Di Sopra — Restaurant in Alnwick

There are a few things that make eating out an enjoyable experience, one worth paying for. The ambiance is one and Di Sopra does fine on this point, nothing special but cosy. Service is another, on this point it was a mixed bag, the waitress was very friendly and polite, however, the waiter who also claimed to be the manager was another story. Although he claimed to be the manager, I have my doubts, firstly after seating us at 5.30, when we tried to order from the happy hour menu at 5.45, (which was served until 6) he tried to tell us we couldn't, when I questioned this and pointed out that the menu stated it was served until 6 and it was currently 5.45, he took a second look at the very large clock above our table, pulled a strange face and said OK we could. He made it feel like he was doing us a favour. Then when we placed the order we asked if the ham on the buffalo mozzarella pizza could be replaced with olives to make it vegetarian, he seemed confused and said he would have to ask the chef. This was a very simple request and any manager worth his salt would not have been so baffled by the request.

The food; we had garlic mushrooms and potato skins for starters and these were absolutely fine but then it's hard to get these simple dishes wrong.

We had carbonara, the salmon and prawn pasta, mushroom risotto and the buffalo mozzarella pizza for main. To be absolutely honest they were all disappointing, didn't have much taste and were watery ( yes even the pizza, how can you have a watery pizza), however, the risotto and pizza were edible, so the four of us ended up sharing them. 90℅ of both pastas were left because they really were tasteless (almost as if skimmed milk had been used instead of cream). When the aforementioned waiter came to take our plates he asked if everything had be fine, we explained that unfortunately we couldn't eat the pasta as it was watery and tasteless. He was obviously not happy and said he would talk to the chef , a few seconds later he came back and suggested it was our pallet to blame as these were their two most popular dishes. We didn't argue because we didn't think it was worth it but then he started saying that he had done us a favour by giving us a table at 5.30 when had actually booked a table at 7 ( when we were seated there were only two other tables occupied and for the 1hr 20mins we were there he did not turn anyone away). As you can you imagine we didn't feel that this was good customer service and certainly didn't explain why the food was tasteless. I'll just point out we hadn't asked for anything, we had just been honest when he asked us if we had enjoyed the food, all we wanted was the bill so we could go home. However, I felt I had to respond to his comments, I very politely pointed out that it's not really the done thing to try to suggest he'd done us a favour giving us a table in an empty restaurant just because we had not enjoyed the pasta. He felt the need to continue his ridiculous argument until I finally had to insist he give us the bill so we could leave.

This is a real shame, because, the tasteless food wouldn't have prompted me to write a review but this guy's attitude was so belligerent and defensive it couldn't go without comment. I accept that maybe our tastes are different from their usual clientele but there is no excuse for bad manners and deplorable service.

Can I just reiterate that the waitress was lovely.

No doubt there will be an equally argumentative response as I've noticed when looking through the reviews that a defensive response is their usual...

Visited Alnwick gardens and decided to stay for food in Alnwick. We chose here after reading good reviews. We were expecting it to be busy as it was the kids holidays but it was quiet. However this didn't stop the waitress ignoring us for 10 mins whilst colouring something. Eventually we got sat down and waited another 15 minutes to order drinks as both servers were talking at the bar. We ordered food at the same time as the drinks in fear of waiting even more time to get the order taken. The garlic mushroom starter were swimming in greasy sauce and tasted boiled. The pizza came out uncut this normally wouldn't be an issue but there was rhat much cheese on the diavola pizza all the toppings were pulled off by the cheese when cutting it with rhe blunt knife I had at the table. Pizza base was tasteless and couldn't be ate unless using a knife and fork because of the amount of cheese. We skipped desserts as we had to get the little one back home after waiting far to long...

Visited several times in the past, and pleased to say, it's still pretty much as good as ever.

Very pleasant staff and a great atmosphere. It was busy as usual but we had booked in advance. We were seated with minimal delay and well looked after. Great to see smiling staff.

There is a good selection of dishes available so should be something that would suit everyone.

The fried calamari is a particular favourite of mine and this did not fail to please. Whilst not a criticism, I prefer a little more garlic in the mayo, but still very tasty.

Prosciutto E Funghi pizza with a thin crust was nice. Though not quite as crisp as we would have liked. Nevertheless it was tasty.

Pollo Saltimbocca was very good, lovely moist chicken and a very nice garlic sauce. Served with some excellent fries.

Portion size was good and priced very reasonably.

Various wines and beers available, the Peroni went down well.

Would be very happy to recommend and...