Ristorante Tirreno (formally Caffe Tirreno) — Restaurant in Alnwick

Should be renamed Karen’s diner. Firstly there’s nothing ‘authentic Italian’ about this restaurant, a key component of an authentic Italian restaurant is great service and family friendly atmosphere. We were greeted by my friends husband being looked up and down and then told off for not shutting the front door (outer door) which we’d barely managed to walk through. The staff member then turned to me and said oh God you’re bringing a whole nursery in?! We did have 7 kids between us, all of whom were very well behaved and quiet as they’re used to eating in restaurants and the requirement to sit quietly and calmly and not disturb other diners (of which there were only 2 on the other side of the restaurant). She then snapped there’s no room for pushchairs (in the almost empty restaurant) so I got the baby out and collapsed it without fuss. What followed was almost comical it was so outrageously rude, this staff member kept storming over and telling the children off for an array of perfectly reasonable behaviours such as touching the petals of her fake flowers - not grabbing or damaging in any way- but touching. More sinister however was that my blonde haired son would do something such as fiddle with his knife and fork without consequence and then my friends mixed race daughter copied and this staff member was over in a shot to tell her off. I took two of my children to the toilet without incident but when my friend tried to take her children she was told it was a small toilet and she shouldn’t be going in with the children. The kids were all hungry so we tolerated this for a while but it just became ridiculous and we politely called her out on her extreme rudeness and she lost her cool and started accusing us of letting the kids run wild (I wish I’d been videoing it as the children never moved). She then told me I don’t understand what it’s like to run a restaurant which is ironic as my husband has ran his far larger, very successful restaurant for almost 30 years. Because of this perspective I am particularly careful to ensure my kids are always respectful and well behaved in other peoples restaurants, I understand the difficulties restaurant owners face. But even in the face of some very challenging customers not once have any of us treated the customers with such rudeness, aggression and contempt that we suffered today. She told us to get out as she didn’t want to serve us anymore and was so exceptionally rude to my friends Nigerian husband that I feel this had a big part in the terrible attitude which made me feel deeply ashamed that in 2023 blatant racism is still a problem, in 2023 a quiet, respectful and respectable black man is refused service in a restaurant. I’ve never encountered it in my life and was appalled to do so today. Shame on you...

Recently dined here, we hadn't booked a table but there were a few empty tables when we turned up. We experienced a strange reception from the waiting staff who mumbled between them, found a table, gave it a wipe but didn't make it clear they intended to seat us...eventually they herded us to the table through gestures, clicks and grunts. Once we had a look through the menu we noticed a sign saying there was a "specials" menu... where? We couldn't see it where we were seated so I asked the waitress when she arrived. Well, I was greeted with an Olympic-level eye roll and a grand sweeping gesture at a blackboard not within our eyesight as she rattled them off at auctioneer speed.. .. (we decided to stick to our first choices.) The children ordered doughballs and cheesy garlic bread as starters and both were really good and generous portions of both. The adults had calamari with lemon and garlic mayo (a bit on the chewy side) and artichoke hearts with mozzarella drizzled in basil pesto - excellent! Main courses were lasagna for the kids and they were so dried out they could have doubled as a roofing tile. My partner had the piccante, spicy sausage with bacon and tomato sauce which was good. The other main was really tasty, the prosciutto E piselli with fettuccine, it was absolutely delicious! The food was a bit hit and miss but it was the apathetic waiting staff who let the...

I visited the restaurant at just after 4:30 pm and asked if I could reserve a table for my wife and me at 6:30pm. The lady I spoke to said they only did walk ins. No reservations. Shrug of the shoulder. No other information was forthcoming. No other options were mentioned. We decided to go a little earlier than planned and arrived at just before 6pm. There was an empty table for four and an empty table for two in the front of the restaurant. I don't know if any other tables were available. The girl at the front desk apologised and said they were full. She said the empty tables were for those people on the waiting list. What waiting list was the obvious question. Apparently they run a waiting list but not a table reservation policy. She could add us to this list. At this point the lady if spoken to earlier arrived and said they were busy and we could go on the waiting list. I asked what was the difference between a table reservation list and a waiting list, plus why hadn't she explained this to me earlier. She said please don't be rude to me. We left. She shouted byeeee as we left. Strange behaviour. Odd policy. Interesting staff model. I write this only to make people aware of the waiting list they have. The Italian further in towards the centre, c.250 m , (Di Sopra)...