Buon Appetito Hove — Restaurant in England

Had dinner here with friend on a Friday, very much disappointed. I was the one who recommended the visit because I used to have nice experience there. Food was great, as usual. But the customer experience was terrible. I was so embarrassed! We arrived there about 7pm, had a main course and dessert each, shared 2 bottles of wine. It was not a busy evening, only about half of the tables were filled. Around 9:50pm, the staff started collecting our wine and water glasses without asking if we wanted anything else. At 10:05pm, right after one of my friends finished her last sip of wine, a staff member collected her glass at once and gave us the bill without us asking. Ridiculously rude and unacceptable! So I asked the staff ‘what time do you close?’ She said 11. (Yes I knew it as it was shown clearly on their door!!) I said ‘so it’s still early, it’s just 10!’ She just smiled and walked away. There was one table left when we were leaving. Guess they were being kicked out too since obviously the restaurant did not want anyone after 10!

In answer to the reply from the restaurant below: Yes we may have appeared happy. I can assure you we were not! We were just being polite. I was so embarrassed that I did not want to say anything about it and there was no point staying in the restaurant when we were clearly not welcome anyway. I do not just leave a negative review for no reason. I have been here many times with my husband and we loved it! That was why I recommended it to my friends. To be fair, we were happy before being pressured to leave. I am confused as to why you’ve left this comment questioning my opinion. It really is incredibly rude and just makes matters even worse. Ultimately you have a closing time and therefore should not be pressurising customers to leave. I understand it was quiet and you may have wanted to close early but...

Sat down and waited 20 minutes before someone came to take our drinks order. We ordered food at the same time. After around 40 minutes the large gentleman who appeared to be head of the front of house came over, acknowledged that we had been waiting a long time and offered us some garlic bread which we hurriedly accepted. In the meantime another table had been seated and gone through 2 courses. After another 10 minutes we received the garlic bread and as we tucked in our mains arrived. No complaints about the food itself although I struggled to cut the pizza with the regular knife and there was no option for a sharper knife. We finished our mains, declined dessert and asked for the bill. To our shock, we had been charged for the garlic bread. When we challenged the gentleman we were confronted and after a heated discussion the garlic bread was removed from the bill. As we promptly left the gentlemen uttered to us "don't come back". A wholly unpleasant experience we'll not...

Review This week we had another party at Buon Appetito in Hove. Before it was our wedding reception and this time a big birthday lunch. 53 people attended and it was the most wonderful day. The owner Eugenio and his family and team pull out every stop to create an ambiance of happiness. The food is authentic Italian and quite simply exceptional. Starting with Aperol Spritz, Bellinis etc and a buffet of delicious Italian appetisers followed by sit down choices of mouthwatering pasta. The tiramisu cake was the best I’ve ever tasted. If you want to celebrate simply but in style at a very reasonable price then we would highly recommend this little piece of heaven. Tucked in the corner of the elegant Palmeira Square, three minutes walk to the seafront, easy access to all public transport it’s a well established...