La Foglia - Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Cherwell District

WOW!!!! SHOCKINGLY TOO SALTY!!!!!!!!!!! 塩辛すぎ! オススメできません。

The WORST experience ever. I am just simply writing this for someone who is thinking to try this place in future.

We travelled from London. We decided to try this restaurant after reading some positive reviews here. Dined on Saturday 4th May 2024 at 8pm.

I ordered Lobster and Scampi with Ragu £22. My 10 years old child ordered Veal and Parma Ham. The dishes were both absolutely and shockingly salty. Soon after I put mouthful of the spaghetti, I looked at my son and my husband. My son had an expression of surprise and putting his tongue out after eating his veal dish. He grabbed a glass of water and gobbled it. My husband ordered lamb shank and mashed potato. The sauce was saltier than other restaurants, but it was blended with plain mashed potato, so it was not bad - according to him.

My son and I made so much effort to finish the dishes as we didn’t want to waste. But now - I feel I should have spoken with manager straight after we noticed the dinner was not good. It made my tongue numbing and we woke up a few times over the night because we were so thirsty and wanted to drink water! I am not laying, this is a true story. I wish it wasn’t.

We spoke with a female waitress who has long blond hair when she brought a bill to our table. She gave me the following possible reasons why the dinner was so salty for us:

We are sensitive with salty food The sprinkle of parmesan cheese made it too salty. It was a seafood dish. So the seafoods themselves already can be salty. So that’s why.

She stated she actually put too much parmesan cheese the other day.

The dark haired female waitress who came and offered me sprinkling cheese only put a tea spoon of parmesan cheese on the spaghetti. I usually put that much cheese on my dinner at home/other Italian restaurants. Never had the same issue.

I doubt it was salty because of the sprinkle of cheese!

Am I sensitive to salt? - No way, I LOVE salty food, salty chips, dark soy sauce. In fact, I even carry around a sachet of Kikkoman Soy Sauce in my bag when I travel around and dine in outside as usually I find food not tasteless and has lack of Umami flavour. This is not a joke, I am Japanese and I find quite a few dishes in restaurants in this country have lack of taste.

I certainly did bring a sachet of Kikkoman soy sauce this time of course, but I certainly did not need to use it!

It saved one sachet but it certainly made us feel we wasted the £77 we had to pay. We had great time in Blenheim Palace that day with Jousting performance. But this bad experience which La Foglia in Banbury brought us really ruined our day, sadly.

Really shocking way to serve dinner and I do recommend people to avoid this restaurant. I should probably write an email to the owner of this place. It is really unhealthy to serve such dishes. All the beautiful ingredients are ruined because of the careless cooking/neglect of the chef and possibly the owner.

IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SUFFERING FROM HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE/IF YOU ALREDY HAVE, this restaurant is NO NO NO… and NO!!!

Chef in this restaurant CLEARLY doesn’t know how to put all the ingredients together.

Edit: Response to manager’s reply**

It’s disappointing to read the manager’s response. We were never ever trying to leave the seat without paying last night. Please do talk to your employees about that and confirm.

It is all up to you if you would like to make your restaurant better, gain more customers and would like to hear good reviews from honest customers in future.

I really feel now I am so happy to not working in your restaurant. Absolutely rude and shocking manner. Thanks for reading this long review everyone! Do not go this restaurant. Definitely better to keep your money and time for other,...

I don't often leave bad reviews, I don't believe in it but I don't think I've ever been treated so unprofessionally.

After a long day walking around we were recommended this restaurant as a nice place to dine.

My partner loves Italian food and I really fancied a tiramisu and hot tea.

On arrival we were greeted and seated kindly. My partner ordered the classic Spaghetti Bolognese and I ordered Tiramisu with a lemon tea and water. We often do this in our favourite restaurants in Oxford. Nothing happened at first then there was some whispers going on and lots of glances over in our direction. At this point I had an idea we had done something wrong and I felt extremely uncomfortable.

A very abrupt lady approached us, perhaps the manager, with a very overbearing approach. Infact she talked to us like we had committed a crime. Sarcastic tones and unnecessary rudeness. We were told they are 'unable to serve us as this is a restaurant'

I explained I have a sweet tooth and my partner was actually the one dining I was just accompanying him and was treating myself to a cake and tea. I was spoken to in a demeaning and rude mannor and told in more ways than one we were not being served.

It's a real shame I would have loved to try this place but so ce reading the other Google reviews I am quite relieved we didn't get to try the food since many people have said it is not good. It really was very unwelcoming and confusing. It felt embarrassing being told to leave the restaurant.

Please avoid this place, can't say much about the food but if you want to be treated with respect and dignity then avoid at all costs !

Absolutely disgraceful way to treat customers. 0 stars

Get some training on customer...

La Foglia allowed us to exclusively hire their incredible restaurant to celebrate my 50th birthday with 30 friends & family for a 3-course lunch on a Saturday afternoon. We had use of their restaurant from noon until 5.30pm. Natalia and all the team were incredible; friendly, professional and so accommodating in every aspect. The set menu options were brilliant and allowed us to cater for toddlers, vegans and everyone else in between. Every guest was extremely impressed with the quality of the ingredients and the skill in both cooking and presentation. There was not one complaint from any guest about any course. I had the steak as my main and the quality was evident in every bite. Cooked to perfection (rare) and serviced with a delicious peppercorn sauce, that is so well balanced. The veg here is always cooked to perfection too with carrots/cauliflower/broccoli always crunchy and never soft. Their rosemary potatoes wedges are lovely too. This wasn’t my first time here; I often use it for both personal and business visits. It is, by some distance, the best restaurant in Banbury and you will have to drive a long way from Banbury to find another restaurant that can match it in all aspects (service, quality of ingredients, presentation). Thank you La Foglia for making a special day,...