Sardo Canale

We went here yesterday for my birthday and it was meant to be a special treat but unfortunately it didn't live up to our expectations. We ended up paying 42 pounds a head and it wasn't particularly enjoyable. We had to ask twice for our drinks, and that was just the water. My husband's Spaghetti alla bottarga was served lukewarm and the pasta was completely undercooked, not al dente but just plain hard. For mains we had Lamb shank in Parma ham with vanilla mashed potatoes and broccoli (the vanilla didn't go at all). As soon as it arrived I was disappointed. The presentation was unappettising, as if it had come from a canteen, the sauce looked curdled. The meat was way too salty and the texture was simply mush, it could have been any meat, and we love lamb! My friend had ordered a different lamb dish from the set menu but received the same as us anyway. We accepted it so we could all eat together. We had panna cotta for dessert which was way too gelatinous, more like a cream jelly than the classic dessert and again the presentation of the caramel sauce was not pleasant too look at, nor was it very tasty. My sister-in-law enjoyed her linguine with fresh crab meat but was sorely disappointed by a very dry and tasteless dessert made of ricotta in pastry. Another friend of ours had stuffed baby squid and a fillet of halibut both of which he enjoyed. We had dry rose wine to accompany the food which as also very nice. No special attention was given to the circumstance that this was a birthday lunch nor that we had child sitting at our table. All in all we wished we had gone to The Engineer across the road. Much tastier and much better atmosphere. We will not be back, sorry to say.