La Forchetta
73 Upper Street,
N1 0NY

Actual price per head: £38

Nearest tube: Angel (Northern Line).

Remarks

Overall disappointing. Some sections of our seating area only had room for a very thin person to sit down; I don’t know why because they had so few other customers they could easily have made more room for us by moving the long table out from the wall by a couple of feet which would have made things better for all of those jammed up against the wall. We were all seated by twenty to eight but the starters did not arrive on table until almost half past.

Luckily we were not in the downstairs section which is a bit airless.

Portions sizes were good. The Antipasto Misto was very good value, the mozzarella was creamy and surprisingly tasty. The presentation of the prawn cocktail thing was so dated that you might call it retro. After the starters was another huge wait before the main courses arrived. Again portion sizes were remarked upon. Sadly a lot was not eaten because the quality did not match the quantity.

The music was too loud but they turned it down when asked.

The wine, at £13.95 a bottle, was drinkable; the white a little on the sweet side. The bill as presented to me was just under £670 so we paid £38 each. It was as I was checking how many bottles of wine we’d drunk that I remembered that we should not have been paying for a fully itemised bill but instead for a TopTable arranged package with a fixed price for three courses including half a bottle of wine each. At that point I queried the bill and was told that as only about half of us had pudding they thought itemised billing would give us a cheaper overall total than all paying for three courses. We then went through a painful process of counting and re-counting and re-counting, juggling how much wine was drunk as part of the package (9 bottles – doh!) and the rest and the coffees and the service charge though not all of the items in every count which is why the numbers kept changing. Eventually we settled on a figure, by which time almost all eighteen diners had gone, and that means I owe them all some money. To keep things complicated the restaurant staff had also lost one of the credit card receipts from one of our diners which meant they thought I was trying to leave underpaying by £38. Although this eventually got sorted I didn’t need the hassle at the end of the evening and I can’t see myself returning to La Forchetta.

Sad to note that the Edward IV pub has closed down. Less sad to note The Green has closed down too. Are there any gay bars left in Islington?

Attendees

Ali H., Colin B., Colin I., David Y., Fred D., Gary T., Gilles C., Guy W., Ian S., James C., John H., Lobo C., Mark T., Martin T., Paul R., Ricardo B., Roger T., Steven V.