We went to Jamie’s Italian yesterday for lunch, one of Jamie Oliver’s restaurants. There are several locations in England and a few in London. We visited the location in Canary Wharf.

1. The service was friendly and helpful.
2. The decor/vibe was casual and lively. It is a busy restaurant.
3. In the Canary Wharf branch, there were a lot of men in suits/shirts and women in trouser/shirt/cardigan ensembles (i.e. “workwear” which I should really do a post on sometime. There is a definite workwear uniform going on in London).
4. There also seemed to be some grandparents with grandkids, too. Maybe a couple sets of tourists.
5. The food, disappointingly, was just ok. It wasn’t bad, but not amazing. My carbonara needed seasoning, the scallops were a little squishy and the polenta chips were warm but stale around the outside.
6. My husband visited the other Jamie Oliver restaurant concept Fifteen in Amsterdam and really enjoyed it so we had high-ish hopes for this place. Oh well.

The lunch crowd in Canary Whaf

"Beautiful Bucatini Carbonara" (left), "Shell Roasted Brisham Scallops" (top right) and "Crispy Polenta Chips" (bottom right)

In summary, we probably won’t be going back to Jamie’s Italian and would only recommend it if there isn’t any other intriguing-looking place to try instead.