Prezzo Italian Restaurant Cheltenham — Restaurant in Cheltenham

Terrible experience. Would give zero stars if I could. Booked table last Thursday, 2adults, 2 chilren at 6.15, we were watching a show in the town at 7.30pm and prezzo was a 5 minute walk from the venue. We arrived early, was seated by 6 and ordered shortly afterwards, restaurant soon filled up. The children's garlic bread, one slice starter only came out at 6.50 and by 7.00pm I asked a waitress if she could check where our mains were, she said she would, walked off but came back shortly after with another tables bill and did not say anything to us, she then asked another waitress to find out, this waitress walked to the kitchen and shortly after came out with another tables food, she didn't come back to us, it is now 7.20pm I approached a chap behind the bar and said we could no longer wait for the food we had to leave for the show, he said ok, sorry and he walked off to the kitchen, we were getting our bags to leave and he asked if I would be happy to pay for the soft drinks and kids starters...I said no I would not be happy to do that, he replied, ok sorry, enjoy the show. I appreciate the Restaurant was busy and most people were obviously going to the show we were but at no point did we get told there would be a wait for food, no one checked on us or gave us an update on food. This now subsequently meant by the time we got to the venue the bar had closed so I couldn't even get my children a bag of crisps, this affected their mood and enjoyment of the show. The apology I received was insincere and gave the impression customer experience means nothing, all that...

We've eaten here a few times over the years and have always found the service and food to be reliably good. So we popped in this afternoon after 4.30pm prior to the Christmas lights being switched on for an early evening dinner.

When we walked in there were a handful of tables taken, yet the atmosphere looked good, nice and bright with the Christmas decorations.

We asked for a table for two but were told they were due around 90 guests from 5 pm, so they had nothing available. It was shame and disappointing but a little surprised as knowing the restaurant there's plenty of dining, both on the ground and the firat floor dining areas that could easily have soaked up the 90 guets and then some.

So we left, but then my wife went online and was able to see that we could book a table, at the same restaurant, at 5 pm, only we didn't. Now that's really disappointing. When you walk around Cheltenham town centre, most town centres for that matter, there are quite a few empty retail and restaurant units, restaurants make up a fairly large portion of those that are empty. It seems very strange in the current economic climate that any restaurant, business for that matter, would turn away any sort of custom..

Never mind, maybe next time.

So we stayed online and booked a table at the town's other Prezzo, in the Brewery Quarter where there was a really good atmosphere.

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We went to enter a few weeks ago and stood in the doorway waiting to be seated for so long that we gave up. However a friend booked a group celebration here last week so we revisited.

Considering the booking for 14 people had been prearranged and everything ordered in advance of our arrival, service was incredibly slow.

We were seated upstairs which was great from the perspective of being a quiet area however there was never any waiters upstairs to ask for additional drinks etc. Even when we had a spillage we had to root around to find a blue roll to clean up.

Service took hours. 2 hours after our booking started we still hadn't received desserts and I had to go downstairs and hurry them along for desserts and the bill.

Food was wrong from what was preordered at times but corrected swiftly, meat calzone ended up being seafood and meat which I could swear wasn't written on the preorder menu. Half the starters came and the other half arrived after the first had already finished. Birthday girl had a carbonara pasta and said it was so dry she couldn't eat it. She left over half. I chose 'chocolate sticks' off the kids menu for my son as he doesn't like ice cream and that was the only alternative. When they came it turned out to be Nutella. This was not clear on the menu and he hates nuts so didn't eat it. Disappointing.

All round disappointing and won't...