Milano — Restaurant in County Clare

Firstly, the restaurant was near empty on arrival, but we were told they only had "tables for two people!" which seemed very strange in a near empty restaurant! 6 people ahead of us were also refused a table in the empty restaurant and left ahead of us. Confused, at the "Two People Only " Policy, I suggested to the waitress that we were prepared to wait for a table, there was myself and two kids. The only reason I can see for the ridiculous policy is that clearly they did not want to serve us the Cheaper Special Kids Menu, ironically we did not.want it either! Finally after waiting 15 Minutes outside on the Street in the rain, we were offered a table inside in the near empty restaurant. The Food, medicore at best. The Goats cheese Salad was tasty but tiny. The Spicy Chicken Wings were uncomfortably hot, to the extent they burnt your lips off. The piizza was a tad miserable and soggy. Our table next to the Toilet Entrance proved to be uncomfortable and dismal. .. We had to listen to a clearly incompetent manager continually barking at his staff who were doing their best while the manager himself done basically nothing. One poor girl was almost in tears because the manager in question wanted to send her home just after two hours work, and quite rightly, she refused to leave! Lowsey ... and probably illegal too!! You could sense the stress and unease everywhere in the restaurant. Usually Milano's looks somewhat "Classy " and has a bit of "Finesse" But this Joker of a Manager is running it into the ground like some sort of Inner City Chipper! Messy piles of empty Pizza boxes stacked cahaottically everywhere and more managers sitting on there butts next to us than customers, made for a "Staff Canteen" feel while "General Chow" (Manager) continued to run around like a headless chicken and bark at his staff. The place was dis-organised, cluttered with empty pizza boxes, and crowded with waiting "delivery boys" waiting for their takeaways in the noisy canteen! It had no resemblance of the relaxing restaurant Milano's usually is. Case in point, Milano's at the Crescent Limerick- Excellent. The Toilets were filthy and smelly too. Seeing hardworking lovely waiting staff treated so badly by their Manager really did leave a bitter taste in our mouths.... Awful...

Pre-booked Milano's on a trip to Ennis. We have done similar for the Galway branch on several occasions and have always found them very family friendly. After an enjoyable afternoon in Ennis we went to Milano where we were shown to our table by a cordial young waitress. Then the Manager (I presume) handed us our menus. After a few minutes he took our order. The Manager was slightly curt but professional so did not pay any heed. We ordered starters and Main course Pizzas at this juncture of which was 2 kids meals which included desserts. The restaurant was not crowded but the starters were slow to come out. Again not a big issue. Another family had sat near us after we ordered. My 2 children had dough balls myself the chilli Prawns. Boys happy with the Dough balls but I thought they were slightly under cooked and my prawns were chewy, so over cooked. Pizza came fairly soon after we finished and all good here. Always seem to have consistent pizza. We were near to finishing our pizzas when a group of circa 12 people arrived and the Manager seemed to know them and spent plenty of time chatting and joking with them. We finished our pizzas and the family next to us did so too. I took one of my children to the toilet and came back and we waited for the Manager to take our desert order. He passed several times and eye contact or hand gestures were missed. Further the young waitresses also evaded our efforts but the table next to us got in their order. Again I tried getting the attention of any waitress but to no avail. When you have 2 kids looking for ice cream you do try. We eventually gave up and with no sign of anybody even wanting to give us a bill went to the cash desk where someone did spring to action and we paid with no tip and left disappointed but bemused at the lack of care and attention in what was a situation that was still not a busy environment. So we voted with our feet and left with out desert and coffee and probably another glass of wine for my wife. Therefore I cannot really recommend this branch of Milano on this occasion. What struck me was none of the staff looked happy to be there outside of the Manager who just came across as arrogant. Although we enjoyed our pizzas the overall experience was on the negative side without letting it...

Interesting experience. TL;DR: good pizza but mixed service.

We visited on a Saturday, about 40 minutes before closing. After our server checked whether the three of us were still welcome, she gave us a table. The food arrived quite quickly and the pizza was rather good! The guy bringing the pizza even made a little joke. This light-hearted service was more than welcome as the lady, who was our main server, was probably having a bad day. This resulted in a grand total of fifteen words being said to us over the course of our visit. I don’t wholeheartedly disagree with the table next to us who turned to us and said “how rude” when the credit card machine was just thrown on their table by the server who immediately turned her back and left again. We left the restaurant after paying a bill we hadn’t asked for yet on a machine that was left on our table in a similar fashion. Original experiences are definitely included!

Once again, the food was quite good and quick. The male server seemed very friendly. We all have a bad day once in a while I guess but we couldn’t help but laugh when on the receipt it said you could win a prize if we told them how...