Lena

After reading some of the reviews below I am wondering if I have been to the same place because by experience was great. Food was all tip top (homemade pasta was the best I have ever had), service was friendly and attentive and the final bill was more than reasonable especially considering you can sit and listen to live jazz downstairs for nothing! I couldn't have wanted for more.

There are mixed reviews on here for Lena, so it's always hard to tell and I guess everyone has their own opinion, but I thought it was really rather nice and very good value. The decor is stunning and it looks as if it's going to be expensive, but the prices are quite reasonable. The burrata was delicious, as was my partners mussels, and the homemade bread is quite irresistable. For our main course, the venison and polenta was delicious and nice to have something different. The chicken, although simple was really tasty and fresh. We didn't have room for pudding unfortunately...so I will be visiting again to try that and a few of the rather delicious looking pastas. I think the verdict on this one has to be try it for yourself...the ambience is lovely and it's a nice spot in that area.

Boring and pretty expensive food, rude staff and noisy environment. Definitely not coming back.

So........Been here a few times now and always superb

So... Two enthusiastic ladies from Lena approached us at our office block one working day a few weeks back... As charming as they were they encouraged us to re-visit Lena (since we had been previously disappointed by waiting times)... We were told Lena now had fanstastic attentive waiting staff and the new food menu was to die for!

Well, they were right... the food WAS to die for! Compliments to the Chef!

However, the standard of waiting staff has NOT changed!

We waited just over half an hour between starter and main course with no contact from the waiter explaining the hold up. We had to chase our mains.

This is a big shame in what could be a fab restaurant!

Like I say, the food was delicious, the service is such a let down.

Bit of a mixed experience at Lena last night, we waited quite a while (about 20 mins) for the starter to turn up, mine was a fantastic starter really nice mussels in a tomato sauce, whereas my boyfriends squid was merely ok. The main course took an age to come, at least another 30-40 mins after the starter was cleared away, but as we were having a romantic meal and weren't exactly clock watching and I didn't really want to ruin the vibe by complaining. When they finally did turn up they were a bit disappointing, my pork belly was not great but not bad, however the canellini beans served with it were so salty I couldn't finish them which is unheard of for me! My boyfriends fish was also over seasoned but he said it was quite nice.

The waiting staff were really nice though and the wine was good, served at exactly the right temperature, although there was a little too much topping up done for my liking and you do get the impression that they want you to order 2 bottles.

If it wasn't for the mussels I would have only given them 2 stars. We won't be going back.

I am not a regular reviewer of restaurants, but then again I can't remember having such a disappointing meal in a long while.

I was taken out for my birthday and whilst the company of my friend was wonderful, the food was dreadful and the service lack lustre.

Our starter was the 'Lena salad' - the ingredients of which were listed as white chicory, watercress leaves, walnuts, pistachio pecorino, radicchio & pears. It arrived after a 20 minute wait. It was simply a large pile of radicchio that was so bitter that it was inedible, with a couple of pear slices and 3 wilted chicory leaves. I had to hunt around for any sign of the walnuts and pecorino. And there was certainly no sign of any watercress leaves at all. When I complained to the waitress she said "oh dear, it can be bitter can't it?" and simply cleared our plates.

For our main courses we ordered the Tagliolini with Taleggio cheese, white truffle oil & black truffle shavings and the Spaghetti with Welsh lamb ragu. These had still not arrived after nearly half an hour so we asked the waitress where they were. She said she would find out but she never returned to our table to give us an update. 10 minutes later the main courses arrived. The portions were disappointingly small and the sauces over seasoned. We had to ask one of the waiters for parmesan cheese as none was offered to us.

The wine was delicious and ice cold, however, the waiter and waitress were only ever attentive when they rushed to fill up our glasses. To the point that we had to ask them to stop. This is clearly a restaurant where they try to get you to order several bottles of wine through a combination of topping up your glass until the bottle is empty and by taking so long to serve each course.

After the poor standard of the first 2 courses, we decided to forego desserts and coffees at Lena's. Instead, we went to Carluccio's in Spitalfield's Market where we were served melt in the mouth pastries, coffees and ice cold limoncellos with a smile and real warmth by the adorable waitress.

My advice to anyone considering going to Lena's is.....DON'T! Avoid it at all costs and spend your hard earned cash somewhere far more deserving!

I don't normally write reviews of restaurants but our dinner at Lena's was really, really bad.

The staff left us waiting for a long time after taking our order before serving our food. The food was ok in my opinion but all 3 other guests in my group disagreed and were not happy at all.

