increasingly hungry and impatient, we watched both tables next to us finish two more courses each. We flagged down the hostess, who seemed to be running the show, and enquired about the delay. Only then were we told that the chef was not pleased with one of our pastas and was redoing them. I shudder to think of what he kept in the kitchen, because what we got was not good. My pasta was not even cooked through and swimming in a puddle of greasy ragu, and my wife’s pasta had little crabmeat in it at all. I think our hostess could sense our frustration when she presented us with the pastas and told us that she would cancel our main courses. Thankfully the only thing that went right all evening. We finished with a creamy and odd tiramisu that was dreadful and slipped off into the London evening still very hungry.
After a long flight across the Atlantic I was looking forward to a good meal. You are not going to find it here. Save yourself the frustration and money. It made Olive Garden look like five star dining.

A very good traditional italian restaurant. Especially good for pre-​theatre, and reasonably priced, especially if you choose a fixed menu. Sophisticated atmosphere, yet also quite romantic.

A good alternative in an area where it is hard to eat welll for a decent price. Al Duca serves a traditional Italian menu with a good mix of antipasti, primi (starters) and secondi (main courses). I had the spaghetti with crab which was very copious and ok (could have been less pasta and tastier) followed by the tagliatta (beef cut in small slices) with spinach and potatoes. The meat was really excellent and served with rocket salad perfectly dressed with real balsamico. The chianti was good too and the service ok. The deco is less than average as it’s pretty basic but their menu (£25 for 2 courses and £27 for 3) is good value for money and quite varied. But by the end of the evening, adding our good chianti in, we ended up paying £60 per head which felt expensive. A good place for pre-​theatre or lunch if you go for their fixed menus.
NB: Note that they got a bad reputation in teh past 2 years as the chef has left, Michele is now back and sat at our table telling us about his food etc. That was quite fun and felt a bit like being in Italy where these things happen all the time. Try it and report back!