Stazione — Restaurant in Cambridge

Disappointing Italian restaurant located in a basement. Drinks: my Aperol Spritz was bitter rather than sweet and was a stingy portion; my partner received a brand of beer which was different to the brand requested. Starter: this platter of cold meats, vegetables, olives, calamari and shrimp in a tomato sauce was the best thing about the whole dinner. Note, though, that this was £10.50 per person, making it £21 for us two. Mains: we have severe issues with our mains. I had the carbonara. The pasta was al dente to the point of being undercooked. I visited Italy a couple weeks ago so I know al dente, but this was verging on brittle. There was barely any meat. Was not offered parmesan. My partner had a seafood spaghetti with about 3 muscles and 2 shrimp. His spaghetti was sincerely undercooked and the tomato sauce is the blandest, most watery sauce I have ever had. His was about £15! Both portions were outrageously large so we got them boxed up - we will add our own meat and sauce at home! Dessert: an adequate but overpriced tiramisu. Staff: mixed experiences with the staff. We waited a lot - to be seated (despite many empty tables), for a second menu, to order, for the food itself, even to pay! Furthermore, I am certain the menu (the dessert menu) says the service charge is 10% but our bill had 12.5%. The male staff were not warm - almost begrudging our presence - while the female staff were ok - though seemingly all expected us to clear the two other places of our four person table! Environment: like walking back in time to an early 00s club. Music choices are questionable - going between Christmas songs and rock/pop, the bass of which makes a thudding in the confined, window-less basement. The lights are harsh and unshielded, and bounce around the room in the various mirrors. Even the menus themselves are scruffy, with dozens of scribbles and hastily crossed out prices drawn back on in pen. Considered whether to give 1 or 2 stars. Have opted for 1 because the starter and dessert don't really make up for an otherwise entirely awful evening and the venue fails to provide decent, cooked through food delivered by approachable humans - the basic function of a restaurant and the...

Okay so you're in Cambridge with friends, you decide to eat out on Saturday night, you'd like some live music. You find Stazione which appears to fit the bill. What you don't do is read TripAdvisor......mega mistake!! You arrive, shown to your table and given the menu & drinks menu. All OK so far. Wine ordered arrives OK. Starters ordered arrive OK. Mains ordered & this is where it starts to go wrong. There is a shortage of Halibut so alternatives are chosen, which includes an offer of lobster from the Manager 'at no extra cost'. Accepted. Mains eaten, desserts ordered and we wait...and we wait, finally one comes and we continue to wait....we chase it up & it arrives. We then order four liqueur coffees. We watch as the staff try, without success to make them. The first effort, they got the liqueur wrong and it looked like a latte coffee. They were returned & the order reduced to three. Second attempt arrived, again looking like a latte. This effort we chose to drink. Finally,by the way the music was top notch, we asked for the bill......Four coffees charged and.....10% surcharge...NON NEGOTIABLE!!! Coffee was eventually removed from the bill but surcharge was not. Manager was extremely rude, quite threatening and, if you read the reviews this appears to be a nightly occurrence. What is so stupid is, that if he were to have removed the surcharge we would probably have left a tip in cash. As a result he has managed to upset four customers, get a bad review on TripAdvisor and, please note this Mr Manager and all you readers of TripAdvisor a strongly worded complaint to the local Trading Standards via Citizens...

I came here with my kids for a late lunch. We arrived about an hour before they closed the restaurant before the evening service and so only the outside seating area was open. Our food (two pizzas, one fish and chips and one swordfish and chips) took 45 minutes to come. It wasn't busy so really no need for such a big delay.

After asking what was taking so long, I was told that all the food is ready but the swordfish is taking longer to grill than expected, did we want the rest of the food now?..... Yes of course! I don't want the rest of the order sitting under a heat lamp!

When the food finally arrived, I cut the fish in half for my 4 year old daughter, I saw that it was completely raw inside. The waiter wholeheartedly agreed, apologized and took the food away. 5 minutes later he returned with the same plate, half of the fish I had just had been thrown back into the fryer. So I had a thin (original) half of cold fish, and a thick (refried) overdone side. I know that kids don't have developed pallets yet, but come one! They could at least have thrown a fresh fish in!

My daughter spilled her drink all over the table, and while the waiter was quick to come over to clean it, he didn't offer a replacement (free or otherwise). With all of the above in mind I would have thought they could offer a complimentary drink, but no.

The rest of the dishes were ok, nothing special but not horrible.

Service needs fixing and the ridiculous wait for food needs to be fixed. I will not...