Il Mascalzone restaurant - dreadful experience
Il Malcazone – over the road from the cinema, Putney High Street. We’ve been here many a time over the years, avoiding the back with the TV screen and the very rowdy times, and had pleasant enough (and far too large) meals. Things have been going downhill over the last couple of years, pasta getting drier, inedible, old meatballs which the staff just shrugged their shoulders about when I complained, service getting slower, but we’ve stuck with it because we only visit occasionally. Should have read the most recent Google comments about the staff and especially the manager before we went yesterday for lunch – they are not flattering. We asked for chips as a starter to munch between us, and stressed NO salt. Carbonara and Hawaiian pizza ordered. Asked for extra sauce on carbonara as last one had been very, very dry. Chips arrived same time as mains, covered in salt which brought on a huge coughing fit had to call the waiter. Told him we’d ordered no salt, he straightaway picked up a cellar and tried to pour more on, another waiter had to intervene and take them away. Hawaiian good, pizzas generally are. I had the carbonara, a huge mound of almost dry spaghetti, even the fork wouldn't lie down in it. I couldn’t get down more than a small amount, too dry to swallow. Too disappointed and annoyed to complain on this occasion, just left it, and it sat on the table for 20 minutes while other half continued his pizza. When he’d left the table to go to the bathroom, the manager approached and asked, "What's the problem with the carbonara?" in a pretty aggressive tone. I explained it was dry despite my request for more sauce, and inedible. He didn't speak, just removed it. Two minutes later an embarrassed waiter brought the cold, congealed mess back to us in a takeaway box, saying the manager had told him to. We couldn’t believe it. Other half refused to pay, and demanded it be removed from the bill. We paid for the rest and were walking out when I noticed the manager. I politely challenged him about the takeaway but suddenly, after speaking perfect English for decades, he couldn't speak more than odd words. He said the takeaway was Steven’s dinner (pizza, which he’d consumed). Then he said we’d asked for it (of course we hadn’t). Then he said he’d thrown my old dinner in the bin. Then he said yes, it was the mess I’d sent back, returned to me to take home. We both told him he should be thoroughly ashamed of himself for his disrespect towards paying customers. We will never, ever go back there again. I’ve added my disgust to the Google comments about that restaurant (can’t confirm how filthy the kitchens are, as others have commented on, I haven’t seen those), but this contempt on his part was completely unforgiveable.
Jacqui Murray ● 3981d0 Comments