What really annoys me the most was the male waiter wearing pink nailpolish. Very rude and he had no manners whatsoever. Other staff in the restaurant were exactly the same.
We had a deal through Groupon and nowhere was it mentioned that on top of the ridiculously expensive prices we still had to pay a service charge which was ridiculous. When we asked them to take it off the bill the waiter got even more rude. In the end we gave him the money (not me since I would not have given anything but would have instead walked out!) He still had the cheek to say he didn't care if you come back or not since he didn't care.

I could go on and on but to put it simply absolutely awful place avoid at all costs. They will be bankrupt soon with this kind of behaviour for sure!

Visited Lena recently and will not be going back -took 45 minutes for starters - mussels served up in dishwater and an absolute age to get mains - un cooked chicken. Give this place a wide berth trying to punch miles above its weight !

Went to Lena last night for dinner, very busy! there is a new summer menu the prices are very resonable, the quality is superb fresh tasty authentic Italian food, a great selection of Italian wines from only £16.00!! excellent decor and ambiance perfect service, I think in this day and age a £1.00 cover charge is nothing for homemade Focaccia with olive oil, in most restaurants you pay at least £3.50 so we were happy, and will go back over the weekend to get the live Jazz with dinner, highly recommended, the service charge is discretionary, but well worth paying.

After a stroll through Shoreditch we decided upon Lena but to our massive disappointment both the food and the service were lousy. It took a whopping hour and 20 minutes for our food to be delivered, which to our incredible dismay was the poorest representation of Italian food that I have yet to come across in the US or the UK (major 'microwave' chains included). The food was bland to say the least and the service charge was compulsory not to mention the £1 cover charge per person. I'm not often compelled to go straight to the internet after a meal and complain however I advise you to save your time and money, do not waste your dining experience at Lena.

Recently visited this restaurant to severe disappointment. We have never encountered such shoddy service. Upon arrival, they did not take our coats or wet umbrellas (it was pouring outside and they had a coat-rack), and we were told that our table (booked for half nine) was not ready yet. We were instructed to wait in the bar downstairs and were subjected to some 'jazzy' entertainment. We ordered the £25 bottle of wine, which tasted just like a cheap house white. We waited for around an hour in the bar, continually returning upstairs to the reception area to check if the table was ready. They constantly told us to wait 5 more minutes, and it was not until we were slightly irate that they seated us in the bar area (not intended for restaurant dining). Additionally, they tried to feign that our table was 'ready' downstairs in the bar, when clearly it was not supposed for dining and was not even set with cutlery, napkins or glassware.

Finally seated, we were haphazardly attended to by several members of staff, including the bar-man. Strangely, a waitress came over to our table to ask if we were ready to order - when we replied 'yes' (we were starving by this point) she said that she had to 'get someone else to take our order'.

We were presented with the wine list again, and confirmed our suspicions that the wine that we had been served was in fact the house white (at £16 a bottle). By this point it was almost too late for us to enjoy the additional tastier wine.

We still had wait a fairly long additional amount of time in order to have our orders taken due to disorganisation of staff. Although the food did arrive promptly and was quite tasty, the experience was overwhelmingly marred by the evident lack of care and organisation on the part of the staff and management. If we hadn't ordered the wine whilst we were waiting (a supposed '5 minute wait'), we would have left long before.

To add insult to injury, a member of staff felt the need to shout 'konichiwa' at us, on his way into the kitchen (we are Chinese, not Japanese), which we felt was a completely unwelcome piece of racial stereotyping, entirely inappropriate, not to mention in the context of a restaurant.

We had booked through toptable but we had to remind them of the 50% discount; they did not offer discount other than we did not have to pay for the rubbish mistakenly-served first bottle of wine, and they smacked on the service charge without choice. Stupidly, we paid without making more of a fuss in response to the way in which we were treated.

All in all, we definitely will not return, and definitely will not recommend to any of our friends. Would not recommend for full-price dining - attempts to be something much greater and stylish than it is without the goods to back it up.

Since when did service charge become 'compulsory'? And what on earth is a '£1 cover charge per person'?

It's not often you find a reasturant with so chic and stylish with a menu that you can understand! The food is simply the best of Italy; everyone's favourites. There's nothing worse than visiting a posh restaurant and not knowing what you've ordered!! This Italian is simply, stylish and affordable! Perfect!

A fancy restaurant with affordable prices!

The food is fantastic; you have a choice from the typical Italian food and the more adventurous dishes and hte portions are really generous!

The staff are really friendly, I have never not enjoyed myself!