Interesting evening...

Rating - Overall: 1  Food: 1  Service: 1  Ambience: 2

leedavies1
Rookie Reviewer
Member since Oct 08
Rating: 0

1 Oct 2008

Gave us a table at late notice on a Friday evening, good start. Very busy, had to move my chair everytime someone wanted to pass, but atmosphere was good so didn't mind too much.

Ordered a bottle of Pinot Grigio (£19 bottle). The bottle that came was a Versace Pinot Grigio, which certianly isn't an authentic Italian as it is sold in Global Wines Bearwood for £2.99 and produced in Romania. I expect to pay more for wine in a restaurant but that was a disgrace - you can actually get two for £5 if you're dead lucky.

Then came the starter, Beef Carpaccio with Rocket & Parmesan. Oddly, it came in the form of 8, maybe 9 slices of beef that were perfectly oval with a slight crust - similar to sandwich meat and filled the plate. My rocket was yellow with beatiful brown and black spots - must be of a rare variety, and my parmesan was desparately trying to pass itself off as chedder...oh hang on, it was actually mature chedder!

Main courses were a similar delight, i ordered Italian meatballs, which came with yesterdays sauteed potatoes and green beans. Very perculiar as they tasted of absolutely nothing, the strangest sensation to chew and not taste a thing. That was made up for with my partners Salmon Tagliatelle. Before it had arrived at the table you could smell it coming. Once on the table the power of the scent was so much so that we actually began to laugh at what was happening. The salmon was brilliant orange, no exaggeration, brilliant orange and it stank. Even the couple on the next table who were (bravely) eating mussles in garlic commented on how strong it smelt. By this time i was just about full from the 86 packets of Grissini i had eaten as my meal substitute, I raised the point with the waiter that the salmon was quite alarmingly off and that my meatballs were oddly void of flavour and asked if we could have the bill minus the main courses.

After the debacle with the food, it just got worse with them not offering to correct any issues, offer of a replacement dish, apology, nothing!

Then the bill came with a service charge, which i refused to pay, at the 2nd attempt it was still wrong but i ended up paying £32 for a £3 bottle of wine and some sandwich beef from a packet.

We left in a state of bemusement, anger but overwhelmingly disbelief that the place was full. Without predjudice, the restaurant was full of an older generation, 50 - 70 with which i have no issue, but it would seem that these regulars have been eating here for so long that they are happy to be 'looked after' by the restaurant they have dined at for the last 25 years and completely overlook the quality of the food that they are being served.

There are hundreds of better Italian restaurants to eat at in Birmingham, real shame as the location is good but nothing else was - ooh, except for the white swan being across the road and providing me with a decent bottle of wine for £15.

Visited: June 1, 2008
What I ate: nothing

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