La Trattoria — Restaurant in England

Absolutely shocking, we came in after seeing it advertised as a family restaurant and quite liked the story hoping for some authentic homemade pasta, the food that was presented looked awful prior to taste but the taste was worse, I then called the lady over to ask she instantly had a ridiculous attitude and I asked if the spaghetti was homemade, no it was packet spaghetti with tinned chopped tomatoes and topped with a leaf not any seasoning or fresh herbs (other than the one) we then proceeded to ask if the calamari was fresh…no frozen from a bag!!!. I’m shocked at the undeniable poor quality of produce and lack of passion in the ingredients, this restaurant are charging between £12 and £18 for simple pre made pasta taking less than 12 minutes to cook (maybe longer as the pasta was overdone) no preparation and less than £1 to make, this is a con to anyone and an insult to Italian cooking, we then said we will pay for our wine as we didn’t eat our mains then like a petulant child the lady said no don’t worry have it and popped the cheap plastic cork back in the £24 bottle of wine which I’m really rather happy about so Thankyou for that courtesy. We were polite and simply asked what we had presented in front of us, people need to know what they are receiving for fine dining prices as the couple we spoke to outside were also unaware and disgusted with no knowledge that they are receiving...

Seeing the pictures and reviews we thought to come here for evening dinner. We got completely shafted, they told us to sit in the cafe part of the restaurant not the main restaurant. This felt like a builders cafe, no ambience and zero feeling of a nice evening dining whatsoever.

The waitering staff were rude and spoke in a demeaning manner. Not welcoming and not friendly, which other reviews say they received. Maybe because we were put in the reject part of the establishment.

The food was average, we didn't finish the pastas as mine was overloaded with salt and my wife's was overloaded with pepper.

Then the tiramisu dessert, looked like a melted mess in a pool of cream, which the waiter said "I think it's ice cream". The picture on Google looked nice, what I received was disgusting and the kitchen has no respect for diners or Italian food if they thought that was acceptable to serve.

Overall I think the management and staff have no respect for you if you sit in the cafe, so just walk away if they try and sit you there. £28 for 2 pasta dishes is insane but expected good experience, when we didn't get the service we were incredibly disappointed and...

This is a lovely Italian find in the quintessentially British seaside town of Swanage.

VARIETY: The menu is the most extensive, however the food is high quality and homemade. I would personally recommend the pasta dishes.

SERVICE: In terms of service, the staff were nice. They were super busy, due to the time of year, so could have probably done with an extra pair of hands.

LOCATION: Their located by the sea front, but with no sea views. So if that is something you're looking for, I'd probably recommend going somewhere else.

PRICE: Affordability wise, they aren't your budget sort of place, however I would say they are reasonable priced for what you get. The portions are quite big and for a lovely Italian homemade feast I'd say around £12 is a good price.

ACCESSIBILITY: for wheelchairs and those who generally need more space to move around this restaurant isn't great. The only small toilet is up a set of stairs and the tables are all quite close together.

Overall I would recommend this a great place to eat homemade Italian food. However, i would bear in mind the small menu and...