Avanti Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in England

Poor experience from rude staff. Avoid.

This is a venue with potential. We went in on what wasn't a particularly busy night and still managed to receive awful service. For somewhere which prides itself on its selection of drinks, their knowledge and stock control are woeful.

Ahead of a meal, we ordered a glass of port and a glass of Madeira wine. Neither option were available, so we went for two glasses of an alternative (pricier) port. There was only enough in the bottle for one glass, and they didn't have any more bottles in stock, so we had to make yet another choice for the second drink. By this point I'd paid and whilst the final alternative was significantly cheaper, the staff made no attempt to partially refund.

Sadly, the poor experience didn't end there as we then heard the staff commenting on our drink choices - A highly unprofessional approach and one which I can only imagine stemmed from the embarrassment caused by their total lack of menu / product knowledge and inadequate stock control.

Needless to say, after that level of disrespect, we didn't stay for the meal. Avoid.

**05.07.2023 - Update following your reply:

You'll see that I leave a large number of reviews, largely very positive, and my views are well-trusted. On this occasion I simply had to reflect on our poor experience Thank you for looking into your stocks. You say that your fortified wine stocks are complete, so there definitely appears to be a staff knowledge / training gap or a storage / signage issue here It's a shame that there was no acknowledgement or apology for how we were treated by your staff within your response. That was the number one thing which led me to leaving a negative review - after all, everyone runs out of stock from time to time and I'd have been more forgiving of that if the staff weren't so rude. Talking about us behind our backs and mocking our drink choices is unacceptable. We were so accommodating, patient and respectful whilst they looked for the items that we had requested, only to be disrespected. It's a shame that you didn't respond to that element of my original review You also didn't acknowledge the over-payment, which should have been observed and...

On arrival, we were told that their supplier hadn't delivered the fish or steak for the top items on the menu, which we'd already decided on from their website. We rethought our plans feeling quite deflated, as the remaining menu was quite weak. 3 of our party chose the King Prawn starter, 1 without the chilli (which proved quite a spicy item). The standard versions looked good and our friends enjoyed them. My wife's version was visually different, in that her prawns were markedly browned on a side and rather dry in the mouth. All 3 agreed that 5 large prawns for £12.50 was not good value. My Garlic mushrooms on toasted ciabatta was lovely.... creamy, garlicky mushrooms sliced very thin - and a decent portion for £8.50. A very pleasant bowl of roasted corn and nuts had kept us going during quite a long wait for the starters. I'd have that again.

For mains: a Haloumi Burger was enjoyed, a meatballs and pasta seemed dry and a bit mean. We 2 chose some small plates (sausage pot, croquetas, patata bravas and meatballs) and felt a little disappointed that nothing came with a little salad for the price.

The decor downstairs is a little spartan and noise echoes - a party of lads at the next table were no trouble but were loud. Our friends had been some years before and felt upstairs was a nicer environment -but it was a Wednesday.

Paying over £10 for a large wine - even though it was nice - and a final bill over £170, we didn't feel it was somewhere...

I booked a table for 12 people, at the Avanti, for a family celebration. I had to pre-order all of the meals in advance, which was not a problem. The day before our booking I had to cancel one place, so I rang the restaurant and cancelled the steak ordered for that person. All well so far. We sat upstairs, in a very nice dining area. Our waitress was a lovely young lady but, unfortunately, several of our meals were not so nice. The starters were probably the best part of the meal. The main courses left a lot to be desired. The first mistake made was to bring the steak that I had cancelled the day before. We had 3 adult pizzas of different sorts and one child's pizza. Not one person, including my 2 year old grandson, was able to eat the pizza. Everyone complained that they were far too salty to eat and they all left their main course. I complained to our waitress, who was suitably apologetic, and arranged that we would not be charged for our deserts. I felt sorry for her as she was mortified, and, in retrospect, feel that someone more senior should have dealt with my complaint. I won't...