Carbonara — Restaurant in England

Went there this last weekend with family from out of town. Good reviews meant we were really looking forward to a nice meal.

Restaurant was not busy - but some event upstairs may have impacted our service? We did not have a good experience.

Starters took 25 minutes. Main courses took another 45 minutes after they were finished. We had two of the daily specials - seafood risotto - and the "risotto" was a bowl of mushy, pappy unpleasant rice. Truly the worst Italian meal I have ever been served in a restaurant.

The waiter saw my face when I took a bite and asked how everything was and he acted most offended that I told him it was not good. They did offer to replace the food but having waited an hour - there was no way I was going to risk that. We ate about 1/3 of the meal due to being hungry. The steaks were good though I am sure the fillet was not a full 8 oz. Of the two seabass fillets - one was perfect one was dry. Potatoes too oily. Pasta dish was good. They comp'd us one risotto and 2 glasses of wine - but not in a gracious way. Overall £240 and left feeling cheesed off and annoyed.

Per your reply - A couple of things to point out:

On the way to the Chistmas markets I came in 45-50 minutes before our reservation to ask if it was possible to add a 6th person to the reservation and you indicated we were already going to be at a 6 person table and no problem. So I left and returned at 7:25pm. I am not sure why this is relevant to a review about bad food.

Whether your restaurant was full (it was not) or half empty or completely empty - you seem to be saying customers can expect poor service (45 minutes between courses is poor service) and bad food if you are very busy. Either that or it is used as an excuse.

In your overly positive summary telling me how my family felt about the experience - you left off the second bad bowl (so two) of mushy unpleasant risotto - one overcooked/dried seabass - one under sized fillet and oily potatoes on multiple plates. In addition to trying to reinvent the timescale.

Lastly - in my review I mentioned you taking off one bowl of mushy risotto from the bill and two complimentary glasses of wine. So I was fair. I also mentioned your attitude - which I am certain any neutral reader will clearly see demonstrated in your reply. I've no problem paying £240 or more for a great dining experience for 6 - the point is it was not great or even good....

Hi everyone I’m from Westminster in chester i have been told about Carbonara been one of the best restaurant due to their foods and atmosphere but it was not the case at all. Long story short I have booked a table because it was my girl 5th birthday, i gave a cake to the server that opened us the door for later to celebrate my girl birthday. I understand the fact that the restaurant was busy however the owner of the restaurant (Sam) was constantly been disrespectful because me and my family asked him a question about when any table will be free because like i said I have booked a table. 20 mins later we had a table and one server got us a starter. As the server talk to us and apologise for the fact that we wait and the starters delivered a bit late the owner Sam came to him shout him for talking to us and grab him a bit hard by the neck and tell him to stop talking to the customers even they start the convo and start talking in Italian with a rough tone. In that moment I felt bad for him because he clearly trying to be nice and be respectful to us. As the first server got scream at i haven’t seen him for while so the owner itself came to serve us the main 12 min laters acting all nice and stuffs. Anyway as I see the first server that serve us the starter i asked him if he could put the lights in the cake that i gave him earlier the server immediately went to the owner and told him about the birthday cake however the owner seemed to not care and the server came back to me telling me that he need to keep working and not come to our table because the owner think that we bothering him. So the cake as been light up after 40 min. So I am overall so disappointed about the way the owner treated server and us. The food wasn’t even that amazing i do respect the chefs but the food they had on the menu weren’t on of the best. The carbonara itself wasn’t that great at all .I am not a politician or trying to use racism towards Sam but the fact that the server was colour he treat him in a way that make me feel uncomfortable. My own wife a 30 second talk with the server because she felt very uncomfortable and bad for him. God know if the owner treat him like that often.

Thank...

We recently celebrated my 71st birthday with a weekend in Chester and had a wonderful time especially with the weather being kind as it has been 30 years since we last visited despite living only an hour away in Manchester. Naturally we visited numerous cafes bars restaurants during our stay and whilst returning to our hotel one evening just browsing in the many great shop windows many which are housed in beautiful very old preserved buildings we came across, Carbonara. The name caught my wife’s eye first as she loves Italian food especially Carbonara when it is made correctly. The restaurant was closed as it was very late but looked beautiful from the outside and the menu to die for, so once back in our room we booked online for the following evening. On arriving we were met outside by Tristan the waiter who took us to our table and then the manager Sam who introduced us to the restaurant and the menu and the days specials. He fully explained everything and that all is freshly cooked the Roman way and that the food order may take a while due to being freshly made and as we could see the restaurant was very busy even though it was a Monday night. Tristan then looked after us and the attention to everything from both Tristan and Sam was both professional and warm and friendly and nothing was too much trouble which was perfect for us as we don’t like to rush our meal and prefer to chill & relax with no deadlines. Our Bruschetta was the best we have ever had and the same applied to my wife’s Carbonara and my Sea bass absolutely amazing and bursting with flavour. A family nearby were also celebrating an occasion and it created an additional lovely atmosphere in the restaurant. We ended with a Limoncello and then Sam and Tristan offered all the remaining guests a small tour of the restaurant as they rightly so proud of restoring this beautiful historical building which adds credit to their excellent service thank you so much we will return as soon...