Venezia Exeter — Restaurant in Exeter

We went here for lunch on Saturday ,we had chosen there because it had PLENTY empty tables...firstly we sat down and had a ten minute wait for the menu, as far as we could see only one person was actually having food ...we ordered coffees which were cold when they arrived . But we let slide because we don't like making a scene this was at one o'clock . We all ordered food, one dish was described as "eggs royale on a LIGHTLY toasted bagel " we waited for a hour .. at which point we decided to question how long would our food be,we were then told we should have been informed the food would be a hour wait before we placed our order (which we weren't ) so another half hour went by bearing in mind at this point only one party of THREE were actually eating everyone else were just having drinks they had plenty of staff at least 6 people serving tables !! Eventually the food arrived 👏👏👏 UNFORTUNATELY not worth the hour and half wait, the eggs were hard and the LIGHTLY toasted bagel was burnt .. the chicken burger was very dry and the pizza wrap that sounded amazing was very disappointing nothing like the description meanwhile the table in front of us were also receiving their food ,one plate of pasta arrived then other two dishes arrived about 5 minutes later!!! wouldn't recommend this place to anyone and definitely won't be going back any time soon .Infact if we hadn't already paid in advance we would have gone elsewhere ! ..... owner responded basically calling me a liar !!! At least One hour 30 minutes I stand by check your CCTV again ..you will see we all checked our phones at some time looking at the time asked how long Twice just before the hour once to the lovely lady who took the order then 15 minutes later because we couldn't believe how long we were waiting ...maybe invest in a oven with more than one ring ? don't blame Brexit on your poor ability to run your restaurant that is just sad ! Plenty of locals who are willing to work ...250 people 🤣 they must have been wearing invisibility cloaks 😳🤔 I don't appreciate being called a...

Visited the quay today for my birthday. Wanted to go to Rock Fish but there was no availability (last minute choice to eat lunch out as we had dinner plans tonight).

We fancied a drink and a light lunch, we saw Bar Venezia and saw they did a seafood salad so decided on this. I ordered the seafood salad and my husband ordered the ceaser salad. We ordered chips to share.

The wait was approx: 45 minutes, not an issue at all for us as we were in no rush and it was a lovely warm day. We ordered a rose wine and a beer. The rose arrived in a plastic beaker and tasted cheap and sweet. I drank it seeing it was £5 and just looked forward to my salad. I thought the wait was going to be really worth it and some amazing salad was going to be brought out. How wrong was I.

45 minutes later - presented before me was a bowl of salad leaves, seafood mixed in and a huge amount of sickly seafood sauce, which tasted like it was straight out of a bottle. I picked through it before biting in to a piece of calamari and having to chew through it. I tired a mussel - tasteless and wet. I tried a crayfish tail - chewy and so tough it was not edible.

Then as I ate a bit more of the salad leaves, I saw water. I tipped the bowl and there was a good 100 ml of water sat underneath the salad. I was done!

We politely called one of the staff over and explained. I was offered something else about 3 times but I declined. I'd totally lost my appetite. I was offered a refund, which I accepted. I just picked at the chips, which were quite nice.

We cannot fault the attentiveness of the waiting staff, they were on it and efficient, albeit the waiting time (of which we would have been absolutely fine with if we were served good food). They honoured a refund, were apologetic, friendly and polite - so 5 stars for that. However, 1 star for the quality of the food.

If Gordon Ramsay was there he'd say...."My gran could do better and she's dead!".

I'd never go here again , but it was...

Venezia is a beautiful little restaurant with a rustic atmosphere...on the outside. Inside however felt like a store room. Admittedly when we went to Venezia, we arrived on Salsa dancing night so we didn't sit in the main area as that's where the evening's event was taking place. We were sat in the far left, and found ourselves surrounded by what seemed more charity shop than Italian Bistro. There was an old wobbly looking shelving unit filled with Hooka pipes, chairs stacked up high and an aging ice cream fridge amongst other knick-knacks. They do allow dogs in the entrance area of the restaurant, while I'm okay with dogs I can understand why people would not like to see them in places where one will be eating.

The service was quick, however that might be down to us being the only people eating there. Our server was unkempt and messy with a grubby shirt which put me off my meal when it arrived as his thumb was in my pasta as he was holding the bowl. We were freezing the entire night as there was an open door behind us that let a big draft through the entire restaurant.

You're probably wondering at this point, "it seems like you had a terrible time, why have you not given them 1 star?" Well, they had redeemed themselves with the food. Even though the thought of me eating whatever grub our server had on his thumb was in my mind, that thought flew away as I enjoyed a glorious meal and my partner enjoyed hers too. We ended up leaving with smiles on our faces and full tummy's.

I will be coming back again to hopefully receive a better experience than I did on...