Lena

Press Reviews (3)

• Marina O'Loughlin (25th February 2009)
  2/5 stars
  
  The critic visits a new Clerkenwell Italian, which has an appearance “like an outtake from A Clockwork Orange”, and finds “pretty good” food, “served in surprisingly mammoth portions”. “What really lets Lena down”, however, was the service – “uninterested, disaffected, po-faced”.
• Elena Berton (21st January 2009)
  3/6 stars
  
  The critic visits an Italian restaurant with a “cool ambience, polished cooking and smooth service have already proved popular with Shoreditch trendies”, in which context the 3/6 stars award seems rather measley.
• David Sexton (7th January 2009)
  2/5 stars
  
  The critic visits “a decent, pricey Italian restaurant”, which has opened “in an unpropitious place [Shoreditch], at an unfortunate time”. Its décor “doesn’t quite pull together, neither successfully smart nor particularly comfortable and welcoming”, and his party are the only customers on a Monday evening. The food was “all fine, if tending to the rich and bland”, but service was “astonishingly muted”, and he formed the impression that the restaurant had “abandoned hope”. (It’s worth noting, though, that this is the second consecutive rather gloom-laden review from Mr Sexton based on a Monday night visit – that can be a slack time even for the most established restaurants, not least in January.)