La Capannina — Restaurant in Scarborough

We went to La Capannina yesterday night not really knowing what to expect, after reading a lot of mixed reviews. The restaurant is beautiful and can get very busy, we were glad we booked a table outside, it is the best spot to enjoy the views over the indian ocean. We were also very impressed with the food, every dish we ordered was outstanding and brought us back to Italy instantly. My personal favourite was cavatelli ai frutti di mare, seriously good, and the portions were quite generous as well. I want to give a shout out to the kitchen staff for managing the timings of our dinner excellently: the restaurant was full on Friday night at 7 pm, but our dishes came out every 10 minutes after we ordered/were done with the previous course. I also found pricing in line with location and quality of food, so nothing to say on that. The service provided by the floor staff was appalling, on the other hand, hence 4 stars rather than 5. They were polite, but they didn't deliver the service one would expect from this kind of restaurant: noone came around to ask how the food was, we ordered a bottle of wine and had to pour it ourselves as they were not checking upon us. They were simply bussing tables. Some staff members who served us were Italian but kept on addressing us in English, which I found a tad weird and not very nice. I love going to Italian restaurants also to get that feeling of warmth and family, which I...

Now firstly might I say that we eat out on a regular basis and it was my wife who suggested we finally try La Capannina for our anniversary lunch. Unfortunately, our overall experience was less than memorable.

I booked online a week in advance and requested a table outside. When we arrived and said we had a reservation, I noticed the lady on reception looked a little bit under pressure. You know when you just sense someone is 'thinking quickly' to accommodate a situation. Anyway we were led outside to be seated a table for 6, albeit we were the only ones at the table. This just seemed to me like a last minute seating for a walk in.

We ordered a bowl of chips as an entre. Not overly exciting but I am 'plant based' and the waitress said they no longer do your Broccoli entre. The chips were delivered by a man in a floral shirt who simply and silently placed them on our table and walked off. The waitress who attended us was very pleasant, however.

The online booking asked if this was a special occasion and I stated it was our anniversary. I'm not sure why this was asked as it meant absolutely nothing to the restaurant. Anyway, this is not the worst lunch we have had but in today's competitive restaurant environment I definitely expected a better experience. As such I can see no reason why I would attend this...

We went for my birthday dinner at La Capannina on 26th September. What an utter disappointment! The service was extremely slow for starters. We ordered the sourdough bread for starters with balsamic vinegar. The four pieces of bread was actually 2 pieces of bread cut into four - measly! We ordered 3 mains - the lamb rump ($41), the gnocchi fondue ($34) and the mediterranean spaghetti ($36). The ‘lamb’ mains was more like an entree with five little pieces of ‘lamb’. It had a deceased piece of artichoke on it. As for the ‘lamb’ it tasted nothing like lamb - tasteless, oily and was more like tired little chunks of beef. The small serving of bright orange gnocchi looked artificial and tasted like little regurgitated mush balls. The small ball of Mediterranean spaghetti had little tasteless chunks of fish spread through orange mush.

In a nutshell - the meal was an exercise of miniaturisation and tastelessness. The only thing that was good were the two cocktails we ordered - the watermelon granita and the 78 Degrees GT. Perhaps the cocktail maker should be the chef!

As a courtesy, I first emailed the above review to La Capannina. As yet, I have not received an acknowledgement.

What a let-down for a...