Milano — Restaurant in Cork

Went here today 12 April 2025 for lunch , I chose the lasagna with tea to drink . Firstly the tea is 1 TWININGS tea bag with Barry's tea factory only 5 miles over the road . Milk for my tea was taken from the coffee machine it was warm and frothed like for cappuccino. The lasagna arrived 20 minutes later . First impression was it looked nice even if the portion size was small . The lasagna itself when you cut into it was made up of very cheap ingredients , the sauce was very acid. The beef was must have been thrown from the door by the chef because he missed . I could literally count the grains of beef, other than that it was all cheap tomato sauce and besciamelle sauce. I could have eat it with a soup spoon . At 17.95 for what they try and pass off as lasagna it is very much nothing short of a rip off . My wife who is Italian herself chose cannelloni and a coke zero to drink . Her experience was similar , swimming in cheap acidy tomato sauce and portion size small . The coke zero (€3.95) was flat ,not a bubble of fizz in it . To conclude there is nothing to say of good about this restaurant apart from the toilets were clean .in summary it uses the cheapest of ingredients and skimps even on them . As for the beef lasagna it could have been a vegetarian lasagna . The whole experience cost €42.80 . If I was to give an honest value of what it wad worth I would say around € 20.00. I could not recommend this place , if u find yourself hungry go somewhere else don't be extremely disappointed and ripped off

MY RESPONSE TO OWNERS REPLY 15 APRIL 2025

you say you take these matters seruliously .... clearly you don't judging by previous reviews , you say you will pass on my concerns to your team and supply chain . I already mentioned it to the server when paying ( very reluctantly) the bill . Her response was because "we are part of a British chain " On Sunday I tried phoning your restaurant to report that my wife was very sick all night and Sunday to discover you don't answer phones . I left my name and number on the answering machine to be called back . I am still waiting . My impression is you don't care as long as you have the money . You don't accept customers genuine concerns as your server said " because you are part of a...

OK so food is ok but pricey enough. Table service is OK and staff are friendly. So here is the kicker, I sat near the door near where the Lady who is front of house works.. She takes bookings from some people, refuses others in the same minute. Tells people they are fully booked and seats people with no booking immediately after. I sat with my wife and we played who gets in and who gets rejected. From my over 1 and a half hours watching this sham service, I hate to think there is a class element on who gets in but it made me think as such. There was no logic to it whatsoever. Even when my wife wanted a table she was told to come back in 40 minutes and they could not promise anything, I came back alone 10 minutes later and got a table immediately. I am currently watching people being turned away while looking at tables that have been empty since I got here. So while the food was ok, I would never come here again due to the terrible mismanagement by the front of house. It was an absolute disgrace. Thats not how you run a business in this day and age in Ireland. Shame on your whole establishment. PS. The reply from the owner is an act of fiction. Balancing tables, it was half empty. Turning people away and 2 minutes later letting others in with no booking because of staff breaks? Total BS. I would not dream of coming to your restaurant again. I tell this event to as many people who will listen. Not out of spite, because I got a table to be fair, but for all the people turned away for no reason. This is Ireland. Where we are multicultural and non biased, where every ones money has the same value. Maybe you should talk to your front of house or monitor how she works. It would probably improve your business and your profits. That might be a better use of your time rather than trying to fill me with these lame excuses that do not explain anything which I have said are substandard in how you operate. I want improvement...

I’m genuinely shocked at how poor the service was at Milano’s in Mahon Point. I had a table booked for 6:45pm for a dinner with friends. We arrived on time, but were left sitting there for 25 minutes before anyone even came to take our order — despite repeatedly trying to get the waitress’s attention. She blatantly ignored our table, while attending to others who came in after us.

When we finally ordered, we asked for two starters and two pizzas. The starters took another 25 minutes to arrive, and we waited over an hour — with still no sign of the pizzas. At this point, we noticed that other tables who arrived much later than us had already been served and had even finished their meals. When I approached the manager, it became painfully obvious that our pizza order had simply been forgotten.

What made this entire experience even worse was the complete lack of accountability or apology from any staff member. No one checked in with us, no one apologised for the wait, and no one seemed remotely bothered by how poorly we were being treated. The attitude from the team was dismissive and indifferent at best.

This was meant to be a relaxing dinner with friends — instead, it turned into a frustrating, disappointing and frankly insulting experience. I’ve never felt so undervalued as a customer. I will never return to this location again and will actively discourage others from wasting their time and money here. Milano’s Mahon Point — you seriously need to revisit what customer service is...