San Tonino Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in England

Food was good. Overall evening was ruined as they are making no safety concessions for covid.

no covid equipment worn by staff - facemask, clear face visor, gloves tables not disinfected when other dinners left waiter kissing and hugging new dinners when they came into the restaurant then staff touching our table all the time with bare hands and standing over people to take orders After becoming increasingly concerned about their proximity to our table, especially to my 5 year old son, I complained, after the waiter began touching my 5 year olds face the waiter stood a few feet away arguing with me about my request not to touch my son and maintain distance. During the conversation he didn't move even when I asked him to be 2m away and asked us to leave for complaining about this the waiter then tried to embarrass me by theatrically leaving the food (which we had ordered before this conversation) on a separate table and me having to go and pick it up we should have left a lot earlier

Didn't seem to care about covid except a token hand sanitiser bottle at the entrance.

I hope they educate themselves and learn to operate in a safe environment. They aren't at the moment and they are putting people at risk

Comments on 24/08/20 Il Tonino response

I understand the commercial need to respond to a negative review, however I am confused that you would respond in this manner. If you do have cctv, and there is any kind of objective review, then your allegations would easily be proven false. Save perhaps that my children ran from the table to play outside, for which no complaint was received from the management (or other parties) despite this apparently concerning other dinners as “irresponsible”.

The only conversation with staff, save for ordering food, was to ask the owner to stop touching my son inappropriately - in the time of a pandemic - and in a manner that made his parents uncomfortable. For this we were met then with hostility and now with lies and passive aggression.

I’m sorry that you feel the need ignore our concerns, with demonstrably rebuttable allegations about aggression, as in doing so you put future customers at risk. In the absence of a vaccine the only way to fight a viral pandemic is changes in behaviour, and you are still operating like it is February 2020.

Obviously, it is impossible to discuss a topic constructively when met with lies however taking your written words, it is still confusing. It was the owner that served our table and your reply confirms that he:

didn’t wear a mask or gloves kissed a hugged other people (not from our party) attending the restaurant when not serving food, the period the Government allows proximity, he approached my son and touched his face and hands

The owner wasn’t seen washing his hands or sanitising at any point in the evening, so this clearly risks virus transmission.

We were watching the staff as we had concerns throughout the evening, the initial request for a table further away from others was to have further social distance. It is untrue that there was any aggression when we had to sit elsewhere The allegation is particularly illogical as if we were that upset about it we would have gone elsewhere.

In addition, there are no screens at the counter, no social distancing markings, no one way system, no guidance from staff on any of these measures on arrival. You did keep the front door open which made it easier for the kids to go to the ventilated garden without touching the door, thank you.

However, I forgive you for making our experience so awful, I forgive you for then lying about our visit. I implore you to change so no one gets ill from Corona at your restaurant.

Clearly, I’m not coming back but at least make other people safe as they may not...

I never write reviews but I felt compelled to after such a bad experience, and I wish I had read the other similar reviews on here before we chose to book a table.

I will preface this by saying the building is lovely and we received very good, friendly service from two of the three waiting staff we encountered.

I am vegan, so we rang to confirm they could cater for vegans before we booked. The man confirmed, and when we arrived I explained again and the waitress was very friendly and accommodating - she went to speak to the chef and let me know I could order anything and they'd adapt it to be vegan friendly. When she came back to take our order, she pointedly said vegan for each of my orders as she was taking them down.

My starter was a pizza base with tomato and basil, there was no way i would have been able to tell if it was not vegan (the base) so I ate it. My main was brought to us by a different waitress (with dyed red hair). It was clear that the pasta had anchovies in it, and the salad had cheese. I got her attention and explained I ordered my food to be vegan and it clearly was not. She didn't apologise, she just said "this is how it comes". I explained to her the entire conversation I'd had with the previous waitress. Again, no apology, she curtly asked "what do you want me to do. Do you want the same again without it?". I was so shocked at the way she spoke to me, especially considering the error I had been so careful in trying to avoid at every step.

By the time the meal was brought back to me, I had totally lost my appetite. As a side note, I had also ordered extra chillies and there were none at all so I asked for those separately from another waiter (male) who was incredibly polite and helpful, and very apologetic about the errors. I left after eating barely any as the whole situation had been upsetting. My parents went to settle the bill and requested my meal be removed from the bill. The boss was called and he did deduct the meal, but also did not apologise for any of the trouble.

Everyone makes mistakes and we are very forgiving with customer facing staff because it is a stressful job, but the customer service from the red haired waitress was absolutely unacceptable, especially considering the level of error and the steps we had taken to be clear about dietary needs, even from before booking a table.

Looking at the responses from other similarly bad reviews, I feel like any response from the restaurant is likely to be dismissive, but if you're considering booking here I strongly advise against it, especially if you have dietary needs which...

Over priced frozen food! I know it was frozen because the lamb shank I had was still solid in places and the piece I ate still had ice in it. My wife had grilled chicken. That chicken had never been near a grill. My daughter had the pork medallions. Advertised on the menu as 4. Only 3 on the plate and they were very small and thin. When I pointed out the problem with my food the waitress denied it was frozen and said it was cooked yesterday. I pointed out the solid piece of meat and the solid part of the shank she said she'd get the chef. Who never appeared. Another girl came over and whisked the plate away almost as though they were trying to hide it. I was however offered another meal or an alternative, unfortunately the frozen food had put me off.

Extremely small portions. Highly over priced for the poor meal and sevice we received. No complimentary extras.

Not somewhere I'm willing to recommend...