Il Basilico @ The Monkton Inn — Restaurant in England

I was looking forward to trying this place and to say I was disappointed was an understatement! The waiting staff were not very attentive, very slow service. We ordered a Sharing Tapas starter, which was quite frankly a joke. It was the smallest sharing platter I have seen. We had to chase up with the waitress to get the bread which was supposed to come with it. When ut came out, it was a slice of white bread and a slice of grain bread, nothing special. The butter was rock hard and could not be spread. I ordered a gourmet burger for my main, it came out and actually looked like a child's meal. It was on a very small plate with a few chips and some coleslaw. We even asked the waitress if this was a kids meal, she just smiled at us and said 'I don't know'. The others said their steak was amazing, so there's one redeeming factor of a truly abismal meal. We didn't stay for dessert as I just wanted to get out of there. I don't think I'll be going back there in a hurry...

If you’re African hoping for authentic African food, look further. As a Swazi, who’s grown up eating Southern African food, and missed it so dearly since coming to the country, I wasn’t just excited to taste the food, I was sold on this idea of tasting home. I mean how do you go wrong with Boerwors or chakalaka?? It’s sausage and beans with vegetables essentially, only I got no beans and got more moisture from the air than the wors. Now where I could’ve stayed to enjoy the wine or dessert, the head chefs attitude, decided otherwise for me. Bare in mind all the servers are young women, sweet lovely young women, and we had to witness him berate and patronise them with such disdain it made us so uncomfortable we had to leave. All in all, this was a whitewashed version of South African food, and not even good food at that, and the chef alone, is why there’s staff for front of house and back; at the very far back is where...

Really rather average, and disappointing pizza. The bases were clearly not made in-house (uniform thick base and bready inedible crusts), which is very poor for an Italian restaurant, its one of the things they absolutely should get right.

One waitress was responsible for the entire restaurant, which, whilst she was great, is just not on. She has ro rush everywhere and you always feel you are squeezing any requests in as an inconvenience.

Atmosphere was "bright". I unscrewed the lamp above our table - we were seeing light filaments in our vision it was so bright.

Finally got a bill for £45 for two pizzas, two pints, and a lime and soda.... £3.95 for the lime and soda.... that's just taking the... and to add salt to the wound, you can't just do contactless, you have to select "No service/tip" on the machine before it'll scan your card.

Won't be returning. Back to Ciao Amore. Real Italian...