Pasta in the Valley — Restaurant in Caversham

A tad disappointing overall. We had a large group and seating was good near a children’s playground which was needed for our group. We were surprised we had to pay extra to have homemade pasta, we thought it would be standard for Pasta in the valley but we had to pay more per serve As far as service goes the staff were accommodating however we expected kids meals to come out quickly, one of our group had to wait for their meal and some of us had finished ours. I ordered the Marina which was a moderate size, the prawns and squid rings were cooked to perfection however the fish is poor quality. My wife had the chicken Parmigiana with salad, we paid extra to have avocado and feta added to the salad. There was two cherry tomatoes on the salad and sparse feta, quite poor for the money. My wife commented as to what the salad would have been like without the extra avo and feta? The Parmi was cooked perfectly. The meal prices are quite high for the size of the meals and the quality is average. The Pasta is nice which is to expected. We wouldn’t go back which is unusual for us as we often visit places twice if they are average but we all agreed not good value for money. Sorry I don’t like putting poor reviews up and try to see the positive in everywhere we go, but Pasta in the Valley is not worth going to compared to other pasta or Italian near by. Great location and concept, table staff were good however the important things like value for money and quality food lets this place down. Interesting Google reviews has a place for meals recommended but I can’t recommend any meals. Probably 2.5 stars really but I am being generous...

Came for the Mothers Day buffet breakfast. While the staff we dealt with were lovely, it was evident that this was the restaurant’s first event to this magnitude. We queued for over 20mins at the single buffet station, to be met with cold food, empty dishes and a fruit platter with only a handful of blueberries, apples and pears left. It was honestly quite a disappointing spread for a ‘buffet’. After waiting 20mins for two coffees we were told it would be another 20mins. Waited another 30mins and was then told it would still be another 10mins. Waited 15mins longer and still no coffee. In all we waited over 1 hour so in the end we cancelled the order and got a refund. I had requested a high chair on my online booking, and while the paper booking slip on the table showed this, there was no high chair. It was impossible to find one. Finally had one brought over and it was covered in ice cream. Have only given this 2 stars for the fact my son enjoys the playground there - it’s a great set up for kids. Though the organisation and planning of likely their busiest day of the year leaves a lot to be desired. Instead of asking customers when they turn up if they are having the buffet or ordering a la carte, next time make it a requirement to stipulate this when booking, that way you can plan accordingly. There should have been two buffet stations given the demand. Perhaps even hire a second coffee machine so you can have more than one barista making...

Took our daughter here for dinner after her dance exam to celebrate, the table that they reserved for us still had other customers plates and drinks on it, so we stood there waiting while the waiter cleared the table and gave it a quick wipe down. We ordered 2 entrée's, mains and drinks, we asked them to bring the entrée's first and to bring the drinks with our mains after we finished the entree's, They brought out one of the entrée and then started bringing out of the mains, so I told them we still had another entrée, which they then brought out, so our mains are getting cold while we're still trying to finish our entree's.

For our mains we ordered different types of pasta, spaghetti and fettuccini, the kids pasta came out in a small bowl with hardly any pasta in it, for what we paid, we expected it to be on a plate, we had to give them some of our pasta as theirs barely filled them up, the pasta itself was still a bit hard, barely semi cooked, hardly any chicken and prawns in our pasta, just lots of sauce and pasta hardly any chicken or prawns. Oh, and they forgot our drinks, so half way through eating our mains, I had to ask for our drinks, which still took them another couple of minutes to get. The overall experience was not great, the atmosphere felt flat, the workers didn't want to be there, and the food is WAY OVERPRICED for what you get. Definitely won't be going back...