Per Tutti Berkhamsted — Restaurant in Dacorum

Unfortunately we didn't have a great experience, so I thought I would contact the restaurant before leaving a review. It has now been a week and two emails and no response.

This is what was emailed:

I wanted to share our experience of last night. We have been wanting to visit a Per Tutti Restaurant for a long time as we had seen and read about the various 4 branches. I managed to get a booking and we were delighted by the set menu available. Please keep in mind we do not live locally and made approximately a 50 minute drive to Berkhamstead - especially as we don’t normally get to go out for Valentines Day.

We got to the restaurant about 5 minutes earlier and were then pointed out to the table that we were allocated. We made our way over, a sweet gesture a rose was left lying on the table. However, maybe you need to rethink this table. It was a table in the corner of the restaurant near the bar. I was sat in the corner, my husband sat opposite and it was poorly placed, he was behind the bar, so all staff just kept passing behind (of course they had no choice) but for him not the best seat.

Our server (think Anna) was brilliant throughout service she was very tentative, polite and friendly - please do pass on the compliments for the brilliant service she gave.

When it comes to the food this was the biggest downfall. I ordered the Porcini Mushroom Ravioli, this was really odd, almost tasted like it was frozen, with a very al dente outside and the filling was cold and bland - I had to open up each ravioli to smear some of the truffle sauce and salt to give it flavour. My husband the Calamari Fritti again this was really odd, with a thick batter, the inside squid was either watery or over cooked, it was just pot luck of whichever piece you were eating, again the sauce that came with it was bland. We thought as it was starters, we decided not to say anything, and that our mains would be better.

For mains I ordered Pollo Saltimbocca, it was OK, just disappointing as it was on par with a meal from a chain like Harvester. The chicken wasn’t seasoned, just a sage leaf and thick parma ham, the greens were overcooked and this all came swimming in what I was expecting to be a lemon & butter sauce but it tasted like a salty gravy - there was no balance in the flavours. My husband ordered the Rib Eye Steak (for the £6 supplement) - which he ordered medium rare. I normally will choose to have steak medium well, he gave me a bite of his steak to try - I was chewing on it for so long, so I can only imagine his disappointment. The peppercorn sauce he chose, tasted like a thicker version of the gravy like sauce I had, with a sweet taste. He did speak to someone (Anna), and very quickly without any problems they ordered a new plate for him - again great service.

However, there I am on Valentine’s night eating my dinner and him watching me, just as I was finishing up his new plate came out. It was like the Chef was not happy, this time the steak was rare to blue and his sauce was still very strange, same sweet sauce but this time overly salty, the nicest part of the meal so far at this point in the evening was the rocket with vinaigrette on his plate. Just as I was finishing my main my partner was starting to eat his meal, we basically watched one another eat our mains.

For desert I had the Warm Apple Tart, my partner the Chocolate Brownie, again there was not much taste to either - they were just ok, there was not much flavour, just presentation was good and it stopped there.

I appreciate it was a busy night, however majority of the tables were couples, so not a full night. There was a set menu so the Chef wouldn’t be bombarded - we walked away just deflated and disappointed for what we would of thought would be a great way to try Per Tutti and wasn’t.

There are positives just as the restaurant is beautiful, just not the area our table was at. Your restaurant staff were great, friendly and polite. But the food is the reason we will make this our first and last meal...

Me and my Girlfriend were undecided about what to eat and where to go and, as the other option she was pushing for was Ask i tried my best to avoid it (i was born and raised in Naples). So while we were walking down the main road of Berkhamsted i spotted this so called Authentic Italian Restaurant and once checked the menu we decided to give it a go: LOCATION 5/5 On the main road and the restaurant itself is fairly small but very nicely decorated and cozy enough. Very nice paint of a Venice canal view too inside. And they have an open kitchen in order to show customers the way they work. SERVICE 4/5 The waiters were very efficient and professional. Never been intrusive and happy to help. Just a little bit of human touch missed to have a 5 but they are there to work not to socialize i guess FOOD 3/5 Ok here we going to cross a sort of fine line ...but bear in mind once again i come from that side of the neck where this food has been invented and treated like a religion. Nice menu with different kind of dishes for all the tastes. so i originally decided to order Linguine di mare but when asking the waiter to ask the chef to do them "al dente" his answer was the pasta is cooked in one way only!! (i swear my blood froze on that) so i swapped the pasta immediately to the risotto gamberetti and zucchine. We ordered the below and i tried also what my girlfriend had: Arancini di funghi: very small portion and the arancini should be called mini for their size. You can barely spot the rice in that. i do not recommend them Calamari fritti: Always go for them when i try new Italian restaurants to see if i can relive those flavours of my own homeland: This was not the case. Squid was very soft and the coating was not nice and crispy. Risotto gamberetti e zucchine: Rice cooked ok not al dente and not too soft. the fact they added tomatoes to this risotto for us is something to press charge for...but hey i understood well before this is not authentic italian. This choice was my mistake also because as a cook my risottos are the best ones you can find in town :D Tagliatelle al pesto rosso: You won't believe this! Actually the cooking of the pasta was good and not soft!! Sauce very nice full of mushrooms and the amount of red pesto added was perfect not too much to cover the rest and not to less in order to give a nice color to the creamy sauce. Recommended (but remember Italians do not put full broccolis on their pastas lol) Strawberry Cheesecake: This was very very nice ...i am a moaner according to my girlfriend...but i would do a crunchier base for cheesecakes ALWAYS!!! but it was good and the strawberries and the sauce were great too. Tiramisù: Do not order it unless you want to taste amaretto (which is not part of the original recipe) in a solid version rather than liquid.

In the end : Would i come back? Nes ( No maybe yes) Pricey? Yes especially because portions are small Will i tell my Neapolitan and Italian friends to go there ? NEVER.

For the rest i understand English customers like Italian food their own way...but do not use the word...

What an awful experience. We have eaten here before and food and staff are lovely but Saturday night 4 of us went for what we hope would be a nice relaxing evening with good food and conversation. We sat in their back room where there was another 2 tables for 4 and a couple of tables for 2 and then a very large table of people that were celebrating a birthday. It was like being in a football stadium with everyone on the party table shouting over one another. One of the men kept swearing and had no idea how to behave in a restaurant environment. We could not hear ourselves think. They were totally unaware that other diners were there trying to have a nice meal. There were 3 waiters constantly running in and out with cocktails and after we requested a jug of tap water 3 times I had to get up and go to the bar and ask yet again. I also asked one of the waiters if we could be moved but he said no as they were fully booked. We had a main course and were going to have dessert but decided to just give up and get out of there. I think the guy who brought us the bill may of been the manager and when I said we had decided to call it a day he apologised for the noise and said if we had asked him straight away when we sat down he would of moved us but I had asked one of the waiters as soon as we got there so there was lack of feedback by the waiter to his manager. Such a shame they do not have the back room as all small tables for those that want to go out for meal where you want to drink wine and have a conversation. Even though this is a scathing review I have to say the staff are always lovely and cannot fault them it was just over busy so those smaller groups were not being given the same attention as the large money making drinking groups.

Not sure we will take the risk of...