My Review

5 out of 10 stars
I've been going to Da Paolo for years now, with the whole family and also on more intimate evenings - and until last night had always eaten outside on the pavement. It's usually relaxed, friendly, and with amazingly inventive specials...

...but last night we were ushered downstairs to the 'private dining room' as it was cold outside and all the tables upstairs were reserved.

This basement is a cramped brightly lit room with a closed bar and a path to the toilets (which are very clean for London!). If you don't have the whole room to yourself, I would suggest just turning around and going round the corner to Pizza Express, because we were not told/sold the specials, and had the surliest waiter ever that at one point told us to order everything wanted so he wouldn't have to go up and down the stairs again!!!

I will now only ever go back if I'm eating upstairs outside as usual - as I find this place a bit expensive, it's definitely not worth it for the lower class treatment received in the basement.