Don Vincenzo — Restaurant in England

So this place is clearly like marmite, you love it or you hate it. I can’t say it loved it and hate is extreme. For me it was simply underwhelming. The food here needs a rethink, they have really large starters which will be great for some but for others can lead to a feeling of fullness before the main. I think smaller starters with a smaller price tag would be great. I found my bruschetta a bit too salty, it was ok but I have had better from places that don’t specialise in Italian food so it was a bit of a shame. The olives were simply poor, like really poor. They were tasteless and Iv had better ones from the supermarket. Again given that this place is an Italian I would expect the olives to be bang on. As for the main, I ordered the Arrabiata, I didn’t hate my food, but the pasta was not fresh, more like a supermarket pasta which had been boiled, it was far from al dente. I expected better from an Italian. The flavour was acceptable and I finished it off so i can’t say it was awful but i think i just expected better quality ingredients. The rest of my party were not so happy and one of the raviolis was partially raw which was not good, the aubergine pasta was bland and the chicken special the same. In terms of service, the initial waiter was friendly, he took the order promptly and the food came out at a reasonable time however the lady and older gentleman were not the friendliest and were not giving the most hospitable vibes which is a shame. The restaurant had a number of fruit flies, I know it’s summer and these can be expected but they were on the walls and hovering around our food, this was off putting. Perhaps there should be something put in place to address this as I didn’t appreciate having to waves my arms around every few minutes to get rid of flies. The restaurant was otherwise clean, the atmosphere and ambience was ok, we were sat away from the windows however given the restaurant was pretty empty we would have preferred to have outlook onto the high street, but this isn’t a big deal and doesn’t play a part in the overall rating I’m giving. The price was quite high for the food, I know the cost of ingredients and rates has gone up but this really wasn’t reflective of what we paid and given the quality of the ingredients I didn’t think it was justified. If the food was impeccable I would accept the price point of £231 for 7 people. This price didn’t include any alcohol and comprised two bottles of still water, we didn’t order any desserts but everyone had a main and only some of us had a starter so when considering these factors the price is kinda high for packet pasta and frozen raviolis. My rating is based on the food lacking authenticity and freshness, pricing and some staff members lacking good hospitality skills. I personally won’t be visiting again however they appear to have a lot of happy customers so perhaps we just had a rogue experience or just too high...

My partner and I decided to have dinner at this restaurant due to very good reviews. We were rushed in, the restaurant wasn't too busy but it was very loud, I couldn't hear my partner talk to me. The tables moved with ease, so they are not heavy enough and it was a nuisance as each time I leaned forward to heat my partner i moved the whole table with me by accident. My partner ordered pizza which he said was okay and I ordered chilli, garlic, broccoli, chicken penne pasta. It was truly the worst pasta I have ever had. It was drenched in chilli oil, each time I picked up the pasta the waterfall of oil was running down to my plate. I couldn't see the bottom of my plate as my pasta was just sitting on top of the chilli oil lake. The chilli and garlic was sliced into big slices, so the flavor wasn't evenly distributed between each bite. After a few bites, I felt very sick (and I was physically sick later on too). Next we had tiramisu, it did not taste anything like tiramisu. Cheap, falling apart sponge, with no flavor, no cream and no taste of chocolate nor coffee. Tasteless cake sponge. The presentation of each food was awful, felt like we were in some small European village bistro. The ceiling was very dirty, the walls had cracks and were also very dirty. The toilets were dirty. A really good lick of paint everywhere, good quality tables and seriously rethinking the menu might...

Popped in for a meal with my partner as she had eaten at most of the restaurants on the High Street, and was yet to try the well reviewed, Don Vicenzo. Service & atmosphere was pleasant enough, and can not fault that. However, the food was fairly decent (Not amazing)!! But decent enough. We picked a couple of starters. For the main a pizza, and king prawns with the additon of linguine that I was told they could add... I asked for some rocket for the pizza. And some capers and black olives to add to the plain linguine that was added to my King prawn dish. On recieving the bill, I was charged £3 for the few sprigs of rocket. £4.50 for the small accompaniment of capers and olives. And a £5 supplement for the plain pasta linguine. Just felt, in this age of cost of living , and economic uncertainty for consumer and business alike, is it really fair to pass on such mark ups to the hungry visitor that walks through your door. Especially considering that there was no mention of such additional costs whilst making the order with the waiter. It all seemed a little Greedy, and a little sharky.... what next... 10p per shake of salt. 50p per sprinkling of parmesan. £1 per drizzle of olive oil. My advice. Beware of the hidden charges!!! Would I go back.... Probably not!!. But Good luck to them...