Riccardo's - Islington

I have visited this café a few times and have witnessed the elderly male owner buttering bread and licking his fingers on multiple occasions. Fortunately, it was not the food being served to me. Due to these experiences, I often caution friends and colleagues against dining here. However, in a rush today, we decided to give the café another chance. Unfortunately, the same owner, who seemed to be sick, appeared out of nowhere, blew his nose, and then touched bread with his hands before serving customers. This lack of hygiene is truly disgusting.

Today, I ordered salmon and scrambled eggs at this restaurant. Unfortunately, the man serving the salmon was not wearing gloves and was handling the food with his bare hands. This is completely unacceptable. To make matters worse, he then proceeded to wipe his apron. When I brought this to the attention of the waitstaff, they were indifferent to my concerns. I will not be returning to this restaurant.

I stopped by for an early lunch. The menu had plenty of food options, both cold and hot, prepared at the counter. The place was quite small, leaving no room to stand and look at the menu. The staff were quick to ask if I knew what I wanted. It wasn't really a great spot for vegetarians or vegans. The sandwich I ordered was just okay and reasonably priced.

I was out on business this week, training local to Riccardo’s. I visited a total of 3 times. There’s a great selection of fillings for rolls, sandwiches and for jacket potatoes. Very affordable and the staff there are very generous with the amount of filling they use. The only negative is that one of the workers was very open about calling my friend and I “darling” and love” and made a joke about putting my PIN number into the card machine rather than my phone number. I doubt the intentions were to make us feel a bit uncomfortable but it wasn’t the greatest feeling.

We visited this small snack/sandwich bar while waiting for an appointment and so had limited time. We chose the English breakfast and were amazed by the fast and excellent service. Food was very good and much cheaper than expected for even a small cafe cum snack bar. We will be back.