Le Stelvio — Restaurant in Épernay

We much enjoyed our stay at the Stelvio. First time visit at Épernay we walked around to explore the city. We discovered this location and decided to eat there. This city has a lot of choices but sometimes you just have to follow your gut instinct.

There was a warm welcome and even without speaking perfect France we were able to communicate and order. The service was very friendly. The menu was well sorted. Kids got pasta from the kids menu. We took a starter and pizza. Obviously, we decided for Champagne after a short visit of the famous avenue.

The food was magnificent. The kids told best pasta ever, yeah. The starter looked awesome, too. Never got tomato mozzarella arranged this way. Pizza was a perfect finishing.

Well, it probably took a little longer than we expected to get all orders served. With kids it is sometimes difficult to have that patience because the children want action after some time of sitting. We or the kids managed it very well and had a great...

Nothing exceptional here, value for money, hearty Italian. Generous portions and with ok service. It was busy with a mix of locals and tourists, always a good sign. However, as with so many food establishments, staffing is an issue. The waitress was friendly and attentive enough but got our wine wrong and forgot our bottle of water. And was being supervised with drink measures and presentation, not necessarily a criticism, but a sign of the times. A bar we visited earlier had a new starter and didn't know the menu or how to work the till. So , yeah, it was OK. My wife had the special prawn risotto, tasty but very moist and heavy. I had the duck , a generous size portion but rather tasteless, didn't get the honey sweetness. If it's a special occasion and your a foodie, look elsewhere. But...

I had the vegan risotto which was expensive for what it was and very mediocre (the vegetables seemed like they were from a frozen packet and included sweetcorn). It was disappointing because I had eaten a vegan risotto the night before that was delicious. The food took very long to arrive and some parts were not fully cooked through (the cauliflower was not fully thawed). The antipasta starter that we had was very delicious, however.

All in all not great and...