Da Mario Wood Fired Pizza — Restaurant in England

We've been coming to Da Mario's for years now, always enjoyed it and been using Uber Eats to order to home for a few months now, and again, never a problem. Until our order on 27th November where my partner ordered a Vegetarian for myself and a Ciao for herself (which she always gets) - the description on both Uber and their website advises "chicken, mushroom and sweetcorn" ... nothing else.

My partner is allergic to onions, and has had this pizza many times with no problem. However on this occasion after ordering and being notified our Pizza would be with us in 45minutes. We didn't receive it for just under 2 hours and when we finally did, my partners pizza was covered in onions.

We called Da Mario's who advised us that we would need to speak to Uber eats who are "24/7" as the order was placed through them, even though it was Da Mario's who' messed the order up, and acknowledged that they made this mistake over the phone. We were unable to get through to Uber eats customer service for several days and they've eventually responded to a complaint raised by email to advise they won't be giving a refund.

So to highlight this, we've paid nearly £30 for a couple of cold pizzas that had gone nearly soggy due to how long they took to get to us, one of which was made completely wrong by the restaurant and my partner couldn't eat and we're out of pocket.... Not happy.

I'd like to think the restaurant would acknowledge this and offer some form of compensation, even it was to come in for a free pizza, but I'm never confident with places taking ownership these days of situations like this. Shame after being regular customers for nearly 5 years.

02/02/2025 - Update. Since the above happened on 27/11/24, more than 2 months ago. And nearly 2 months since I reviewed, I still haven't had a reply or even acknowledgment from Di Mario's owners/staff regarding our experience and the mistake their staff made that left us out of pocket. But it's near comical they immediately responded to another customer today to defend their cash only policy, seems they pick and choose to ignore genuine negative experiences and reviews, and only respond to ones that are easy to answer. Just in case the owners do see this, not that it'll make much of a difference to your business, but you've lost our custom which we've been giving you for years now. I hope you take ownership moving forward of your mistakes and poor customer service, otherwise you'll run the risk of losing more and more customers...

The pizza was amazing, in all honesty the best pizza I have ever had but the service was very disappointing and upsetting! The restaurant was almost empty and when I asked for a table for 4 despite being only 2 the waitresses made it difficult. When I asked why they did not serve alcohol I was answered “ I don’t know “ instead of being told the simple truth ( that they don’t have the license which there is nothing wrong with that) When I was asked if wanted a dessert I asked to two waitresses if the tiramisù was done in a proper Italian way with Mascarpone cheese and no one seemed to know, then someone else to making me purchase it said yes, so I ordered one portion but then I was very disappointed to discover that, the dessert had ice cream on it instead of mascarpone cheese so nothing to have with a proper, real tiramisù. I told them that they have to be very careful on what they say it’s inside their dessert because if I had some food intollerante it would have been much worse than a simple disappointment. Despite this the desert was on my bill. Whilst I was eating my pizza 🍕 the lady behind me told her husband one pound was missing from the change, they didn’t bother to ask about it and left the table, but when I paid in cash as no other choice because they don’t take card payment, and the change they provided me with was one pound short I realised that most likely the cashier does it in purpose with all the clients as we trust them and don’t bother to actually count the change. I didn’t say anything but it must be an habit rather than an honest distraction. Overall, I am disappointed, shame as with the pizza quality this place would have been on top of my rating but due to the bad customer service I don’t think will...

So I’m visiting Bournemouth for a wedding. I see this place on Google and the pictures look good. There’s one or two reviews that let it down but most seem really positive. I’m from London, Italian family so never hold out much hope for great pizza outside the capital. I phone and the place is closed but says leave a message about reservation so I do and they phone back an hour later telling me that’s fine and they can fit a table of three in. When we get there, there’s a blast of beautiful smells and the sights and sounds make you feel like you’re in a Roman or Neapolitan pizzeria, not a short walk from Bournemouth beach. We order the antipasti to start, and it’s perfect. The ideal amount of balsamic, the range of meats, the tang of the vegetables. Then all three of us order different pizzas, and they’re all baked to perfection. The cook even pops out to make sure everything is ok. The waitress was very attentive even though it was busy and the waiter was fun and had a laugh with us. Desserts were traditional Italian - the canole were beautifully served and creamy perfection. The whole place was spotlessly clean and everyone sounded like they were having a great time. The place doesn’t have a licence, but there’s two small shops that serve alcohol within a few metres and you can bring it in. They only take cash but that’s not a problem either with a cash point round the corner. The whole meal for three worked out at less than £20 per head for three courses (plus a few pounds at the co-op for alcohol). An amazing find and I will definitely come back the next time I’m in the area. Grazie...