La Piazza — Restaurant in England

The serving staff were friendly and kind (hence two stars rather than one). The restaurant generally clean and a good atmosphere. Doors open onto the square for some outdoor seating. So this is an attractive looking restaurant. Just unfortunate that the food was really awful and the manager blamed everyone else but himself.

My tagliatelle carbonara was terrible. The pasta itself was significantly overcooked. So overcooked that it broke apart the moment I tried to twist it onto the fork. Pasta should be cooked al dente. This was mushy and watery. Moreover, the sauce tasted of charcoal because the pancetta had been burned. It had been burned so badlly that there were black spots of soot throughout the sauce. My daughter's seafood pasta was too salty. She complained to me, so had a taste and it was inedible.

We had gainfully tried to eat the food, because we didn't have time for sending things back and waiting for another meal. Also, my daughter is a kind person and doesn't like hurting others' feelings, so is always reluctant to complain and doesn't like to cause a scene. So we tried to battle it out. We both ate about a third of our meal - not because of the quantity, but the awful taste. I normally eat everything. I was brought up by my parents who lived in London during WWII never to waste food, so it is hard for me to leave more than half a meal uneaten on my plate. But instead of taking responsibility, the manager blamed me for trying to eat the food.

After we left, I realised that neither the serving staff nor the manager had come over during our meal to ask if things were OK, to give us an opportunity to mention that the food was sub-standard. The restaurant was not crowded, and the manager spent time just sitting and looking around. He had plenty of time to just walk over and chat with his customers, but didn't. If someone had come over we would have been able to solve it. He blamed us for not calling the server over, rather than taking on the responsibility himself for asking his customers about their experience. It is the manager's responsibility to train his staff to ask customers mid-meal about their experience, and should do it himself too when he is not doing other things. He didn't do that.

Only at the end when the server came over to clear plates and close down the table did she ask if it was OK. When I told her she was very kind and took our plates away and communicated with the manager. He didn't bother to walk a few metres to come over to us, instead communicating through the server and making her take the heat. When we told her a second time that it wasn't good enough, the manager finally came over, was rude to me, blamed the chef (who he hired), and blamed us for trying to eat his food and not sending it back sooner.

If you look at my Google reviews, I am normally generous to hospitality venues, but I am afraid this was not a good experience, both in terms of the poor food quality and the behaviour of the manager.

This was during the Brighton and Hove Pride weekend, and I imagine some restaurants are a bit complacent because there are so many tourists around. However, my friend is a resident nearby, and myself and my daughter are regular visitors to the city.

I waited a little time to think about what I would do, but decided to post this because I hope the manager can learn from this and take some responsibility for making the decisions that lead to these unfortunate situations. Customer feedback is valuable information and should be treated like gold dust, not thrown back at them. Poor management leads to...

We were a party of six plus two children aged 5 and 2. We booked for 530 pm yesterday Saturday. We had a good table where we were celebrating my daughters birthdays which are within a week of each other. We booked because of the positive reviews. After 15 mins, we were showered with water from the air conditioning unit above the table, not a dribble but an deluge. My daughter and my 5 year old grandaughter' s dresses were soaked . We were moved to another table and the surprise Proscecco I ordered was offered free. After 30 mins the now unocccupied table was again deluged with water with again failure of the air conditioned unit. Much to my surprise the table 30 mins later was again laid for customers by the manager and the table underneath the air conditioning became occupied with customers again. Every person including myself enjoyed the food when it arrived. Service was slow because i believe whilst the waiters and waitresses were initially apologetic, they were embarassed by what had happened. It was three hours at 830 when we left. We were assured that the air conditioning units were serviced 2 months ago. I would ask the owners to contact their air conditioning experts as soon as possible to ensure that no other customers get soaked with possible decontaminated water which can lead to serious illness. I would also advise the owners to advise their insurers as to a possible liability claim should any of my family go down with illness in the next month

When presented with the bill ( over £200) i declined to pay the service charge as there was no discount offered for the hassle.The manager said it was not his fault ...he was not the owner. On the whole the non managerial staff were great as was the food. Would we go back there? No . If you are a regular I would suggest you book a table not under an air conditioning unit. I regret writing this review but in 50 years of dining in London and Sussex , this occurence has never happened to me or my family before and the special night was ruined...

Had a lunch today here. We ordered the strawberry virgin mojito which was too sweet, was too much strawberry puree in it. Then for starter we ordered the chicken liver pate. The pate was excellent but the toasted bread was not fresh and took so long to get it. For main we ordered tagliatelle carbonara and salmon and asparagus risotto. The risotto was delicious, however I found a piece of pasta in it, I was wondering how did it get into my food. But the pasta was hidious. Sorry for saying this. The pasta was overcooked,was not al dente, there was no salt,no pepper,had no flavour to it at all,and was full of oil. My partner could not eat more than 3 bites. We did not complained about it because my partner was not in the mood to try something else,just wanted to leave. After we paid the waiter guy did not ask how was the food when my partner's plate was nearly full. I guess he did not want to get complaints. After our table he went to clean up the table next to us where all the plates were empty and asked the guests how was the food. One thing what I do not understand...why you guys have to decorate a carbonara with the pea stalk? Like you just threw the pea plant on the plate...ridiculous. Definitely will not be...