ASK Italian - Chichester — Restaurant in Chichester

I took my Mum to Chichester as a 'Birthday treat', as she requested because,she loves Chichester! We were going to have lunch in one of the cafes in 'Sadler's Walk' but, since we hadn't visited in a while, we found that it 'didn't exist anymore'! So we opted to have lunch at Ask instead. It looked nice, staff were polite and friendly but the service throughout was just dreadful! It took a while before someone asked for our order, no worries there really. Our meal then took about half an hour to turn up. It looked like it had been microwaved, dry on top and piping hot underneath? Again the staff were pleasant so we didn't complain. The pasta dish was 'ok' but pretty 'tasteless' really, again we didn't complain when asked because it was 'ok', not great but 'ok'. Also by this time we couldn't help but hear that at least two other tables next to us were having 'problems' with their food?! Long waiting times, cold food, and even one table's meals given to 'someone else' reportedly?! (the tables are close together and , well not only could we hear but, naturally people 'sympathise with each other' especially if they too are experiencing 'difficulties'?!) The restaurant was I would say, less than half full at the time. We ordered a dessert and coffee and knowing how long we had needed to wait for the main course, I told the waitress that we then didn't have loads of time before our car parking ticket would run out and could we also have the bill when she brought dessert? (40 mins and we wanted to walk slowly back because I didn't want to rush my Mum as she has some balance problems sometimes due to her medical condition). Again she was polite and said that she would " make sure we had this quickly". Well it wasn't that quick! and she then left us with no spoons to eat it with! Again, I 'didn't want to add to the then 'mounting problems' on the tables around us! so I got up and asked one of the other waitresses for some spoons or even where I could get them myself? She said she would get some but obviously 'very hassled' she didn't so I asked again and she grabbed 2 teaspoons and 'plonked' them on our table! The 'original waitress apologised for forgetting the spoons and offered ( only when my Mum pointed it out) to get dessert spoons. However, by this stage and with the atmosphere of increasingly frustrated, disappointed and well understandably angry customers around us, we by this stage just wanted to 'finish up and leave'! So we finished our desserts with teaspoons, Mum drank the half cup of coffee she had been served and I went to the desk/ counter and asked for the bill! I paid it but didn't as I would normally leave a tip for service and I told the young lady, quite calmly and quietly why. I said, " young lady, you are all quite polite here but you really need to 'get your act together' because the service is shocking!" To which she replied( not rudely, just 'hassled') well it is very busy for just three of us! To which I replied, " no Honey that's not what you should have said and no, actually this place is not that busy! I'm just trying to give you some constructive feedback?" She ignored me, so I shrugged and left. I put it down to the staff perhaps being young and maybe inexperienced? However, this WAS poor service, the food was at best 'ok' and it has definitely put me off trying that restaurant again. I do hope things improve, the manager seriously needs to bring his/her staff 'up to speed'. The only positive thing I can say was that none of the staff were actually rude to us, albeit ignored me at the end! but not rude as such! I was unwilling to 'create too much of a scene' as, this was supposed to be a nice, relaxed day out for my Mum and myself and more importantly, with my Mum's medical condition I do try wherever possible to avoid stressful situations that could raise the pressure in her head and could make her very ill, potentially needing emergency medical assistance! Normally not an issue when we're out. I hope this may help other people have a more positive experience...

Just had Xmas dinner... Starters were shell on butterfly prawns served on toast which was soggy and the prawns lacked flavour as well as being covered in parsley which is such a strong herb all you could taste was parsley.

My partner had the 'most loved' beef brisket papperdelle which was low quality beef brisket most likely frozen, flavourless watery Ragu and again covered in parsley... There's a trend here....

I had the nduja sausage pizza which again was covered in a ridiculous amount of parsley completely spoiling the flavour not sure why the chefs have been trained to litter everything with parsley it's bizzare.

The restaurant was dead, absolutely no atmosphere, no Christmas music, no Christmas crackers just some napkins that said happy Xmas. Servers were disinterested and clearly didn't want to be there, same goes for the chefs all standing around staring at diners.

When we arrived we were served a shot of lemonade... A shot of lemonade... I've never seen that before... it's supposedly an Italian restaurant can't we have limoncello?

My partner said the toilets were a mess, wallpaper peeling, no toilet roll holder and a massive hole in the wall full of grub what a disgusting thing for a chain restaurant to allow, toilets that are rundown.

I'm absolutely baffled how this restaurant is #3 in Chichester, food tastes like it's all frozen because it is and is completely spoiled by a ridiculous amount of parsley on everything.

I know it's Xmas and standards maybe slip but I find it hard to believe anything would be different on a normal day other than disinterested staff. What a complete disappointment....

My husband and I have been coming here for about 8 years and have had these dishes at least 6 times previously. Calamari - appeared to be half the usual portion. Had to ask if they had sent small by mistake. For almost £15 just for this alone without sides this was very disappointing although tasted delicious. Ragu - kind enough to change the pasta. They notified me that how it was made last year had changed as they were using a different pasta last year, however this dish differs greatly from how it was served last year. No flavour, there is very little actual meat and sauce, and tasted watered down consistency meant after 2 attempts I couldn’t eat it! Sent the whole dish back and then heard the staff talking about the fact that it was that I ordered the wrong pasta with the dish. As we were waiting for our waiter we were literally discussing where else we could have gone to eat. Sadly after many year of ASK being a favourite the meals are not up to par for what you pay when you are paying about £20 a dish when finer restaurants charge the same and the food is of far superior quality. Let’s hope pudding is still the same and this may redeem the evening. Desert was delicious. The deserts did not disappoint. We had a mini panacotta, Nutella gnocchi & my favourite blood orange and raspberry tart. Well if ASK was just a desert bar it wouldn’t surprise me with the quality of the deserts. So glad the deserts were worth getting dressed and leaving the house for. Sadly I can confidently say I will not be back for the Savoury menu however I would visit just for desert and highly recommend the chocolate blood...