Cafe Valentino — Restaurant in Christchurch

Cafe Valentino is a great dinner spot that is surviving in the reviving CBD. Bookings are definitely recommended for this hotspot as it gets crowded in the evenings; I also recommend a business casual outfit, but definitely not required. My friends and I sat outside as it was the only table available at 7:30pm on a Saturday. The inside features a bar area where old American movies play with subtitles and a more comfortable dining area.

Service was slow, but only due to the high volume of customers, otherwise our waitress was on top of it. We ordered bruschetta (with extra bread as it only comes with three pieces normally) and mussels. Both were fantastic. The tomato-based sauce the mussels were marinading it was amazing and the mound of fresh tomatoes, garlic onions on top of the large bread slices in balsalmic and olive oil were mouth watering. Everyone ordered a pasta dish, though meat/chicken/vegetable mains are available. I ordered the potato and parmesan gnocchi. It was served in a red sauce, tossed with zucchini, red peppers and garlic and was baked with melted mozzarella on top. It was a little heavy on the sauce and the gnocchi was a little undercooked, but I would prefer that to overcooked. I still ate every bite. One friend ordered Spaghetti Bolognese with red sauce and ground meat. It's simple, but a classic. His wife ordered Rigatoni Zucca (without chicken) and was extremely satisfied. My husband ordered the most popular Penne Basilicata with Canterbury lamb fillet which was served on penne noodles, manuka smoked tomatoes, feta and spinach. The sauce was sweet chili and sundried tomato infused olive oil. Sounds amazing? Well, it is.

With our dinner we enjoyed affordable glasses of wine from the moderate selection. My husband had two Moata beers. We didn't opt for dessert, but the menu looked delicious, so I recommend saving space. Overall, I was very full when I left Cafe Valentino and would happily...

My group made first table booking online, I arrived on time but the rest of the group arrived late due to peak time traffic. We weren’t able to finish and was told we are not allowed take any leftover food because we are FIRST TABLE. But when we pay the bill , we were charged for full price. Reason was the whole table didn’t arrive in 15 mins. The manager was very rude and arrogant, told us there is nothing he can do, this was the rule, he is the manager and he refuse to give us his name and he didn’t have boss’s contact number. I was in disbelief, I have never seen anyone in hospitality industry who treats customer in such unfriendly way. We found out his name is Dave, the worst manner I have ever encountered. Very unhappy. Will not recommend this restaurant. Be aware of First table booking, there is no warning upfront about the rules and conditions until you pay the bill. It is such a con. Follow up to the incident: After we made the complaint, another manager came to join the conversation and got the kitchen to made a pizza and a portion of olive for us to take home. We didn't ask for free food, we want apology for the horrific treatment from Dave and the restaurant to admit that they shouldn't ask customer to abide to First table T&Cs after us being disqualified. FYI, we paid full price and didn't argue for how much we had to pay at all. It wasn't even part of the conversation. Dave has resigned, it was definitely the right thing for him to do. Calling such an appalling staff "young and talented" making me wonder is there a new definition of young and talented I would need to learn and in what field is he talented in? Surely not in...

First time to come here and I don't think I will come back and will definitely not recommend it. Some will definitely have a different experience than mine.

The food took more than an hour to come out. The reservation states that an hour and a half is allocated for dining but the food took a while. Not great if you have kids which we did. And what does the restaurant expect, for us to finish the food in the remaining time left?

The wait would've been fine if the food was great but unfortunately, all the pasta we're quite disappointing (Fetuccini, Lenguine Pesto and Spag Bolognese). The spaghetti bolognese specially. Pasta noodles were overcooked on it and all of them were swimming in sauce which you would think it maybe quite tasty, but no, all of them were bland as if someone think it's a good idea to pour water on the dishes before serving. My daughter, whose birthday we were celebrating and likes italian food, only took a few bites. She was hungry from the wait but rather opted to push the plate off after tasting. The only good food from our order is the lamb ribs starter. That one is yum. Even the pizza we ordered, although good, is not outstanding compared to other resto that serves pizza that does not claim it as their specialty.

We had high expectations more so with the price they were at. Around $30 per plate of pasta with the lengune pesto around $40 if you include the dry chicken breast. With that food, the price is definitely not worth it. Don't mind paying if the experience was great but no definitely not.

Only saving grace is the staff who...