Venezia Italian Restaurant Bourton — Restaurant in Cotswold District

Not a great place, more like a tourist trap!

Pros: Nice environment. Cosy with characters. Convenient location.

Cons: Slow service

Food was mediocre.

Starters were around £10+. Main dishes were £20-£30 range and kids meal were £10, so not a cheap restaurant. I’d expect more at this price range.

Kids lasagne were tiny, even for my daughter who eats very little. It was mainly tomato sauce with tiny bits of pasta and cheese. £10 for tomato sauce and a few bit of pasta swimming in it, it doesn’t even include a drink. Had way better value kids meal elsewhere.

Bread that accompanied the dishes was doughy, looked like it didn’t rise properly before it was baked.

Same with the pizza. Just mediocre. Def not the standard of Italian pizza I’ve had in other restaurants.

My prawns arrived cold. The prawns themselves were lukewarm but the sauce was stone cold. Food was served on a cold plate, clearly waited too long for it to be served. The same for the muscles. They were warm but not hot.

The pasta was the same. Cold and dry, looked like it was sat under the heat lamp for too long. We even found a piece of hair in it.

I seldom make complains about the food, but cold prawns and hair in pasta was just not acceptable. We asked for replacement which they apologised. The second time the food finally arrived warm, thank goodness, after everyone else had finished eating. I believed the main issue was the food was not served on a warm plate, so they cooled down too quickly.

We didn’t even want to risk trying their dessers. The waitress did apologised and took service charge off the bill as a compensation.

Don’t think we’ll ever...

If you’re just looking for decent pizza and traditional pasta dishes, this place is good and has reasonable prices; however, I was vehicles and disappointed when I discovered the £9 calamari starter consisted of just EIGHT sad calamari rings (see picture). That’s more than £1 per ring! I know the prices in the Cotswolds are inflated, but this dish was kind of comical. We’ve visited and lived in some of the biggest, most expensive cities in the world and this would never fly. The seafood stew and seafood pasta were good, but neither was worth £23. It must be pretty expensive to get seafood (that’s not destined for fish and chips) to the Cotswolds.

My son’s cheese pizza was fine and my parents enjoyed their lasagna and cannelloni, which were both reasonably priced and generously portioned.

The ice cream stand attached to the restaurant was a nice to have since most of the other ice cream places in Bourton are closed by 5, but the guy refused to give my six year old son a sample to see if he liked the bubblegum flavor, which was a bit confusing considering there were three or four used sample spoons sitting on the counter. I mean, I spent like £40 for ice cream and desserts alone; the least you can do is let a kid have a sample so he doesn’t need to throw away his entire cone.

It seems that this place is newer and probably has lots of bills to pay, so hopefully these things will get smoothed out at some point, though somehow I don’t think they are too concerned about retaining customers as most of the people visiting the Cotswolds are one-and-done.

Anyway, this place is fine if you’re...

Passed through Bourton-On-The-Water after a family holiday for dinner. We loved the look of the exterior and the menu of course. We didn't pre-book, but they accomodated our seating by pushing two tables together (5 people) however, the tables hadn't been cleaned - liquid stains and salt/pepper all over.

When ordering our drinks, I asked if the table could be cleaned and the waiter said he will get someone. Our drinks arrived, but the table still hadn't been cleaned, so I mentioned it again. A young man came and started wiping in between the gaps, not moving the mats/objects, so my aunt asked for the cloth and started cleaning the table in front of him. He joked saying "you're doing my job for me", and we laughed it off but realistically, this isn't the service you pay for at such a restaurant - especially when paying £17.50 for pasta.

I ordered a starter, which never came so asked for it to be taken off the bill which was done and an apology received.

HOWEVER, despite the poor service we personally encountered, the speed of receiving the food and the quality of the food was on point. We all thoroughly enjoyed our food which thankfully made up for the service we received. We did pay the service charge although we did hesitate. I had the Pasta Al Forno, mum and aunt had the lasagne and my sister the pepperoni pizza. Nothing was left! 😋

Once the service/staff are dealt with, this would be an ace italian...