J Pizzeria E Cucina Italiana - Camden

We have visited here a few times over recent weeks and found the food and service to be first rate. The pizzas are authentic and really tasty, the garlic prawns very good and other dishes excellent. It is smallish but with nice decor and the service by a lovely lady originally from Poland very friendly and professional. The wine list is small but very adequate and prices quite acceptable. Cannot recommend it highly enough.

I think the summary says it all. The food and drink is very expensive for what it is. When we visited it was pretty empty, but it still took ages for our food to arrive. Luckily we were not in a hurry. But when it did arrive the food was fine. Nothing out of this world, but fine. All except the sticky toffee pudding which we didn't like too aromatic. We won't be going back as there are better options around.

Summary : From what started from us asking the awning be extended so that we do not get drenched, the owner not only refused to do so but told me to use my brain , called me an idiot, said that I don 't have a brain and then proceeded to use the F word. He then stalked us to the next restaurant we went to down the street and snatched the menu from the hands of one of the women in the group and told the waitress not to take our order. The owner is a very unstable person. While from other reviews the food is presumably good and one of the persons in our group also vouched for that from their previous experience, avoid the place if you do not want to risk spoiling your lunch or dinner. I sent this review to the restaurant and gave them more than 24 hours to let me know if something here is not according to how they remember the events but they have not responded as of writing this review. Full Version Our group ordered pizzas to go while it was quite pleasant and sunny. After 30 minutes of waiting, they said it would take another 10 minutes. By that time the weather had turned quite rainy and we asked if we could convert the order to dine in since their delay had cost us the opportunity to sit at Regent 's park and eat. The head waitress seemed to grudgingly agree and asked us to sit outside. We requested one of the waitresses to extend the awning so as not to have us get drenched. She obliged cheerfully. Then we were surprised to see the awning being pulled in again. On inquiring, the main waitress told me that there was some rod they had extended under the awing for some purpose and that it wouldn 't be able to take the weight. I asked her if she expected us to get drenched eating, especially when it was clearly their fault for delaying the 'to go ' order. I told her that that behavior was unacceptable and ridiculous and that they would get bad reviews from all of us if we were treated that way. At this point, the owner called me inside and then I had a surreal experience. First he outright lied that the awning could not go further to which I responded that one of his waitresses had put it a foot further before it was pulled back. Caught in a white lie, he proceeded to say the same thing about the rod not being able to take the weight (which it clearly was able to 5 min ago assuming the awning was even resting on it). Then he proceeded to say use your brain . I have seldom encountered such a crass and ill mannered person and definitely not in the hospitality industry. I told him that that kind of language is unacceptable and furthermore that he could rest assured that I use my brain since I am a theoretical physicist and a machine learning engineer. I further countered that it is in fact he who ought to use his brain. At this point he completely lost it and called me an idiot, said that I don 't have a brain and said something with the F word but I can 't quite remember if it was name calling or telling me to F off. Normally, one would think the story would end here since I just paid for our coffees and we left the place for another pizzeria. As luck would have it, we ended up at Pesantissimo across the street. While we were about to order, the same guy showed up and snatched the menu out of the hands of one of the women in our group and told the waitress not to take our order. This is the absolute worst restaurant and I would advise people to avoid it at all costs. There are plenty of other restaurants on the street that have great food and that do not have such an unstable and ill mannered management.

Everything was fine except the food. But when you charge £16 per pizza. £6.50 for a beer and £11 for a tiramisu— well you take the rough with the smooth. What I found dissatisfying was the Piccante pizza. Why? Because A) the chilli pepper was just 4 small slices strewn in a lopsided manner so that most of the pizza had no heat except for about 2 slices out of the 8. B) the pepperoni salami tasted strongly of pig . Now, I’ve eaten pepperoni many times on pizza and it usually tastes like it’s been matured and flavoured with garlic etc. I’ve never associated it with pigs ears, trotters or a pig pen. But this pepperoni salami was to my palate quite foul. So that meant eating around the pepperoni which renders the experience just cheese, crust, tomato. C) far too much cheese and too few tomato purée. D) thin base but soggy in the centre Positives: crispy crust, courteous staff, cute restaurant, ice cold moretti served in a frosted glass: best part of the meal. I paid £42.50 for me and my friend —not including the tip I left for the great service. I would have had a tiramisu as I hoped they couldn’t stuff that up but at £11 It really wasn’t worth the while. I went home and made fish fingers and some toast.

A nice place, but the food could be so much better, it was just about average at best and looked much better than it tasted. One thing I couldn't fault was the service, we had a youngish Polish girl (can't remember her name) who was absolutely outstanding, and very attentive.