Lorenzo’s La Pergola

Wow, this was unbelievably bad! Services is terrible — we had to get our own menus, everything was thrown on the table and the staff were completely disinterested. And thus was at 23:00 with two other tables in action. But the worst part is the pizzas — only one word, inedible. Pizza Hut would be ten times better. Don’t go there…

Awful. Worst Italian food I’ve had in a decade.
Salad was made only with iceberg lettuce. Uninspired.
Spaghetti bolognese was bland and burned.
Pizza tastes like cheese because the tomato sauce was bland.
Garlic bread was covered FAR too much fresh garlic and had too much olive oil.
The tap water was fine and the house red wine was drinkable, but uninspired.

Ugh. So I’m visiting London with friends and the 16yo niece wants pizza. Never mind the amazing array of cuisines available in London, she wants pizza [and I want her to stop complaining.] Fortunately for us, there is La Pergola across the street from the flat we are renting! How fortunate! Hey kid, what do you want on your pizza? Onions and peppers!
How hard can this be?
I walk into the store and I see the «No Take Away» sign on the wall. Doh! The very nice woman behind the counter asks ‘table for one?’ and I shrug my shoulders and say — never mind, I was going to get a pizza take away. To which she replies, ‘No take away, just pizza.’ It doesn’t take long to realize she doesn’t speak English and I know about 5 words in Italian — none of which are pizza related. After a little back and forth I order a pizza with undisclosed mixed vegetables. There is some nodding when I ask about onions and peppers. I couldn’t tell if the nodding was «yes — there are onions and peppers on this» or «I’m just going to keep nodding until you get the hell out of my restaurant». Another waiter came out from the back — who also spoke no English. So this is a bit comical but I’m up for a little adventure in cuisine.
The problem was not the service or the interaction. The problem was the pizza was bad. Really bad. [To their credit, the mixed vegetables did include onions and peppers.] At first I thought it was just the kid complaining that it wasn’t Americanized enough. She said it was possibly the worst pizza she has ever had. A little later I tried some… and it was pretty bad. I would hope the other menu items are better, but beware the pizza!

Effectivement, les prix affichés font rentrer le client dans ce resto… Par contre, n’y prenez pas de viandes. J’ai eu la mauvaise idée de commander une escalope milanaise. On m’a servi une espèce de chose grasse et sans goût avec quelques frites !!! Si vous voulez vraiment y dîner (moi je n’y remettrai plus les pieds) restez sur du classique. Prenez une pizza ou des pâtes.
Autre originalité: si vous trouvez des petits verres à eau sur votre table en arrivant, on vous sert votre bière en bouteille, mais sans verre à bière ! Etrange au pays des pintes…