NOT: Bertorelli, 44a Floral Street, Covent Garden WC2E 9DA

This restaurant, part of the usually great Chez Gerard chain, was so bad it was almost (not quite) comical. The hapless Eastern European waitstaff did their best, but (1) we were seated awkwardly in the corridor behind a pillar by the bar; (2) the staff didn't know that they had a pre-theatre menu - I had to remind them; (3) the £1.95 cover charge included some tasteless manna - don't know any Italians that serve that; (4) they needed three goes to get our order, and then only the third time did they tell us that the highlighted special truffle ravioli was no longer available - at 630pm (5) we waited, waited and waited for our second course of the pre-theatre menu, until I was seriously considering cutting our losses and heading to a felafel joint. We were again waiting for our bill when the food finally did come, so we decided to eat it given it was already 7:10pm; (6) the awful food was an embarrassment to Italians - a big bowl of sloppy pasta with practically nothing in it, oversweet tomato sauce, poor ingredients. Never again.