Torino Lounge — Restaurant in Cherwell District

My wife has been off work for the last 5 weeks due to illness, which, she is still awaiting answers and tests from Doctors.

On the day of our visit it happened to be my Wife's birthday, and this was the first time in weeks we had been in a public place to eat, her anxiety was through the roof, literally scared to eat in case it made her illness worse, but did not want to spoil her big day!

As we arrived, we chose a table and sat down. The music was a tad too loud, but we remained where we were as the only other tables were in the middle, given my wife's anxiety we felt best to sit at the side.

My wife and I ordered via the app and waited for our food and drink.

During this time, the "casual" non uniformed staff seemed to all just be having a laugh at a mates, rather than being at work. Staff seen drinking red bull, coffee's etc at the bar, whilst food sat on the pass going cold (the chef had rang the bell). Minutes later I was disgusted. Our order had now gone on to the chef's screen and as he looked at it with all the special comments and requests, he just stood and shook his head and then looked right in my direction as he saw which customers were asking for so many requests. He then seemed to be talking to another chef who did the same, totally disgusting. On your menu it states that you take allergies etc very serious, yet the chef's look like it is a big problem.

My wife has been advised to eat "bland food" whilst she has this illness whilst tests are carried out, so naturally, wanted no butter, nothing fried or any oil. In addition no hollandaise either. It really took a lot for her to even eat out so these simple requests should not be an issue, yet the chef's made it clear from their body language that we were a nuisance

The drinks arrived, yet I had ordered the freshly squeezed OJ at a ridiculous cost of £5.50. It had so much ice in there was a layer of water on top by the time it got to me and tasted no different to low quality supermarket juice.

As we waited for our food, what became my breakfast (pancakes with extra sides) had been sat under the lights for a good 8/9 minutes before it came to me. Prior to the food arriving, the waiter (black t-shirt, shorts, chain around neck) put the dirty cutlery on the table and said nothing

Moments later he put our food down and said nothing and just walked off. I look around to attract some attention as we wanted sauces and maybe another drink.

Eventually one of the two girls behind the bar came over and asked if we were ok as we were looking around - to which I asked for some ketchup, which seemed to take an age!

My breakfast was naturally luke warm at best, bacon was greasy and cold, sausage was acceptable and has browns were just ok.

At just under £35 it was not of a standard that I would expect for that cost. I could go to the local 4 star hotel and have two breakfasts for the same price and that would include unlimited drinks, cereal, fruits and pastries along with a fresh cooked breakfast and limitless toast and jams. In addition at least we would not see the chef's shake their heads and glares when we ask for simple requests!

We used to love Torino Lounge, yet think it will be a long time, if ever, that we use one again.

My wife did not know about the Chef's behaviour until we left, when I told her she burst into tears. Not great on her...

We were very disappointed with our visit. Today is Bank Holiday Monday and we had lunch at Benito Lounge. The place was quite busy but we took that as a good sign. My husband ordered the food at the bar (2x fish finger sandwiches, a side of chips, a side of macaroni cheese and 2 orange juices). He was waiting in the very slow-moving queue for well over ten minutes. Ten minutes after he ordered the food, a waiter came over to say they could only do 1 fish sandwich. We amended one order (although it was odd that at midday on a bank holiday that they had run out of a dish). Another five minutes later, the same waiter returned to say actually they couldn't do any fish sandwiches. I chose the same replacement dish as my husband (avocado, tomato, lime and chilli on toast). After another 25 minutes of waiting (40 mins since ordering) our food arrived. We appreciated that the place was busy but another couple (who were sitting on the table next to us) arrived after we had ordered, they had received their food, eaten their food and left before we'd even received ours. When the food came, it was disgusting. The avocado was under-ripe, the tomatoes were slimy and the food was extremely bland. We did say to the waitress who brought our food over that we'd been waiting a very long time. She did apologise and offer us a free drink but we didn't want one. As it's a new place, I did want to say something to someone when our dishes were collected, but we remained at the table for almost fifteen minutes after we had eaten what we could of the food and no-one collected our plates. I could continue: the £4.50 glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice were mostly filled with ice cubes (but it was good to see freshly squeezed juice on sale), the side of chips were not nice to eat. And, due to the amount of tables and people in there, I was bumped in my seat, had to get up from my seat to let people with prams past, and I had to move my table to give another table room to get people around it several times. There were too many tables for the few staff members that were there. I do feel bad complaining when we could particularly see one female member of staff running around like a headless chicken trying to do lots of things, but I will never be going back to that place. The one star is for the nice mac and cheese and the fact that they had freshly squeezed...

From start to finish this has to be the worst visit to the lounges we have ever had. We often visit the lounges for the cosy, relaxed atmosphere and wide selection of food available. Rather than coming to greet us at the sign that said "please wait here to be seated" the server shouted across from clearing a table just sit anywhere no questions of alternative menus or allergies as they normally do. We ordered using the app and the drinks were served fairly quickly although the milk stout was provided with a hi ball glass, when asked for a larger glass the server picked up the glasses walked of and retuned with 2 taller hi ball glasses slammed them on the table and walked away. When going to the bar to ask for a glass that would take the bottle as it is a stout and should be poured all together the server argued that is the right glass and it is not Guinness. The standard of the cooking of the food was far bellow par, the squid was so over cooked it was hard, burnt and some inedible. The panini was so hard and burnt that we could do nothing but remove the filling. All chicken dishes were dry as if sat for far too long. We had no check back and when the table was cleared not even a how was everything. Im pretty sure they knew it was poor hence not asking and not mentioning the uneaten food. Both male and female toilets had not been checked all day and the team on seemed like they had far better things to be doing than working. Very disappointing especially as it was the first time for my parents to visit...