Senate Room in City of London, Westminster

Great service, very tasty food and a fair price. Jose Pizarro's restaurant is a great place for lunch, relaxed and friendly. The staff were very helpful, efficient and obviously enjoyed their work. The menu is relatively short for tapas but that is not a problem and they are sensitive to allergies. An excellent meal and I would go back. Note to Trip Adviser - please change the title of this restaurant as it is no longer the Senate room!!!!!!

There are surprisingly few reviews of Jose Pizarro at the Royal Academy here, mainly because you have to hunt it down under the heading of the "Senate Room"- could TripAdvisor change that? The food is (probably) good but two of the three hot things we ordered arrived almost cold, and the third was merely just about warm enough. To their credit, we got a credit for the worst two. But the service is seriously deficient - when we ordered coffees the wrong ones arrived first, and when the right ones eventually came nobody brought sugar until I asked for it. And this was not at peak hour but at 3pm on a weekday, so not all that busy. It's a pity: the food is good, the room is well worth seeing, but the service lets it down. It was much better when we last came a few months ago.

Fans of the tapas bar in Bermonsey & spontaneous lunch here today. Favourites - prawns, chicken cannelloni (Spanish version) & the pork. Good wine list. Great to have this so close to work & great addition to RA.

The beautifully restored Senate Room on the first floor above the Burlington Gardens entrance is now the home to what is perhaps the Central London flagship of the Jose Pizarro Empire. It makes for a stylish bar and setting for a short but select tapas menu. I hadn’t booked but got a bar seat. I left most slices of a crusty sourdough bread as an accompaniment to a selection of thinly sliced morcon (a type of chorizo), salcicchon (dryed smoked sausage), lomo (pork) and breadsticks. A Russian salad was a mound of creamy potato flecked with confit tuna, carrots and pickles. Bacalao which I’m more used to as a salted confit of cod was here a fillet of fish on a bed of spinach. But perhaps the piece de resistance was an almond tart forming a firm base for a bed of raisins and ice cream all infused with sherry. To drink a glass of Spanish rose and a double espresso in an elegant brown cup and saucer.

Decepcionante en realidad: selección limitada de pasteles y servicio inadecuado: el personal constantemente en sus teléfonos móviles en lugar de atender a los invitados. Pobre espectáculo para la RA.

If you are looking for comfortable chairs and a pleasant quiet atmosphere after a hot and tiring traipse around an exhibition then this is your place. The room is bright and impressive with table service unlike other cafes at the Royal Academy. We had coffee only which was fine and the service was also good. No problem finding an empty table at around 11.30 in the morning.

Just been to the Royal Academy and thought we'd pop in to have a light meal and a glass or two of wine. Let me first of all say when they say small dishes they mean very small a sliver of cheese and chutney was one small dish and miniscule bresaola wrapped around rocket was another. We ordered the bread basket too to fill in the corners and this was tiny too! All the pictures must be of large dishes so be warned! Service was poor, which I'm sure is due to staff being inadequately trained or overseen rather than a willingness by some of them to help. The staff behind the bar were too busy chatting to get us our drinks and we had to tell them not to bother with our second round as no action was being taken. Staff had to come back and check on our food order as they had forgotten what we had ordered twice! The restaurant wasn't particularly busy and I now know why. Lots of better places to eat in London so give this a miss. Very Disappointing.

We arrived at the Senate Room looking forward to a nice lunch after the Antony Gormley exhibition. We waited to be seated for a considerable amount of time before anyone attended to us. We opted for the set menu. Soup was warm at best, the Crostini arrived with meat on it after we had ordered a vegetarian version. We were brought the wrong main course, we ordered more drinks and they took so long to arrive that we had finished our meal. The food was ok. The service was very poor. We were quite shocked that they add a discretionary service charge to the bill automatically.

Down hill, sadly. They offer some six cocktails, but in this evening couldn’t make three of them because they had run out of the common ingredient, egg white. We’d loved this place last time. Service not really as friendly and ‘snap to’ now. Three drinks came to £47.50. We’d asked for a jug of water, too. Very slow in coming. And tepid. You’d think they’d have thrown in a few ice cubes, wouldn’t you? No. Alas and Alack! (Do you think they’ll read this?)

The food is good - really good antipasto platters in particular. The setting is lovely, too - a light-filled and stylish high-ceilinged room overlooking Burlington Gardens, with tables set not too close together, and blessedly quiet enough not to have to shout. There is a good lunch deal (two courses for £19). The service on the day we went was fairly amateur - you had to work too hard to get waiters' attention, they didn't really seem to understand their job too well, and one waiter's understanding of English was limited. That said, I've been before and the service was fine so perhaps this was just a new squad learning on the job.

