Tony's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Basildon

This is a decent place, and I really want to love the spot as it's one of Wickford's limited selection. However It turns out being decently good, but nothing amazing.

After 3 visits, I have tried a variety of things with different people - various pizza, calzone, lasagna, etc. Everyone I have visisted with holds a similar opinion on the place.

From my recent visit, I had the garlic bread which was a great starter, full of flavour and the perfect size. The butternut squash soup was also OK, maybe a little too sweet for me. I had the mushroom risotto, which had nice mushrooms, and a good amount of butter and parmesan - i enjoyed the dish but it was a little too soupy, and maybe the rice could've absorbed some more of this but overall it is good. This was in a lunch deal, and 2 courses for ~£14 is reasonable.

Unfortunately, the pizzas are not remarkable. The salami used on the diavola is fine, the cheese is fine, and the tomato is fine. The dough though doesn't have a great texture, and whilst the flavour is ok it's nothing like some pizzas you can get from other places. Perhaps Tony's could strive for something like neapolitan style, as the steep price tags on some of these pizzas is just not worth it (above £15 in some cases). Whilst the lunch menu is priced well, I feel as if the dinner menu is a bit steep. The lasagna is again, decent but at £17 it's hard to warrant.

I really like their oven baked calzone however - the street food options are very reasonably priced and im certain that other options like the arancini would be delicious like the calzone was.

The coffee machine was turned off on my recent visit, which was a real shame since that was part of the reason choosing an italian place to eat. But it's ok, I will have to try it again some time.

Tony's is good, and with some improvement, it could be GREAT. but for wickford, this is a just a decent eatery for now

EDIT IN RESPONSE TO OWNER:

The sarcasm in the response is pretty unecessary, let me respond to a few things here:

Your dough is not bad, hence why I enjoyed it for the starter. However, you have to realise that these reviews are a matter of opinion and preference, and in my opinion, it didn't really hit the spot for the pizza. That's all. As a chef you should be able to take that. For your high quality ingredients as well, it's not something that is making a difference clearly. Risotto - OK, you cook your risotto in a certain way. That's fine, I expressed that I enjoyed it. I just pointed out some things that I think. It is my review after all. Butternut squash - yeah, of course it's sweet, but as I said, a little too sweet FOR ME. doesn't mean your soup is bad. Chill. Lasagne - I recognise the time and labour that goes into cooking these foods, and I think it's commendable - once again, I never said it was bad, I actually called it decent and the price thing is simply true. It's hard for everyone to get by with prices right now and £17 is a lot of money for some so it's something to note. It's just an observation. Coffee machine, ok that's fine. We weren't told about the leaking water, we were literally told it was turned off. Seems to be a miscommunication, which is no problem, just something that disappointed me.

I think maybe you should try to approach these things by taking them less personally, i'm not attacking you or your restaurant, i gave a detailed review of my experience and what i think. Sure, i'm not any expert on italian food, almost definitely not as much as you are but there is no reason to hold your pride so high.

And another thing to note - your take on Italian food, just because you are presumably Italian, does not mean your food is perfect, and it won't be perfect to everyone. Having visited many Italian restaurants, Italy itself and staying in the company of Italian family and eating their cooking, this is my opinion on your food. It's not a mindless bash on it but rather a balanced and honest way of displaying...

After reading all the positive reviews my family and I were really looking forward to trying Tony's for the first time. Well what a mistake that was as "the man himself"must have been having the worst day ever, either that or he is just a rude and ignorant human. Our table was booked for 6.30pm on Saturday. We arrived and was told to pick any table as there were only two other tables occupied at the time. We ordered some drinks and our food, our food took an hour to arrive, but we did not moan as was still looking forward to trying it. When it arrived at our table we told the waitress that two of the pizzas should have been without olives, but still being polite, said that we would just pick them off (worried that we would have to wait another hour for them to be made again). After a couple of minutes whilst tucking in to my pizza, I noticed meat on it (should've been a margarita with mushrooms) and being a vegetarian for over 30 years, was very upset by this. When we queried it, Tonys' response was the most shocking. Instead of being appologetic, he huffed a few times then said it's a mistake, basically shrugging his shoulders as though it was our problem/fault. So obviously we left but he still expected us to pay for the drinks all of 1 beer and 2 lemonades. A sincere apology and don't worry about the bill should've been his words. So good luck and pray he's in a good...

Have been before and loved the food and service. Went yesterday and was shocked how bad it was now. We ordered our drinks fairly quickly and they arrived OK. After 30 minutes they then came and took our food order. 1 and a half hours later the food arrived, when we said we had been waiting 2 hours for food, we got told (very rudely) it was only an hour and a half, forgetting they had taken another 30 minutes to take our order. We had ordered extra drinks and these took age's to arrive and we had to keep asking for them from different people as they did not arrive or bits missing. They said they are short staffed, then my answer is have less people in the restaurant, instead of ruining our night for your own profit. Paid the bill, but no tip, as it was very poor...