Don Papa — Restaurant in Borough of Runnymede

Turned up Friday 11/02 at 18:30 for a table for two. There was one other couple in the restaurant who already had our food. The girl waiting on us seem a little overwhelmed and it took over 10 minutes for our drinks to come out after ordering them (one bottle of beer, one spirit and mixer) which kind of set the tone. We ordered and about 10 mins later the starter came out which was lovely to be fair. But then the waiting began - we were there for over an hour with no sign of dinner, no update from the girl waiting on us and empty glasses and an empty plate sat in front of us.

Eventually the girl told us that there was a delay because they were prioritising takeaway orders which was really annoying. When we got there, if we'd been told that there was over an hour's wait on food, we'd have gone somewhere else as we had somewhere to be after dinner. So I asked to pay up and 10 minutes later there was no sign of the girl. I ended up having to go up to the bar to pay the bill. I then discovered we'd been charged for a double on the spirt and mixer ordered which she had never stated and we had never asked for. When I asked to pay she asked me if I wanted to pay for the food we hadn't received!! You couldn't make it up! Outrageous to have to pay nearly £20 for two drinks (one of which they put through as a double without instruction), a starter and cold seat for over an hour.

Most of the reviews on here are super positive for this restaurant and so maybe this was the exception rather than the rule, but this is a review of my experience and it was just a very poor one. You need to tell people if there's a delay on food because you're prioritising takeaways and you can't go charging people for doubles when they haven't...

I have never given a 1 star review but I think honesty should be here. When I looked at 4.6 stars with 160 reviews and seeing a cartucho pasta, made me think it was a real genuine Italian restaurant, but it cannot be further from truth. Looking back, I read the 1 star reviews and I wish I had done that, because those are the genuine reviews. No fault to the waitress but the food. Ordered a scogglio and a pizza. Never had I ever have a bad scogglio til today, it had frozen very hard on the bite calamari, 1 prawn which was not fresh not moist not tasty and mussels that were not cooked with the main but probably before and just added when plating the food. My husband had a pizza that he didn’t even finish, not even asking to take it away. The plain truth is that borders were hard and not a pizza you would expect for 14£. I have to say that when approached the waitress about the lack of tiger prawnS a discount was offered. I am not a person who likes to criticised but a foodie who had expectations on having a delicious meal, not leaving a review of our experience might make others judge wrongly the culinary expectations they may have to be totallly disappointed. Won’t be...

Turned up this evening for a meal after visiting Thorpe Park nearby. Despite turning up just 20 minutes before they were due to close, we were welcomed and seated straight away with no problem. Only request from them was that we could order before 10 since the kitchen would be closing which was completely fair given the time we arrived.

Waitress was very friendly, happy to help and advise. Food was very very tasty and great portions, some recent reviews speaking negatively of the food do confuse me.

Despite it being so late and far beyond closing, we were offered deserts. These were equally as incredible as the starters & mains.

Price wise, very standard pricing for an Italian restaurant. I'm sure there is cheaper nearby, but the price is so worth it and not bad at all.

Overall one of the best experiences we've had in any restaurant. I'm sad we don't live nearer otherwise we would return much more often.

Thank you for being...