Mario's (Swindon) — Restaurant in England

Cramped and food was average. Went here for our anniversary meal, had to take the baby so needed a high chair and I'm pregnant. We were seated at a table deep inside the restaurant, which was fine up until other people started to turn up. Anytime anyone passed the high chair they ended up tripping and kicking it! The table behind had to walk all the way round! There were other tables we could have been seated at that were out of the way, so I don't see the logic. There were far too many people squashed into a small space and with the risk of covid still in the air, I felt it was very unsafe and unhealthy. The bench I was sat on was dirty and there was a lot of dust and cobwebs behind me, it's not something I normally look out for when out, but there was so much I noticed it. Not the level of cleanliness you would expect from an establishment selling food. Also as a side note, I felt we were made to feel rather unwelcome because neither of us were drinking alcohol. The food was nothing to write home about. I had a starter of prawn cocktail, which was more mayonnaise than anything, I think there was about 7 small prawns in there. My partner had the calamari and said it was nice, however our mains turned up before he had finished his starter. Mains of prawn and chicken pasta, and again there was a shortage of prawns (there were 3) I had chicken in a mushroom sauce and you've guessed it more mushrooms than chicken. The piece of chicken was small and over cooked, the veg was under cooked, so much so it was inedible and the potatoes looked nice, but tasted like the oil that were cooked in needed changing. For pudding I had the profiteroles, of which I had two and a bit of squirty cream, he had the souffle which he said was nice. I had a cup of tea at the end of the meal, served in a cup with a small jug of milk, the tea was lux warm. The baby had a pizza, he seemed to enjoy it. The bill arrived swiftly after that, as did the man with the card machine, I guess they really wanted us out. Most of the staff were friendly and helpful. I wouldn't go back, there are other, much better Italian restaurants in Swindon, don't even bother. I would recommend da vinci, we have been there during covid and although a small restaurant we didn't feel squashed in, had lots of space and the food is so much better, we also have it as a...

An authentic Italian restaurant with all the trimmings. For a moment you forget you are in urban Swindon but instead you are transported to a local Sicilian trattoria in the heart of the Southern Italian region. Enzo and his team are very friendly and very available. The food...well the food is spectacular, delicious and very much Mediterranean. We had an Antipasto all'Italiana to start with, which Mrs F and I shared. (We should have ordered 2) as it vanished quite quickly with the help of plenty of bread and olive oil. If you ever order this do ask for bread as you'll miss out on the whole antipasto experience. As main dishes Mrs F had the Pesce spada Provinciale which is Swordfish cooked in a garlic and tomato creamy sauce. She loved it! I ordered the Scaloppine Mafiose which turned to be heaven on a plate...a Veal Escalope that was cooked to perfection served Sicilian Style with a delicious tomato sauce, aubergines, onions and mozzarella (the menu did say Parmesan) but believe me the whole plate was cleared without any hesitation! We then indulged and had dessert. Mrs F had Panna Cotta which is one of her favourite so need not ask how she liked it!! I had a French dessert...a delicious Crème Brulée which was wonderful. Well after our bellies were full we ending the evening chatting in Italian with Enzo whilst enjoying a proper espresso. Will most certainly visit again when we're...

The food was fantastic, the service was awful. We knew they were busy but, we'd been given a wine menu then waited almost 40 minutes before someone came and took our drink order. When that was brought to us I had to ask for a food menu which I was given. Then a further 15/20 minutes before the order was taken. Meanwhile another couple walked in, got drinks immediately very chatty with the waitress, their food was brought out within minutes. Obviously they were friends of the waitress. Meanwhile I managed to get the attention of a passing waiter to order more drinks. Eventually we had our starters, the plates were cleared away fairly quick but then we had another long wait for our mains, it was the cook who brought our food to the table, with apologies for the wait. We were discussing whether to have dessert, we were hoping to see a menu but it was not to be so after waiting for ages we gave up, managed to catch a waiters eye and asked for the bill. The waitress practically threw it on the table, she was too busy saying goodbye to her friends who had finished their meal and were leaving. We paid the bill ( funnily enough they were quick to get payment but!) but did not leave a tip as it was such bad service. We had been there before and it was great but after this visit we won't be...