ASK Italian - Lakeside — Restaurant in England

Me and my girlfriend both visited this Ask Italian, we’ve been to plenty of different Ask Italians spread across London and this one was by far the worst we have been to and will NOT be returning. Upon entering the establishment we were quickly allocated our seat, which was not an issue. We were then seated and given a freshly squashed lemon juice in a shot glass, which was taken away before I had finished by a waitress. She then proceeded to serve our drinks quickly in a rushed manner, (at this point we had barely skimmed the menu and had been seated for less then 5 minutes) we were asked what we wanted for both started and main. Luckily, being a loyal customer we knew what we wanted to start. We kept the menus to further browse main courses. After the starters were ordered she came back again to ask for main, (3 minute time frame). Starter was delivered to the table with the big menus left on a small booth table. We then tried to hand the menus back to them and yet again were asked what we wanted for mains, still didn’t know at this point. They delivered the starter and didn’t take menus away which crowded the space, we had to find a space to put them on the table with the cokes and starters and waters. We pressed them up against the wall then the menus then fell and caused drinks to go flying all over the floor, food and our white shoes which cost a fair £200 each may I add. The coke stained our shoes and none of the staff acknowledged the large spillage until I turned round to the manager (Jordan) and signalled him to come over and asked what was the matter, which I thought would be apparent. I then pointed out the spillage which In his defence he cleaned up quickly, none of the other staff offered to assist. I explained that we were rushed and the service we received at this Ask Italian was disgusting, and our shoes had been ruined, and that this wouldn’t have happened if the waitress serving us would’ve taken the menu away and hadn’t have rushed. He then offered to take the coke off the bill and offered to have our shoes cleaned, ( he never mentioned at this point how much he could cover on the cleaning of the shoes) we then said we’d like the bill and we paid it after he had taken the coke off. We then left with our shoes absolutely ruined, we then contacted customer service and after careful consideration we decided to take up on Jordans offer by going to get a specialised kit for our shoes which are constructed of special materials, prime knit white. We then called him before purchasing the kits £14 each therefore £28 for 2 people (2 people, 2 sets of shoes) and he said that it was fine and to bring the bill in and he’d have it covered. After purchasing the specialised kits we then took them in and approached him in confidence that he would have it covered, he the took the receipt in shock and said “that’s the price for 2 shoes? No way I don’t believe it!” I then said “Yes you said you’d cover the bill and these shoes are of special materials they’re not your typical choice of footwear”. He then claimed he needed authorisation from another manager and then discussed this with her and called us over. At this point he said I can’t cover the full amount as that price was too much and would need higher authorisation or he could cover the £14 for one kit, he then said that he done his own research on it and said one kit would be enough to cover both shoes (bearing in mind he never said a limit on the cleaning of the shoes, he stated he would cover it fully). We then after all the distress didn’t want to deal with Ask Italian further and claimed £14 cash back for one kit. He then said to us he’ll need to keep the receipt (the original copy) for his records and won’t be giving it back. And at this point we then told him no we need a receipt as it has our personal card details on it, he then took it to a personal level and said “what are you going to do, return the other kit with it”. He then had to take a copy of the receipt and gave us the cash and we kept the original after some...

Me and my boyfriend went to the restaurant in Lakeside and left extremely disappointed!

We have come here many time's as it was our favourite restaurant. When we arrived the restaurant was near enough empty which suited us, the waitress showed us to our table and everything seemed normal. We then got given the menu's and it wasn't until my boyfriend remembered seeing your Easter special menu so we had to request these menu's. As we was deciding what to order we saw the still raspberry lemonade in a hyge glass container had bits in it and was separated (obviously been sitting there a long time!).

Our waiter came over and we placed our order to then being told that they didn't have half of the menu's ingredients...we had to decide again....final after placing our order the starters came out in no time at all, then our mains took about 40 minutes! by this point I looked around the restaurant and noticed there was only 5 tables (including ours) and one of the chefs was sitting in the restaurant with someone who just walked in and got her food (way before us!) they obviously knew eachother and he was going to and from the restaurant to the kitchen (health and hygiene right there! someone needs to refresh on their course!)...when our food finally arrived the waiter automatically put parmesan cheese on my food the time I told him to stop there was already a fair amount on my food, so I ignored it. I then go to eat my lasagne around the edges and noticed my food was lukewarm. I then gathered food from the middle and it was stone cold!. There was no meal checks and I had to get up and find the waitress to inform her. She was apologetic and offered me another meal I explained that we waited long enough and had a movie to go see and for it to be taken off our bill. I am truly gutted cause like I said it was mine and my bf's favourite restaurant and we was out for the day and drove 40 mins to visit this restaurant, all the staff spent most of their time chatting and catering for individuals who came in and obviously personally knew the staff! it was absolutely appalling and now I am avoiding this place and will be informing others.

Also the drink portion was shocking I paid over £5.00 for a rum and coke and it was in a very small glass was loads of ice, I took the ice out and it was half a inch of drink! disgusting.

I have worked in hospitality for years and there is no excuse for this! the restaurant was dead, half of the menu wasn't available and no meal checks, staff seemed more bothered about...

Hi, I have visited your branch with my wife and 2 girls. We were greeted by two enthusiastic ladies and so polite ( we don’t think they were English) and shown to our table, even though we didn’t make a booking in advance. Food was alright , we all went for pasta, 2 burrata carbonara and the girls had spaghetti bolognaise. The only thing that put us off was another lady, on the bar, who was like from another story. The two ladies who greeted us were running all over the place, serving food and taking orders, but the one on the bar was listening to God knows what on her earphones, while completely ignoring what is happening in the restaurant. We could hear the girls telling her they need help, but she was completely ignoring them, making faces. Even one of my daughter seeing this, told me that this is not an example of how the people should act , especially working in hospitality. We have been ashamed when she started shouting over the bar that she needs some help( couldn’t tell with what, as she was only making drink, not helping at all) as we were sitting on the first row right side of the restaurant and we could hear her and one of my daughter could see her too. We noticed more customers looking strange at what is happening and you could tell the two girls didn’t know where to go first, as the restaurant was pretty busy. I think you should train more and some basic manners needs to be learned by the rude and ignorant lady over the bar, as obviously she wasn’t bothered at anything else than to shout and give orders, acting like the restaurant is her. Even if if was hers, she should show some respect and common sense for the rest of the staff and secondly for the customers. We left disappointed, as we don’t want our girls to grow up seeing this , people getting treated differently just because they are from another country as in the end it’s more important what you do and how you do, than which part of the world you are from. I would like to get this to your attention, as racism is a very important matter and we want everyone to be treated equally, those are the values that we are raising our daughters. Also, I take this opportunity to say thank you to the girls who served us, they deserve a pay rise and more important, they deserve to be treated...