Carluccio's — Restaurant in Cambridge

I have dined in Carluccio's in my local town until it closed some years ago and on our monthly excursion to Cambridge we always eat there. We have seen a steady decline in staff and therefore service, although the food quality has always been good. This week the service was appalling and hygene standard were poor. We always arrived a few minutes after 2pm as the lunchtime rush is ending and the service is better. We were greeted by the manageress and we pointed to a table away from the others customers as we recently had a bad experience from covid and prefer to keep our distance when dining. We pointed to a table that was suitable and she cleared and clean the table and led us to it. After ten minutes and still given no menus we went to the reception and helped ourselves. Five minutes later a young man came and took our order. Whilst we were waiting the manageress came over and laid the table with cutlery, we were appalled that she handles them not from the handle but the front. My wife had seen her previously cuff her nose with the back of her hand. We asked for tap water to wash them, rather than make a fuss and the lad brought them over holding them with his fingers close to the top. The food was good as always, but when asking for the bill I told him about three, one metre streaks of mud daubed across the window where we were seated ( I took a photo ) and that it was unpleasant for anyone sitting there. He said I'll get the window cleaner to remove them when he next comes in !! Does health and safety stop him from picking up hot water and a cloth and cleaning it ! I went to the counter to pay and I got notes out to pay as I prefer not to use credit cards. I was told we don't accept cash. I said why is a notice not put on the door or in bold letters on the menu. By luck I had my card, only because it is needed for the car park. I was asked by the manageress when we were leaving if we enjoyed our meal and we said we would not becoming back again, her reply was I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it, I'll take something off the bill next time. Do you think I will be going back ? Dear old Carluccio would turn in his grave if he knew the standards his beloved restaurant chain has fallen to. I doubt you will be around in a couple of years. I notice on the website there is no way of contacting your company, although I found an address. So, I wrote a review on Trust pilot, but like every other review they ignored it. I then emailed the company and they ignored that. Tells...

Food quality was decent. However, I was really not happy with the poor service provided by a waitress today - she was not wearing a name tag, but she was a young, south asian descent, fairly short female working today (Monday 25th August 2025) - will caller her "waitress 1". I asked waitress 1 if I could pay upfront when ordering as I need to pay with my phone but my phone had developed an issue that morning where it would shut off and then not turn back on for a few hours so I was worried about it shutting off and not being to pay later. She agreed to this but then ignored me for over 30 mins. I asked her again if I could pay now upfront, she agreed again and then ignored me. This made me worried the food will arrive but I won't have the means to pay for it if my phone shuts off again. After waiting for a total of over 40 mins, I approached another staff member and explained the request - this other waitress instantly resolved the issue by taking payment immediately. When waitress 1 then brought over the food, she'd asked if I wanted parmesan and I said yes please. She then went off and did not bring me any parmesan for well over 10 mins, so clearly would not bring it over. The food was getting cold so I got up and asked another waitress for the parmesan - again, I was provided this instantly. I had also asked waitress 1 for water when ordering the food. This never arrived, despite her providing water for those that arrived much later than me. Waitress 1's service was poor throughout (regarding payment, parmesan and even getting me a drink - all the main parts of the visit!), making the dining experience stressful and putting me off going to Carluccio's. The other waitresses I spoke to were superb and very helpful in resolving all the issues I experienced from Waitress 1's poor service. The busy-ness of the restaurant today was on par with other times I've visited and not the reason for these issues, especially given the other waitresses were great. I hope you can use this review as an opportunity to provide training to waitress 1 on how to provide the standard of service other staff at Carluccio were displaying, before she ends up putting off more people from coming to...

Apologies for such a long message but feel our experience was so bad we had to share the details.

Food was to the usual standard for this company (average), no complaints at all. We arrived on Saturday 20th around 3:30pm, the restaurant was not busy (