Il Paradiso Del Cibo — Restaurant in England

Oh my days. This is genuinely an amazing find, do not let any preconceptions about the size or deco of the place put you off, you will live to regret it! I have been lucky enough to have dined at some of what I've experienced as the most incredible restaurants, including in Italy, and at first glance you would write this tiny little place off, it's not on a main street, and you'd blink and miss it if you were walking past but it is honestly up there with the absolute best. At 6pm on a weekday evening it was full of diners, always a good sign. We chose garlic bread and bruschetta for starters, my eldest boy is the biggest critique of garlic bread on the planet and declared it the best ever, I'd agree and apply that to the bruschetta too. My 2 kids then had 2 HUGE pizzas and demolished the lot. We adults had 2 pasta dishes from the specials board and at the risk of sounding hysterical again, we both agreed that they were 2 of the best pasta dishes we'd ever had. No exaggeration, just genuinely incredible, honest and authentic food. We also got talking to a lovely man who said he came so frequently on his own that he'd made his way through the menu and he told us all about his favourite dishes and how wonderful the place was and he was not wrong. There's such a lovely vibe about the place, and the staff encapsulate it. They're enthusiastic, attentive, warm, super friendly and genuine. I could've spent the entire night there. Sadly, we couldn't so we finished off with a pistachio semifreddo (i am obsessed with pistachio anything and myself and my youngest boy were in heaven with this desert) and Limoncello and left with the memory of an understated evening that transpired to be a memory we'll reminisce about for many years. Thank you to all the hardworking staff for providing such a perfect meal in York ❤️❤️ we'll spread the word about you far and wide and hope to be...

This little place was buzzing, a great sign. Owner was working tables, very hospitable. Good value set menu for my grandson, I ordered from the specials menu on the wall which was far more exciting I thought, so built up my hopes. I will preface this review by saying I was not asked once how was the food. The huge garlic bread was OK, but the ‘crispy’ octopus special was terribly disappointing. Never had such mushy octopus, floppy and almost tasteless. No saffron flavour in aioli, confit tomato was just deep fried grape toms. My grandson enjoyed his spaghetti ‘bolognese’, but my arancini had almost no flavour, underseasoned, no promised smoky flavour, nor Scamorza cheese, ordinary sauce with no basil flavour. Weird. Baked aubergine dish had no Mozzarella and had same boring tomato sauce. Rocket salad had some weird cheese. When I asked what cheese it was the lovely waitress answered “Parmesan” but it wasn’t. She then came back and confirmed some “mix up in the kitchen” they had put Pecorino instead. No, not enough flavour for that either. The cheese offered table side was pre-ground and not good quality. Ordered the ricotta cheesecake and some serviceable gelato. Cheese cake took for ever and when questioned why the lovely waitress said “there’s been a mix up in the kitchen” and she brought a chocolate cake slathered in Nutella as a substitute. All I can say is that the over-promising menu descriptions do not match reality and the quality of ingredients and execution was poor. I suggest the chef gets back in the mistake-laden kitchen and tastes what they’re putting out as it’s about as far from authentic as you’d expect from a tourist trap. The servers just seem to accept all the errors like it’s no big deal, but that’s not their fault as they have to...

We had a very disappointing experiencing after being recommended this restaurant by a friend. We had high hopes but from the get go we were treated really poorly by the staff. One lady in particular was incredibly rude taking our order and was dictating what I should and shouldn’t be eating as a pregnant woman. When I asked if it was possible to change something small on the menu she said no and “cant you just get a tomato pasta” & “should you really be eating cheese”. I said it was no problem and would just need a couple more minutes to decide what else I would like from the menu. Luckily another man had just started his shift and joined the conversation as she was making quite a fuss. He kindly said they could make the dish with the small change to which she replied to him “well you can tell that to the kitchen cos they don’t speak English”. I was so taken back by this service and having worked in the trade myself I knew it was not how to treat a customer. To top the evening off, they got my friends order wrong so she had to wait another 15 mins for her food, whilst mine came and was completely tasteless and the mushrooms were clearly from a tin- not fresh, so tasted awful! Being seated right by the kitchen was not ideal with the constant passing and clashing but also the shouting because they had made a main dish that wasn’t even ordered. The only thing we enjoyed was the garlic bread starter. We could not finish the mains so we asked for the bill and asked to remove the service charge. The gentleman came back over and apologised completely on behalf of his colleagues and our experience which we appreciated. However we wont be returning and feel like we shouldn’t have even had to pay for...