Raffaello's Guidepost — Restaurant in England

Havent reviewed anywhere for a while as I dont bother with mediocre restaurants, i only do reviews for the very good or very poor. A new Italian restaurant recently opened in Choppington of all places and I thought why not give it a try and wow what a good idea it was. On entering we were immediately blown away by the very stylish decor and layout, which was very tastefully designed and went a long way to creating a warm and welcoming atmosphere; we were warmly greeted by two charming ladies with lovely smiles, that made us feel very welcome, they showed us to a table which was immaculate and the red serviettes matched the fresh red tulip on the table perfectly. I instinctively knew in the first few minutes that this was going to be good and at no time during our visit was i disappointed. I had the mussels in tomato and chilli as a starter and my good lady a prawn cocktail, both were exceptional, we then had a pizza and a pasta dish which again were just great. Food and drinks £33.. which was very very reasonable for the food, service and atmosphere provided by such a fantastic little establishment... .as Mrs A said, why go to Morpeth with such a little diamond on the door step. We will definitely return soon. Only thing....my new pet hate is plastic drinking straws....they last for upto 500 years in the environment...please dont use them as a matter of course, if you must have them at all, use them only...

Had a lovely meal for my cousins birthday last night. I always find it hard to find arancini at Italian restaurants so that was a bonus! I then had a very filling lasagne. There are 2 menus a set menu one thats £7.95 for 3 courses and the normal menu. We chose to eat of the normal menu and for 2 of us for 3 courses with drinks came to about £80. We found the set menu didn’t have enough choice for us which is why we went for the normal menu. Had there been more choice of starters we would have probably had the set menu. Unfortunately none of the starters on the set menu were really what I could have for my unusual dietary requirements and I didn’t fancy potato skins.

Soup (leek & potato) garlic mushrooms and potato skins.

The pasta’s & pizzas I would have also been a bit limited.

That isn’t a slight on rafaellos it’s just my body can only take certain levels of foods so I have to be careful.

The staff were really friendly and helpful.

Some food took longer than others but for a party of 15 they coped well.

I will...

Been here a few times and have always enjoyed the food I have had. I would say it is good value. However, two instances have now put us off going back again. The first instance was a few weeks ago when we decided to go there for out evening meal. It took forever to come. Nice when it did but unsatisfactory service. They seemed more concerned with getting Just Eat orders out the door. A work colleague was at another table and told me the next day, they had waited over an hour for their food. The second instance was tonight. My partner had gone there with her friend for a bit of a catch up over a meal. They had just finished their meal when an elderly couple came in. A member of staff spoke to them and indicated to the table my partner was at, intimating that they were holding things up by still being at the table. They were basically pressured into leaving before having the option of a dessert/coffee etc, whilst getting filthy looks from the elderly couple. Its just not a nice place to be now, so won’t be...