At the top of the stairs this is a spacious airy room with excellent natural lighting. The ambient temperature is very pleasant and the chairs comfortable too. The staff are welcoming and looked after us well during our family lunch. The service was excellent. We chose the location to meet with family who were travelling up to London and with their transport delay it meant we had a nice comfortable place to wait. The menu has a variety of Italian style dishes; we shared three main courses. Excellent quality ingredients , and very satisfying. Two came with focacia and one with flat breads. Toilets are downstairs.

We're RA friends and, last evening, after visiting an exhibition we called in - as we have done before - to this beautiful room for a post-exhibition drink. We'd tried to reserve in advance - but the website wouldn't accept our reservation so we emailed. They got it wrong - twice - but it was fine because, when we arrived, there were plenty of free tables. But then it all started to go downhill... This is a beautifully decorated room in the Royal Academy - a London gem - and they serve good cocktails. But the 'order and pay at the bar' principle feels more like an ordinary pub - and the prices are upper-end London cocktail bar. Then they add service - but really, there isn't any - because if you would like something else you have to go up to the bar and pay upfront again. That meant we didn't - and they lost out. So, in summary, this is a lost opportunity for the RA and - like other reviewers - we would encourage them to sort it out; it is not reflective of such a great institution.

The Senate Room is a stylish high-ceilinged light-filled space at the back of the Royal Academy overlooking Burlington Gardens. It's upstairs and not that easy to find (better signage would help). This is a shame as it's a great addition to the West End's list of good places to lunch, especially if you want to eat Italian. We had the two-course fixed price (about £20) menu and the food and its presentation - four crostini to start, and then a plate of pasta with Tuscan sausage ragu - were excellent. Service was terrific. Drinks push up the bill fairly rapidly - with two glasses of wine and service the bill came to about £40 each. But it was worth it, not just for the food but the whole experience - relaxed but cossesting.

It is a sheer pleasure to enter any eating establishment these days without the smell of Wet Dog. This was one of them - a comfortable and stylish setting within the Royal Academy complex. Italian food, slickly served by friendly staff. An array of starters, a fresh pasta with salad, a glass of red and coffee for £28 a head. Including tip - which I have just read does not go to staff. I did not know this at the time of booking or eating, otherwise would have given a tip in cash. But back to the dogs... They are as appalling to me now as a sea of smokers were in the 1970's and 80's, destroying the taste of food and filling nostrils with a stench. Any restaurant which stands up to the DOM (Dog Owning Mafia) gets my vote.

Good food at a mid-range price. A useful small restaurant to visit after an exhibition at the Royal Society of Arts. We ate a really good spicy squash soup and shared a main for a light early afternoon meal. The tables of two are rather close especially when those alongside are speaking loudly, but the restaurant is ideal if not too busy.

My husband and I visited this restaurant for the first time. It is light and airy with a high ceiling and simple decoration (apart from gorgeous ornate ceiling). The Italian theme for the restaurant is interesting and the staff are very interested and enthusiastic in...

Minuscule tables that means that you have to move things around as if playing chess. Overpriced wine and food. Little choice. Had a plate of salami and a plate of cheese at £15 a pop. Ordinary South American wine at £34 a bottle. Nothing to...

After visiting an exhibition at the Royal Academy, four of us went for lunch at the RA's Senate Room restaurant. What a mistake it was!! First of all, the service throughout was incredibly slow, even though then place was not very busy. We had some...

Firstly i must say that the food we had was of great quality. I did thpugh find it dissapointing that they seemed completely phased by the request for a gluten free lunch. It is not that unusual in London 2018. BUT... the service is not...

I was planning to say how good the food (mainly small plates, heavily Italian influenced, very tasty) and the service was here, until I got my bill and discovered from the charming waiting person that NONE of the 12.5% 'discretionary' charge went to the staff,...

In the New Aisle of the Royal Accademy, beautiful room with high ceilings, sober settings, friendly staff. It is essentially small plates, Italian style, delicious. Only down side no dairy free option for desert

The Senate Room is off Burlington Gardens at the rear of the Royal Academy. The Academy has expanded into the former Museum of Mankind to offer much improved gallery, auditorium, support and amenity spaces. The Senate Room offers a range of cafe food and drink...

I managed to pop in last week to the newly refurbished Senate Room in Burlington House,which is part of the new development of the Royal Academy. Wow, what a beautiful room. High ceilings, amazing decoration on the plaster work, all tastefully refurbished making a beautiful...