Valentina Italian Restaurant, Bar & Kitchen - Weybridge — Restaurant in Elmbridge

Abandon hope all ye that enter here…..

If you have around three hours to kill on a summer’s evening, most of it spent not actually eating anything, then this is the place for you.

We arrived at 6.30 to a pretty empty restaurant at that point. However, it took 20 minutes for someone to come and take our order, which was only because I gestured to a waitress. Before that, I could see people having orders taken that had arrived after us.

Another long wait until our starters arrived, which were pretty nice. Then another wait, at least an hour, probably 90 minutes until our main courses arrived. By this time the restaurant was full. Mostly of people waiting to have orders taken or waiting for their food.

It’s pretty obvious what caused all of the above. Just one waitress covering the entire restaurant which must have around twenty tables. So, that’s one person taking orders, clearing tables, bringing food out and sorting out the bills. There was actually another waitress there but she seemed to be mostly watching the other one work.

As well as producing a cohort of people that will never dine there again (us included), they also missed out on additional spend, as none of the diners ordered dessert or coffee. Presumably because they couldn’t afford to miss work the next day.

As a final kick in the proverbials, along came the bill with a ‘discretionary’ service charge added to the total. Not so discretionary then.

Note to the owners; don’t bother replying to this. Judging by a lot of other comments on here, lessons haven’t been learned following...

Just came to Valentina on Dec 27th for a quick post Christmas coffee. If you want to be ignored for an age by arrogant service staff then go ahead, otherwise do yourself a favour and don't. Rather visit Mia's, Gok's, Aroma's or any of the other local-run coffee shops in the area. They deserve your patronage more than this chain.

When we walked in the place was not busy - about 5 tables out of 25 occupied. After standing for a few minutes at the front thoroughly ignored, we grabbed the nearest table. We had a 2 year old so we needed to sit and order quickly. I went up to get a menu/order. The waitress raised an eyebrow and informed me that it was table service and a menu would be brought to the table - fine.

I went to the toilet. Came back. My wife went to the toilet, came back. Still no menus or orders taken. The waitress was actually clearing tables and arranging chairs at the back instead of helping us. With a possibly scratchy toddler present we needed to get things moving. I hate doing this, but I raised my hand in the air to get her attention. She made eye contact with me but continued moving tables around. The manager came out of the kitchen area at the back, also made eye contact with me and then walked to a storeroom. I lowered my hand. We left. 15 minutes wasted.

If you want a coffee in Weybridge go to one of the places listed at the top of...

Had lunch here on Saturday afternoon, 2x adults, 1x10yr old and 1x4 yr old.

It was an impromptu visit and we didn’t have a lot of money to spend but the staff didn’t bat an eyelid when we asked to share a pizza, they bought our girls some activity books to do and helped our youngest unwrap crayons whilst we were looking at the menu.

The pizza was delicious, the base was heavenly and the focaccia side we ordered was equally excellent.

The staff were so friendly and polite, we weren’t rushed along and were just allowed to enjoy our family time together, and they were happy to engage with our girls when they asked questions or just generally chatted to them.

There was a wide range of customers there, couples, friend groups and and another family with a brand new baby, the atmosphere was beautifully calm and gentle which rubbed off on our very lovely but sometimes high spirited girls!

At the end of the meal, we were discreetly asked if the girls could have a lolly which is brilliant and they brought us a pot of complimentary expensive hot chocolate.

We really couldn’t have asked for a better experience and would definitely return, we saw some wonderful looking desserts and I could eat that bread all day long!

The highest of...