Artezzan Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in City of Chester

We went to Artezzan on 21st December. The restaurant was overall full, the volume was very loud and made conversation difficult at normal conversation decibel levels.

The decor was nice and festive, nothing to gauche. We had to wait for 5 minutes for our table but that was our fault for being early and we were seated before our reservation time.

The seating was fairly close, about 2 feet to the table to our left and right. As the restaurant is situated next to a main road, window seats are subjected to gawkers walking up and down the road constantly.

The menu was very limited this night as their pizza oven wasn't working and there was no duck option. The pizzas are a full 2 pages on the menu and one of the main reasons I'd booked this location over the multitude of other options in the close vicinity.

We had pork belly and pil pil to start, both were very tasty. The pork belly had a little kick to it which worked well. The meat was cooked to perfection and because it was part of the Pancho's I ordered 2 as a starter for myself.

For mains I chose the steak, medium with a switch from the listed menu fries to the fries from the sides section. The steak was cooked well but wasn't the best cut with a lot of fat and large bone. There was perhaps 8 to 10 Oz of edible meat on the 16oz steak. My partner had lamb terrine which she commented was very nice. It did look delicious. The fries were very nice and complemented the steak perfectly. I chose the sage and onion sauce to go with the steak as a festive alternative.

The reason for the 3 stars is because of the limited menu. For a restaurant famed for its pizzas I'd have hoped for a backup oven or priority fix. The duck was only mentioned that it wasn't on the menu after we'd requested it. I did appreciate being able to swap the fries even though they are on the side menu.

Secondly, the table next to us explicitly asked for a break between courses when their starters arrived and yet no more than 5 minutes after their starter had been cleared their main arrived. On our own table, no more than 30 seconds after putting my knife and fork down, the server was asking to clear our table. We definitely felt rushed and opted to get dessert elsewhere.

Lastly, the volume in the restaurant made conversation near on impossible and definitely not recommended for an intimate, romantic meal.

All that said, I'd possibly go here again, perhaps a different time of year at a less peak time and would ring ahead to check the function of the key...

When life gives you [citrus fruits], because the kitchen doesn't..

As a party of 7 we were aware of the need to show up on time, which we did, 5 minutes early. We expected a brief wait given it was a busy Saturday evening. What we hadn't considered was that we'd be left standing by the entrance for nearly 20 minutes with nary a glance from the host or a table captain. About when our patience was really wearing thin we finally get movement, but instead we get shuffled to the upstairs bar because clearly milling about near the entrance was hindering the flow of drinks out the downstairs bar. We expected some semblance of apology but honestly it was out of stock seemingly, a bit like a lot of the food. When we were eventually sat down, what followed was one disappointment after another as pretty much half the items our party hoped to order (or then tried to as a backup) were unavailable (no carbonara available - how do you run out of a dish that was invented as a war time staple?! It's whole raison d'etre is getting around shortages). One wonders if they would've been unavailable had we been sat down when we had booked rather than 45 mins later. It wasn't just restricted to missing items though, those menu items that Were available to order, the kitchen contrived to fumble. For example we'd ordered the orange infused octopus and king prawn linguini. Attempt one: linguini+prawn+half an orange (interesting choice of garnish, half a whole orange). But no octopus. Back to the kitchen. Attempt two: linguingi+prawn+octopus. But no orange. Aristophanes is behind this all, surely. Third time lucky, thankfully. I know they got rid of the Mecca Bingo at Chester but looks like the kitchen decided to make our dinner service a bit of a wheel of fortune affair to spice things up.

Also I'm not sure if the loukomades is normally served in a Chief Wiggum-esque cartoonishly large portion but perhaps that was a bit too generous? Unless by that point the aim was to smother us to silence under a mound of pillowy sugary goodness.

All in all an extremely memorable dinner that won't...

Giving five stars as it would be rude not to seeing as all was rectified on the night.

Must add we went on a Saturday evening and my partner enjoyed his food immensely!

They offer a vegan menu and this was the reason for choosing them for my birthday dinner. There are 4 good main options and I had my heart set on the seitan steak. Unfortunately there were none left and so chose the paella.

Not sure what happened but we waited for quite a while for our starters. However a member of staff came over and was very apologetic about this.

Starter was okay however the paella was not okay and actually not very nice at all. Again my partner really enjoyed his steak so I think I just picked unwisely. Although how hard is it to get steak wrong.

We then again waited a while for dessert and my partners cocktail however the dessert was extremely nice!

Why I have given it a five stars is for the service alone although generally it wasn’t amazing and food for me had a lot to be desired our waitress did take note of our feelings and let a more senior member of staff know he then was very apologetic and heavily discounted the meal.

Overall for me it probably would have been 2 stars however I think my experience was an anomaly in that they were very keen to resolve my experience.

Some places offer vegan options but then think it’s okay that they just aren’t of the same calibre as the rest of the menu just so they can say they have them. This is how I felt on this evening. As a vegan I think I would prefer they just didn’t have a vegan menu if they offerings...