L'anatra — Restaurant in Cotswold District

First visit today and definitely the last one. I think the feedbacks are written by staff. Arrived 4.40pm on Sunday 27/02. Tried to book a table for 4. Manager was helpful he said that earliest time slot will be at 5.30 which I agreed. He asked one staff member to take my details. Arrived 5.32pm and straight away been shown the table. Lady who came with us said that will bring menus and cutlery which arrived promptly. I decided to go to the toilet after 5min since we were sat. When came back we were waiting for a waitress for a good 15min. ( Maybe if I don’t work for hospitality industry I will be ok waiting forever for a team member to come and take our order, but unfortunately I am working in hospitality and I can give you a decent feedback to what I observed ). One table sat and they were enjoying their food another table of 5 or 6 next to us received food probably 10min after we were seated. Table behind us also been sat down after us and until we left no one bother to come and at least take their drinks order. All in all the points which I spotted while we have been there: no toilet roll in gents prior dinner period ( 5 staff working foh ) 25min sat on the table with no drink ordered ( we came with 2 kids so shame that 2 waitresses present doesn’t even spotted how bored they were ) I was looking around to get someone’s attention but even if had an eye contact several times I failed. They stood in the corridor with the notepad in their hands more engaged with their conversation. In one moment I thought that maybe there is no table service, just self service or ordering at the bar or on the till.

When we decided to leave after 25min I still thank the waitresses, no one asked us why we were leaving and they didn’t apologise for the wait. On the way out I said goodbye to one of the table just be the exit door as the gentlemen definitely seen what was going on and why we decided to leave. I’ve been in many places, worked for few companies in hospitality industry and for sure that was the first time when I had so much ignorance from the staff.

I know hospitality have a hard time after the Covid restrictions and lockdowns. Recruiting staff is the way harder than back in 2019. But whatever I’ve seen today was the worst. Waitresses seen me watching at them and waiting for them to come but they were keep ignoring. We decided to leave the place and drove back to Cheltenham where we live and had a dinner in cosy club instead.

Shame I couldn’t give you any comment about the food. Maybe my feedback will be totally different if I manage to...

Great food, but disappointing service sadly.

Just finished having a meal here with my wife.

Start with the positives, reasonably priced, good house wine, lovely button mushrooms for starters and pizza and calzone were good.

Made a reservation over the phone and asked to be seated outside, told no problem as long as the weather is okay.

Arrived at 7:05pm (reservation at 7pm), told by man in white shirt may have been manager that no note on reservation of sitting outside on the booking.

I informed him that I did tell his colleague when booking that we wanted eat outside. His reply was we are short staffed so will have to bear with us....

Not a good start and didn't fill us with confidence, not exactly a warming welcome.

Only ones sat outside decided to sit in, as wasps about no fault of the restaurant.

Sat directly outside the kitchen door unfortunately, number of tables free so wasn't ideal.

Starters arrived before our wine arrived a minute or two after. Starters of mushrooms no issues they were fantastic.

Mains arrived, no mention if we wanted sauces or any other drinks. Had to ask for some sauce.

Whilst eating no mention if we would like any tap water, any other drinks, or how was the food or any other sauces.

We heard a few times staff saying to other customers how busy and short staffed they were.

I understand this, but this is not the customer issue and If they knew this they shouldn't have accepted bookings.

Bill came and automatic 10% service charged added, I requested this to be removed.

Then unfortunately card machines stopped working, so had to walk across the road to withdraw cash.

Waitress came over to ask what was wrong with the service.

It wasn't her individually as could see she was busy, but unfortunately there was no real service see above.

Been to many Italian restaurants in UK and Italy and had much better service.

I was happy to tip a lot more in cash and also order dessert, but the whole experience was lacking sadly.

Please please take this on board, the food is good. Sort out the short staffing which has been mentioned in other reviews and service will be improved.

Sadly had a number of people coming to Bourton-on-the-Water this week, who were going to eat here, who I have told them to visit elsewhere unfortunately due to...

We had an amazing time exploring the Cotswolds, minus this one dinner. My husband, myself and our son got reservations expecting a great Italian dinner based off recommendations. The food was great, but the lack of service our table seemed to be the only one receiving was disappointing. Our server, didn’t even get his name rushed and felt like he didn’t want to serve us. Our bottle of wine was dropped off with two glasses as the bar tender rushed away. We weren’t offered Parmesan with our dishes. All of this would be unacceptable, but what we witnessed around us made it irritating. Every table around us received Parmesan from the young server with a cheerful attitude, bottles opened and poured, and just an overall more accepting attitude. We are very easy to please and are some of the kindest customers a place could have, but we were treated differently, noticeably differently. Maybe it’s because we’re Americans, maybe it’s because our family make up is different. I get it, our country’s leadership is terrible, but he’s not representative of all Americns. It wasn’t an off night for our server or bad timing, he was amazing with the rest of the tables.

I’ve waited over a week to post this, we didn’t ask to speak to a manager, we didn’t want that memory. But the more I think back to that dinner, the more i felt I needed to leave a review.

To the kind table (locals) next to us who heard our frustration, thank you for the apology on behalf of the servers. We did enjoy our stay in the Cotswolds,...