Miseria e Nobilta' — Restaurant in Colchester

Went for lunch last Friday and were the only people there for most of the time. One other person came in, a young man who wasn't given a warm and friendly welcome and who ate one dish quickly and left! We've eaten here a few times since it opened several years ago, and it has always been variable and never what was promised initially. Early years meals were good, but standards slipped quickly and our visits became less frequent. We thought we would give it another chance as my husband said there was a new menu and reviews were positive. We booked, but when we arrived to an empty dining room, there was no record of our booking! Obviously it didn't matter. The menu looked interesting and authentic. Having spent a couple of weeks in Italy in September and eaten real Italian food, we were pleased to read the menu. However, the food didn't match our expectations. My arrancini were very dry and hard and without the promised bolognese sauce advertised in the menu. My husband did fare better, and his potato and cheese bake was very tasty, plentiful, and freshly cooked. Main courses came out just about warm on very cold plates. My husband had a chicken escalope which was large but not hot and went cold straight away! My veal was plentiful but very thin and was cold! Little sauce was given. Pasta was also cold and sauce very basic! The roast potatoes I ordered were hot and fresh and the best part of the meal! They were an extra cost. I noted the chef / joint owner was mostly sitting in the dining room planning their Xmas menu with his brother who is the front of house man. On the face of it, very welcoming and friendly until one has to complain. We were asked about the food and I mentioned my arrancini being dry and lacking in sauce, but was told that's how it is! Not in Italy it isn't or in other restaurants in Colchester! Complaints about our cold plates and main courses not being hot were met with annoyance from the chef who contradicted me and said the food and plates were hot! Not a pleasant atmosphere at the end of lunch. I think he cooked all our food at the same time and left our mains on the pass to get on with his planning! We had coffee which was fresh. The lunch was expensive for what was provided. The FOH tried to persuade us to book for Xmas lunch! Afraid we won't be eating there again! A shame as it could be a really good authentic restaurant if they made the necessary effort to get everything right! Sloppy attitudes and contradictions don't encourage diners to return. I hope other people fare...

My wife and I came here for our third wedding anniversary and Alfredo was extremely welcoming upon arrival and was very informative about the dishes available, the ingredients, and Colchester as a whole. It's a lovely restaurant that isn't so big that you'll be forgotten about or so small that you'll be hitting elbows with the neighbouring tables, it's the Goldilocks size. We had the mixed seafood platter and arancini balls to start, both were great. The fish tasted very fresh, my wife, being Greek was very impressed by this freshness of fish. For mains we had calves liver and seafood risotto. The calves liver was perfectly cooked and melted in the mouth, whilst the seafood platter again amazed us with its freshness. For the third, and final, course we had tiramisu and rum baba. I can honestly say that the tiramisu is the best tiramisu I've ever tasted, and was quite jealous that my wife had ordered it instead of me. Then I tasted my rum baba and I wasn't jealous anymore. Delicious!

The meal was washed down with a bottle of montepulciano d'abruzzo and when the bill came we were pleasantly surprised. £84 for 3 amazing courses and a bottle of wine, would've happily paid double.

Will definitely be going...

I was looking forward to wisit this restaurant for all the reviews were so great. Got there and the waiter was very nice and the restaurant itself very nice. I orderes Pescatori Risotto and my husband ordered a pasta dish I can't remember the name of. When our dinner came it was so obvious that the muscels in my dish were not fresh at all, I started though to eat them thinking that muscels can't always be as fresh as we are used to here in Iceland. But when I had eaten a few I stopped for I just couldn't eat more. My husbands pasta dish was good taisting but the pasta was very overdone a shame in a Italian restaurant. You might ask why I didn't complain... I never complain, if the dish the chef decides to bring to me is to his liking he just will have to read a comment like this later. But as I said before, nice servise and nice looking restaurant. Will not go there again if I...