The Italian Bakery — Restaurant in Waterford

Was looking forward to trying this place for lunch so invited a colleague, we were left standing at the counter for 15 minutes before the girl even took our order. I asked for the roasted vegetable toastie and was told that they didn't have any. It was on the menu so I asked "can't you make one?" And was met with a shrug of sher shoulders.

I then asked what was in the sourdough rolls on display at the counter, she answered "ham and cheese" I asked, "what type of of cheese?" since the menu had varying sandwiches with pecorino or scammorza etc. And I wondered if the ham she referred to was cooked ham or prosciutto crudo. She replied, "Oh, I wouldn't know that"

I gave up and asked for one of those, i then asked if I could get some tomato on it, she said, "they are all pre-made".

I asked, "well, do you not have any ingredients here? No tomatoes? Couldn't you chop one up and add some?"

Which, to me, did not seem an unreasonable request, In an "Italian" place, tomatoes being the cornerstone of Italian cuisine.

She shrugged again. So I paid for my coffee and sandwich and asked for a glass of water. She said, "sit down and I'll drop everything down to you. Another 10 minutes passed and she brought our food to our table. Cooked ham and still not sure about the cheese. No glass of water!

I went back to the counter and asked for two glasses of water, (one for my colleague) she handed me one, I said "sorry, I asked for two glasses" and was met with a sigh. Then she proceeded to argue with another customer because they didn't take their table number to their table, before getting the second glass.

Anyone can have a bad day but she clearly wasn't very good at her job and didn't want to be there.

Maybe I should lower my expectations, but was quite disappointing. The most Italian things about this place were the imported Italian pasta products displayed on the shelves.

You'll find more variety and staff knowledge of the offerings (and get a warmer welcome) at a deli counter in any convenience...

Food we got: margarita pizza and two pepperoni pizzas & spicy chicken “ciabatta”. The “ciabatta” was actually a baguette (that’s French bread btw) it was decent but absolutely not worth €8. The pizzas were the most flavourless pizzas I’ve ever had. I have had Italian pizza, in Italy, as had the people I was with as they go every year. To call this place Italian is an insult to Italians, the dough was nice but the tomato sauce on the pizza has no flavour it seems to be completely lacking of any herbs whatsoever. Ordering from the counter the process is simply dysfunctional. 5 girls behind the counter very flustered with each other serving one customer at a time. One was making a coffee one on the till and three just moving around trying to look busy. Would it not make more sense to have the orders taken while people are queuing rather than letting a large line build up which would prevent waiting an unnecessary amount of time then at the till. It would be a lot more efficient. I used to work in hospitality, it’s actually easier to just get the orders in get them done as quick as you can then trying to pretend to ignore customers. I can see this place closing down which is a shame, because if effort was put into the service and food flavours it would do very well. Also, the spicy chicken ciabatta is not spicy. It’s a Cajun chicken baguette. Rename it at least and learn the difference between a baguette...

I decided to get this bakery for the first time today. Sooo... I'll be honest. I know Italian food, but what I got today was not Italian. All slices of pizza tastes more like undercooked bread with some poor not seasoned toppings. Foccacia... pesto foccacia - just soggy chewy bread. And pesto just pure salt and oil... (disappointed) But when you get foccacia with sun-dried tomatoes and rosemary its just hard, bland and dry... of course still chewy.

2 star only because the kinder bueno donut I got that is house made (I was told) is amazing!

I will return to taste their coffee. I would recommend pastries...