San Carlo - Leicester — Restaurant in England

I've just received an email from San Carlo Leicester inviting us back for a meal as they haven't seen us in a while..........just a mailing list email, tried to reply with this and it bounces back as its a No Reply email!! Well, where shall I start..........!! I've always been a regular visitor to San Carlo Leicester, with great service, lovely food and a wonderful atmosphere, but after my last experience I will really have to think hard about visiting again. My daughter got married in July 2022 and we arranged her hen weekend to include a meal for 11 girls at your Leicester restaurant at 8pm on the 11th June 2022, telling all the girls what a great restaurant to celebrate in. I originally booked the table for 8 girls when visiting the restaurant for a meal with my husband in January 2022, asking would you like a deposit (I had no issues doing this as I had taken a deposit from all the girls), but advised I didn't need to do this. I also requested that we would like to sit on the main floor, this was also not an issue. Some months later when visiting the restaurant again for another meal I double checked if the reservation was still in place, still all okay. On the 29th April I then amended the booking to 11 girls, again this amendment was made when visiting the restaurant with friends to celebrate my husbands 60th birthday..........again I asked if they would like a deposit, and again the answer was no and the table was still booked for the main floor. I also called the restaurant at the end of May to ask if it was okay to put some balloons on the table and I would drop them a few hours before the table was booked, again very accommodating and with no issues. The 10th June (the day before arrival) I received an email reminder showing all the correct information and nothing on the email to advise that I had to confirm everything was still okay with the booking. We visited a Spa for the day on the 11th June arriving at a local Leicester hotel a few before beforehand and then I made our way to San Carlo's at 6pm as agreed to drop off some balloons for the table to be told - quite abruptly that the table had been cancelled as I hadn't answered by phone during the day to confirm my reservation and I hadn't paid a deposit- Spa's don't allow any phones to be switched on. It took me over 15 minutes of being spoken to like an absolute idiot to get the booking reinstated, I was constantly being over spoken by the manager and to the total embarrassment to the lady on the reception desk.......I really did feel for her, she really didn't know what to say. The manager was beyond rude and for something that wasn't my fault - I don't think I have ever been spoken to in this manner before. If I was made aware that I was going to get a call to confirm, that I would have made a point of leaving the spa to take or make a call. We all arrived at the restaurant at 8pm, table ready but then to be totally ignored by the manager but the young lady from behind the counter made her way to me and apologized for what had happened. This was something she really didn't need to do, but thank you anyway. The food was far from its usual standard, drinks being served in the wrong glasses i.e. prosecco in a wine glass, wine in a tumbler etc, etc... Our meal took over an hour to arrive and then we were told by the manager 'Please remember we need the table back by 10pm'..........we only had a main meal served to us at 9.15!! And then to add insult to injury he popped a service charge on it all, of which I kindly asked to be removed - again the lady apolosed. I haven't visited the restaurant since and...

AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!

Our last meal of our weekend away and it was disgraceful. Rude and inattentive staff, bland, bog standard food - ridiculously overpriced, poor produce. Having booked a table in advance, we arrived and stood waiting for 5 mins; before anyone even approached us. They staff deliberately avoided making eye contact with us and the restaurant was practically empty!? We found this very strange. When a member of staff finally came over, we were told our table (for 2) wasn’t ready, so we waited a further 5 minutes whilst we watched a female member of staff angrily rip off a cheap plastic table cloth and throw some Poundland cutlery down. When finally seated, right next to one of the only other occupied tables (practically on top of the couple that were dining) we waited a further 10 minutes before even being asked if we’d like to order a drink and hadn’t even been given a menu. All I can say is that I wish we had left then! We ordered 2 glasses of Diet Coke (half glasses of flat, bottled Diet Coke for £3 each) I ordered a Spaghetti Carbonara and as it was a special occasion, my husband ordered the ‘Special Mixed Grill’ (£32) with a side order of sautéed potatoes with pancetta (£5.99) as it didn’t come with anything else, other than the meat. The food took 45 minutes to come and during the wait (that felt like an eternity) we observed the entertainment of the kitchen staff and waiting staff shouting at each other in a mix of English and another language, across the restaurant. The waiting staff were huddled together, having a chat and the kitchen had take away orders that were sat on a table (going cold) waiting to go out. I’d understand if they were busy, but as I’ve mentioned, it was practically empty! Finally, our food came and I’ve never been so disappointed. My husband's ‘Special’ Mixed Grill consisted of a thumb sized piece of flat chicken, a tiny (singular) lamb cutlet, 1 chipolata sausage and a piece of grey, fatty beef (this was meant to be the luxury steak!) - the tiny bowl of sautéed potatoes (black and sitting in grease with a few bits of onion and 3 pieces of pancetta!) were disgusting. My carbonara, was bland and smelt and tasted like the bacon that was used (not fine pancetta) was off! The staff completely avoided us, didn’t even ask if everything was okay with the food that they were charging £57.00 for (without the drinks). My husband was completely ignored whilst practically sat with his hand in the air, politely asking for someone to come over. When the waiter eventually and pre grudgingly did, he was rude and said ‘what’s your problem!?’… After an embarrassing debate he took the piece of ‘steak’ off of my husband’s plate and my bowl of carbonara away and shouted/slagged us off to his colleagues (in ear shot of everyone else in the restaurant!!) I asked for the bill, as by this point I just wanted to get out of there. Such a horrible experience. The bill was practically thrown at me and they had ‘kindly’ taken 10% off. So to summarise, we left hungry and the whole experience cost us £56.70!

Safe to say, we will never...

Simply my worst dining experience ever. I went there a few days ago with my family and my cousins family to celebrate my son's and nephew's graduation. The graduation was fantastic and the weather was great. This was supposed to be followed by a lovely meal afterwards but what happened next will tarnish that proud day forever. When we arrived our table wasn't ready and were told to go get a drink and pop back later. We did just that and when we came back our table still wasn't ready. Eventually we were seated and it took ages to try to order our drinks. They kept saying they will come over but didn't for a long time. When it came to ordering our food they told us we had to order the starters and mains at the same time, so we did. After waiting ages our mains arrived before the starters! They said our starters will follow!! At this point we expressed our feelings about the service. We waited so long and were hungry we said we'd have our mains but to cancel the starters now. The food was mediocre at best, we didn't want to complain as we knew we wouldn't ever be coming back and who knows how long the next dishes would take. When the bill arrived we said we expected some compensation for the appalling experience. What followed from that point on was awful. They were arrogant, defiant and kept speaking in Italian about this in front of us. They just wouldn't accept any blame. They said they can't offer a discount as it would come out their wages! I'm not sure if this is true or even legal but in my opinion it damn well should. They offered us a free drink each which we refused as we just wanted to leave. Then they said they would take off the optional 10% service charge which was laughable as there was no way we going to pay it anyway. After a long and uncomfortable arguing they took 10% off the bill. It wasn't really about the money, we really just wanted some sort of acknowledgment that the experience was appalling which the bill should reflect. We decided to waste no more time in that 'restaurant' and paid and as we left they had locked the front door in case we left without paying! That would've been false imprisonment. Read my reviews on other restaurants, I'm mostly complimentary to them, I give a lot of 5 star reviews, but sadly San Carlo really doesn't deserve one star. Avoid this poor attempt of a restaurant...