Flour+Water in City of London, Westminster

I really wanted to support this local restaurant and have repeatedly put business their way, but they cannot be trusted unfortunately and they don't deserve it. They are cavalier, arrogant, irresponsible and dangerous when it comes to dealing with allergies which they do not take remotely seriously. The first occasion I experienced this, I ordered the bolognese which I was ASSURED was free of diary and eggs and it arrived with cheese on the top. I was looking the chef in the eye explaining that my son has severe, life threatening dairy and egg allergies and that whilst I was breastfeeding, I was causing him great discomfort and reflux symptoms by consuming either eggs or dairy, which stay in my system for 6 weeks and his for a further 6 weeks, so this isn't a small mistake. She repeatedly assured me, smirking and clearly not taking the matter seriously, that the cheese was vegan. When it became clear I wasn't going to eat it (after much argument!) she went back to the kitchen to double check. She then apologised as this was in fact their "vegetarian cheese" (all cheese is vegetarian!) and did indeed contain dairy. With that (I assumed) resolved, I continued to order take away for months of the bolognese, stipulating "no eggs or dairy due to severe, life threatening allergy. Please no cheese." After a couple of months of ordering, something the chef said made me realise the bolognese had "finishing butter" in it. So not dairy free at all! For months, I'd been unknowingly consuming dairy. Moving forwards (and many people would have given up by now) I felt compelled to explain what dairy was: no eggs or dairy due to severe, life threatening allergy. Please no cheese, finishing butter or milk." After another few months of ordering this weekly, it became apparent that the pasta they were using was egg pasta. I honestly don't know how I could have been clearer. I said this was a life threatening allergy. I wrote it in the order notes, I then picked up the phone and called them and repeated this on collecting the order face to face. I also had an incident where they put cheese in the salad and then picked it out leaving large hunks of it behind and served that to me. Hardly appropriate for a life threatening food allergy. If my son had eaten these items directly, then he would have been ambulanced to hospital as a critical emergency. I repeatedly told them this. As it happens, the reaction is less severe through my breast milk. But we have spent thousands of pounds on allergists as we couldn't understand that, having given up dairy and eggs from my diet for the last 6 months, my son was continuing to have reflux symptoms. Not only that we have continued to remove foods from his diet, thinking they may be the cause. So he has a really limited repertoire of foods and is food aversive as a result. In fact, it turns out, that all my efforts and sacrifices in cutting out such major food groups from my diet, were being undermined by a restaurant who do not take customer safety seriously. They deserve to be shut down.

Really enjoyable meal. The starters were excellent, mains great and loved the new tiramisu on the menu. Really loved that the chef came out to ask us about new dishes on the menu and how we enjoyed them. First time here but we will be back.

All three meals were totally underwhelming. Food was tasteless. Beef was watery & plain, & pasta very chewy. Seafood pasta had no sauce. Totally disappointed and not befitting Italian food as it should be. Service was only thing that was good.

A fantastic restaurant with a genuine passion for the details in the menu. We had the chicken ceasar salad and the 'Nduja hot honey pizza. The chicken in the salad was the best chicken we'd ever had! We had to ask how it was so special! The obsession with the fine details really shines through in the food.

I don’t get the other review at all We are delighted to have Flour and water as our local pizzeria First visit but have been coming to same premises for 20 plus years since it was the Phoenix Anyway food was lovely , prices fine , and service friendly and efficient What’s not to like