Giovanni's — Restaurant in England

The booking system at this restaurant is a complete joke. I strongly suggest you don't rely on them to actually have a table for you. The lady on reception is rude and the senior waiter Giulio has no idea what he is doing.

I booked a table in this restaurant a few months ago and was kept waiting for 90 minutes.

I thought I will give them a second chance, but as I was booking a table for 10, I drove to the restaurant 3 weeks in advance to make the reservation. I agreed a date, time and where we would like to sit again with Giulio. I even offered to pay a deposit to hold the table. I was told this was not necessary and my name was put in their booking diary at the top of the page. At that point this was the only booking on the day. The only requirement was that I did not turn up late.

The booking was for last Saturday night and we turned up 10 minutes early. The table we had arranged was already taken and we were asked to wait by Giulio. He just said that they were busy and it was not his fault. I asked how long before we could sit down and he said that I would need to have another table for 10 next to the bar area. The people on the table we had booked were just starting their main courses so there was no chance we could sit there. This was not what we agreed but I was not in a position to argue. 35 minutes after our booking time the second table had been vacated and was cleaned ready for us to sit at. At that moment the table was then given to other guests by Giulio, who were waiting. As you can imagine I was not impressed. One of my guests was my 82 year old Mother who was there to celebrate Mother's Day, a day early. She was quite upset at how we were being treated.

I then asked again "where are we going to sit" and Giulio said that they were very busy and it was not his fault we did not have a table, even though we had reserved one.

At this point I called Brasserie Blanc which is 5 minutes away and we all walked there to eat. We had a lovely meal and we were told that guests from Giovanni often end up there after being let down with a booking.

This is absolutely not acceptable. You either have a booking system, or you don't. I will never go to Giovanni's in Knutsford again and I suggest you...

This is my first google review: I had to share my experience.

We arrived just before 9:30pm for our booked table for two, and were directed to wait at the bar. Alarm bells started ringing as we noticed a number of customers complaining about delays with their food orders and two couples left. We were seated at 9:59pm (we'd planned to leave at 10pm sharp).

After waiting some time we asked a passing waiter if we could order some drinks. 10:25 a waiter arrived to take our food order, when questioned about the pizza menu he said "I don't know, there are lots to choose from... I'll come back to you" and with that turned on his heel and walked away to take another tables order? I asked again when he returned if he could offer any advice on the pizza menu and was told "it's a new menu, I don't know" (the website reports a new menu from the 30th Jan - it's the 18th of Feb!)

At this point we were seriously considering leaving but decided to make the best of it as it was late and we were hungry.

Ok, so the food arrived promptly, beef carpaccio and garlic pizza to start, it was Ok to be fair, the pizza needed cutting but no big deal. The mains followed soon after too, the calzone was nice, however the Quattro formaggio was dreadful, I've eaten better ones that take 12 mins in the oven. We shared the forma and left the latter. No one questioned us at any point if we were happy with the food. Good job really!

Throughout our meal, people around us continued to complain to both the staff and each other, I heard one customer say to another "it's not usually this bad".

On the whole the waiting staff were disconnected and uninterested. The food was uninspiring at best and any atmosphere destroyed by the sounds of disgruntled customers.

Should I have complained? Probably, but the staff had clearly had their fair share of ear bending already, so I paid in full and quietly left.

Fast forward to the early hours of this morning and my partner is really quite unwell (you can imagine in what ways 🤢). The Carpaccio?

Sorry Giulio, but last night you were simply the worst....

Previous Visit: Had Arancini and lobster ravioli which was excellent. (5 Star)

This Visit: Decided to go out in Knutsford, checked on TripAdvisor, tried to book in at many places but this was the only place available at the time we wanted. This should have raised a red flag, but i was hoping we were just lucky. Manager took us to our table, got drinks straight away and ordered food. I had the arancini for starters which all three were cold in the middle, they got sent back and another plate was brought out which were ok. Next for the main course, I’d ordered Spaghetti Carbonara with chicken, this arrived with no chicken, I then had to request some cutlery as I had none at that point, I was brought a knife and fork which I really wanted a spoon also, I started eating it and the manager came over and asked if it was too creamy we told him I had ordered with chicken he immediately took the plate away, I still had food on my fork! He then gave me daggers as he walked to the kitchen. He then came back with the dish. We also noticed the couple next to us had been waiting for at least 20 minutes to be served, they later had a calzone pizza but it looked like they were having issues also, it did look uncooked. I have been to this restaurant in the past and it was good, but I’m afraid I won’t be going back. We had been warned by locals that this place was a bit...