Cafe Roberto — Restaurant in England

I attended the restaurant with my husband today (Tues 10 Aug), we were really looking forward to a nice Italian meal. The experience was anything but. We ordered drinks initially as we pondered over the menu, which at this point we were very excited about. Coffee is supposed to be served hot but not at the point it will scold you after leaving it to cool for 5 mins. I burnt my mouth as it was way too hot. We informed the waiter (did not really care) and asked for ice to cool the burn, but they could only provider a cool glass of water. We proceeded to ask to speak to the manager, when she appeared her response was "its suppose to be hot", and proceeded to offer a glass of water. No apology or anything else, it just seemed she did not care. Having previously been a Barista I am fully aware of the temperature at which it supposed to be served but this was way beyond that. At this point my husband wanted to leave, I reassured him it would be fine and lets just enjoy our meal. How WRONG was I. I ordered the Pappardelle Mare e Monti (Prawns and calamari with wild mushrooms tossed in garlic and parsley sauce). As prawns was listed first I expected quite a few of them, I received just 3 prawns. The Calamari was like rubber it had been overcooked and the sauce was a tomato base sauce. The icing on the cake was the huge quantity of mussels in the dish (not listed in the menu), I would not of minded but i do not like mussels. We asked the waitress if the order was correct (thinking we had miss read the menu) but she did not have a clue, neither did the waitress who took our order. At no point were we approached to confirm we were happy with our meals, it took several minutes to flag down a waitress to even get the bill.

I do not recommend this establishment. The serving staff have not got a clue when it comes to the food, neither does the chef. The duty manager does not care about her customers wellbeing. I understand many have had good experiences especially with the breakfast, but when you are advertising yourself as an Italian restaurant then you should focus on producing good quality...

Went for morning breakfast with my partner. She cannot eat eggs so requested her breakfast to not have eggs on it. And the waitress couldn't comprehend not having eggs. To get them removed from the dish took 7 or 8 attempts and her having to call her another server over to explain the absurdity of us not wanting eggs on my partner's plate. So my partner requested to have a replacement instead of the eggs and this created another situation that required a gathering of staff at our table. We were then charged for the adaption if her plate including the removal of egg at a cost to ourself. Making her plate go from a £8 to a £14 plate.

When the food finally arrived after the ritual of servers there was hair, not just one hair but a plethora in my food. And I am smooth as smooth comes. (Nature's shave you could say) so it wasn't my hair. So when I pointed this out to the server she requested the gathering of the council of staff again at our table. Started to feel like a cult gathering having a point and a laugh. One of their servers called out to the kitchen and said to the chief in there that there is their hair in my food and they said "oh right" then proceeded to just walk off. And that was that. I still had hair in my food and they knew after the gathering. But didn't care. Not one bit.

The only saving grace was another server came to the rescue in my hairy hour if need and told me not to eat the food and I wouldn't be charged for it. And then proceeded to just leave it in front of me while my partner ate her food and I watched her.... No replacement. No anything just to watch over the food.

I cannot recommend or even bring myself to look at my bank statement with the name on there. After paying for essentially 2 meals with plate changes and me watching someone else eat.

Genuinely...

I went to the café yesterday morning with my pre-sixth form students with learning disabilities in order to do some learning in the community. Even if the menu was displayed outside, I double checked with a member of staff that they served milkshakes and I also asked if they could do dairy free milkshakes as some of my students have food allergies. She went inside to check with the kitchen and came back saying that they could do milkshakes with oat or soya milk. She prepared a table for us, we sat down and she took our order. She came back a little bit later to check that the order was correct (it was). A few minutes later she came back with the food menu in case we wanted to order some nibbles. I explained that this would be very tricky due to my students' allergies, she said she understood and removed the menus. A couple of minutes later she came back again saying that unfortunately the kitchen staff had just told her that they didn't serve milkshakes anymore, that the menu was wrong. Both myself and my staff expressed our confusion as the waitress had checked and double checked our order several times and I finally left the restaurant and took my students somewhere else. Today I was in town and I saw that the milkshake menu was on display again. I asked my partner to enter the restaurant and ask if they serve milkshakes, he asked and the waitress confirmed that they do. Now I am questioning if they just didn't want to have young people with additional needs sitting at their posh restaurant. I will never come back again....