Antica Roma Ristorante — Restaurant in England

Definitely won’t be rushing back. The service was slow, the drinks were overpriced and the food was bland. We thought we’d give this place a try as it was fairly new. I wish I hadn’t bothered. From the start, we asked for a drinks menu; it took 10 minutes to arrive but was delivered to the wrong table. Then, the waiter came over and asked us what we’d like to drink. Umm, can we have the menu we asked for? We ordered 2 drinks. A Kir Royale & a Gin Bramble from the cocktail menu…they took 20 minutes to arrive, about 5 minutes before the food. The waiter clearly didn’t have a clue about the drinks menu as he asked if I wanted coke or something with my Bramble. When the food arrived, the garlic bread was pretty good- in hindsight, we should have just stuck with that.

My girlfriend ordered a risotto that was advertised on the menu as containing chicken and peas. When it arrived, it also contained carrot and sweetcorn. She has no problem with carrot, but doesn’t like sweetcorn so had to pick around it. I would suspect they’d just used a bag of frozen, mixed veg. It was bland and definitely not worth the nearly £15 price.

I ordered the lasagna for £12:50. Underwhelming to say the least. I wish I’d stayed at home and made one myself. It would have been a lot tastier and I could have made a family sized one for half the price. It contained hardly any meat; it was mostly cheese, apart from the 2 tiny blobs of bolognese on the top!!? The bottom layer was burnt, black pasta, stuck to the bottom of the dish;followed by tasteless cheese, more pasta, more tasteless cheese, more pasta, topped with 2 teaspoons of meat. I would almost be tempted to describe it as upside down- but this would still not be accurate due to the complete lack of any meat or taste. There was no check back to make sure we were ok, and the waitress didn’t even ask if it was ok when taking half the dish back once we’d finished. I asked for the bill and was then presented with the card machine ‘press Green for a tip, Red...

I hate writing reviews like this I really do (I'm not a Karen I promise), I'm all for supporting local businesses but this place is not great. I'm writing this on behalf of myself & three friends, we have no idea where everyone else is reviewing but surely it's not the same place we went. The main issue is you don't get what you pay for sadly, but we had to try the new restaurant.

There's no vegan/dairy free options anywhere on any menu (two of us are lactose intolerant). The meals are VERY overpriced. (£11.95 for BASIC spag bol). My friends had risotto, pizza and steak and their meals were stodgy and cheap tasting.

A staff member pushed us to look at the dessert menu even after I told him there was nothing two of us could have (no vegan/dairy free options).

The atmosphere was weird, staff seemed to lurk a lot until you needed them they'd disappear. We waited ages for staff to bring us the bill and when they did, it was a lady who spoke no English (she told us this herself many times).

When we left and got in the car, the lady (who spoke no english) ran out to us asking us to go back in. She told us the bill was £2 short. (She told us to input our own amounts on the card machine because she said she didn't understand.) So we looked at the receipt. 3 of us ordered coke (menu said £2.25), we were charged just over £3 each? We didn't kick up a fuss we just offered to pay it.. but she kept saying "no it's okay." So she decided we didn't have to pay after all?? So why run after us and ask us to go back if she was only going to dismiss it anyway?

We'll stick to the Italian on the high...

AVOID AVOID AVOID - GLUTEN FREE

A group of us came here for a birthday meal. One member of the party (my mother) has coeliacs disease and has to eat a gluten free diet. She ordered gluten free and was reassured the food she was given was gluten free. By the time she finished her meal she was very unwell and had to leave the table to rush home to the toilet. She has said the symptoms are due to gluten. I tried to explain to the restaurant staff what has happened to ensure it doesn't happen to another customer and tried to explain the importance of this with coeliacs disease as it can have lasting effects. The staff laughed in my face and argued with me effectively calling me a liar. They did not show concern for my poorly mother and instead started speaking in Italian and ignoring what I was saying. I was not looking for a refund/discount, I simply wanted to ensure this did not happen to someone else - instead I was met with hostility. They were rude and I am in disbelief that they acted this way. I spoke to the manager on the phone who was also rude rather than wanting to listen/understand.

My advice if you have any kind of allergy or intolerance... AVOID. And AVOID if you want to have a nice experience without dealing with rude staff if anything goes wrong. There is a lovely Italian called Il Gusto in Chipping Sodbury and we have never had any problems there, I would go...