Nonna's Urban Italian Kitchen — Restaurant in County Donegal

I left a review on Trip Advisor that contained every single detail of my negative experience, along with the aggressive response received from the owner. I tried to get the issue resolved privately, but the attitude of the owner forced me to air my views publicly.

If you look at other negative Trip Advisor reviews, or any time they receive constructive or negative feedback, the owner gets ultra defensive, ultra petty and has now taken to sharing silly, immature posts on social media to take cheap swipes at people who have left negative feedback. I understand they have lots of positive reviews. I have absolutely no doubt they are a popular and decent quality restaurant for the majority. However, my experience was negative. The owner doesn't seem capable of understanding that customers can have negative experiences, and that it's the customer's perception of the dining experience, not their biased loyalty to their business. The ignorance towards customer's perceptions is shocking. I provided examples, timelines and data to show how my experience was poor, yet was met with incorrect responses as detailed below.

I had a negative experience with my food (cold pizza), messaged them privately on Facebook (so as to avoid public drama) and was was told it was my wife's fault that my food was cold, as she was so late. They said she was over 30 mins late, but we established this was not possible as the order was made at 8.12 and back home at 8.45 (33 minutes). We live 5 minutes away, give or take a few minutes.

My complaint wasn't met with empathy, or an attempt for further understanding, it was met with a response of 'it's your wife's fault, she was over 30 minutes late'. They were so defensive and aggressive, coupled with factually incorrect statements. If they had said something like 'sorry about that, it was collected slightly late, pop it in the oven for 5 mins and it should be good to go', I wouldn't have gone any further. I wasn't looking for a refund, nor never mentioned it. It's clear any form of negative feedback, even if the owner has no knowledge of the issue, is met with aggressiveness.

They told us food is kept warm on top of a coffee machine. I find this hard to understand. Has every single take away customer collected their food within 15 mins? How do you accommodate people who are late due to personal circumstances. Did you think to ask why my wife was slightly over the 15 minute time?

They told us the phone lines close at 8.55pm, and that's why I couldn't get through despite calling before that (evidence of calls available). Another defensive comment that is incorrect.

They told me they are the same or cheaper than other pizzerias in the area, which when I checked was factually incorrect when comparing prices with 6 other establishments.

They proceeded again to blame my wife on a public forum and have yet to address their comment that she was 'over 30 minutes'.

I have lived in Letterkenny for 17 years and eat takeaways from the town regularly. I have never had an experience with an owner like this before. Yes, I have received bad or cold food, but the aggressiveness, defensiveness, incorrect statements and general pettiness has left me dumbfounded. The pettiness of the social media posts was raised to me by a friend, who also found it petty. I have no doubt a further social media post will follow this review.

In response to their aggressive response below, yet again with more lies. It was 4 months since my review not 6 months. My wife wasn't 30 minutes late. And the petty posts are on Facebook on March 2nd (2 posts) and March 3rd. It seems the owner can't read the time, can't tell the difference between two months and is unable to read their own Facebook posts.

The level of toxicity and aggressiveness here...

My colleagues in Sligo had recommended this place and mentioned how amazing the food was. I had drove up to today for a meeting and also to meet some of my friends and I had just walked in not sure of getting a place but the staff there was really kind to offer a table. The food was amazing and delicious, one of the best Italian restaurants I can say. I am a slow eater and didn’t have enough time to try their dessert as they needed the table back in 45 minutes. My friends did and they said the Tiramisu was really delicious. I will definitely recommend this place to the rest of my friends but will encourage you to make a reservation and ensure that you will be given enough of time to dine in .I was told that I could have the table from 4.35 pm to 6.45 but due to rush I was told to return the table at 5.26. This did put me off a little as I felt that proper information should have been given before hand, and I would have decided whether to dine in there or not. I brought this up with the same staff but he told me that I had no reservation. He was quite loud and others were looking at us therefore I didn’t wish to engage with the conversation further and left immediately . I did go to Radisson’s after that for desserts and drinks. Therefore I will definitely advice to check in with the staff about their dining timing limit before taking a table without reservation. No matter what the food was great and I hope to have a better experience with the dine in timing on...

Got a chance to try this spot last night was very impressed!

I’d say it might be the only spot in Letterkenny making homemade pasta. I had the homemade ravioli and homemade baileys and whiskey tiramisu.

The ravioli was very flavourful and the portion size was great and the filling was so tasty. The tiramisu was really good too first time I’ve had it in ages cause it’s so hard to find in town but the flavour of the baileys came through well and it was a really enjoyable experience overall.

The service from the fella behind the desk was awesome and the family run aspect of it felt so good authentic.

I would say to the owners, if it keeps the prices affordable keep it to cash only I know a lot of card machines charge on every transaction. Aim to expand a small bit if that is what you are wanting the 4 tables close knit feel is class but as you’s grow the demand for sit in will too but I’d say if you do expand still keep it on the smaller size where all the customers can see what’s going on.

Also, lose the cream in the carbonara even if it’s for an added cost to the customer I’d pay it 😩

Best of luck. I look forward to having a kebab here after seeing some other customers one the last day I was in it...