RM Italiano — Restaurant in Gravesham

I bought a Groupon voucher for 4 people for food and wine. I went with my husband and 2 children so we were four people. First, the waiter said we have to order two kids meals and we won’t get adult portions. I said why is that, we paid for a meal of four. It doesn’t specify four adults, we are a family of four so I want four portions. He asked age of my kids and I said 15 and 9 so they are not little. He said ok. Secondly, he said we won’t get four glasses of wine. I said I had paid for four and I can order drinks for the kids but I wanted four glasses. He refused. And charged us for 2 soft drinks and gave us 2 glasses of wine instead of 4. Then, my daughter didn’t finish her pizza and requested it to be packed. He then said she should have ordered kids meal as he said before. I said that’s none of your business as she wants to pack it and we have paid for it. He gave us a box and told us he won’t pack next time. We left embarrassed by the whole experience. It felt as if he was giving us free food, I paid groupn and also paid for soft drinks there so I paid a full restaurant meal, yet he humiliated us. If he did not want to give us 4 wines as promised by voucher, he could have given us 2 wines and 2 soft drinks and not charged us extra but he charged me extra for this and also did not give us the 2 wines so we were made fool of. When i asked him he said they changed policy, How rubbish! Food is nice though, service is not so nice. Avoid if you have bought a...

We had a Groupon voucher for 4 people to have pizza/pasta and wine. We visited with our 2 children and knew beforehand that we couldn't exchange the wine for soft drinks. We sat down and the waiter said straightaway, you can't have soft drink instead of wine, choose any pasta or pizza. Very short and not the happiest! He then scanned our groupon. After scanning he went on to say that only 2 meals and wines could be credited even though we had paid for 4. we explained that we were happy to purchase 2 soft drinks at £3.50 each and that we would all be ordering dessert at probably another £20 plus. Apparently it was over 18 only?? Except he had let us sit down and scanned the Groupon! and our 2 under 5s were very obviously under 18. All very odd. We decided to leave amicably as we would be 2 glasses of wine short and would have to order 2 extra kids meals in place of the 2 adults ones we had paid for, confused yet?!... He told us to email groupon for a refund. Groupon said they needed an email from the restaurant to say we didn't eat. Well that was like pulling teeth, 4 weeks on 20 plus emails to the restaurant and nothing, they are ignoring us. I know their email works as I got my sister to email an enquiry about a booking. So not great, but reading the recent reviews of food poisoning maybe we got lucky...

This is a truly brilliant gem of a restaurant, which at first glance seems a little no thrills. It has terracotta washed walls that reminds me of so many episodes of the 90s series "Changing Rooms" and the bread sticks come out of little packets which you have to open yourself, but these I assure you are charming quirks rather than downsides. The service is great and the waiter, V, is very friendly even when the place is full and he is busy. The food though is the main attraction to this unassuming little restaurant, it's amazing. The menu is a mix of Lithuanian and Italian cuisine, which means you can eat many of the dishes you're familiar with but if you're feeling adventurous there are many delicious options and combinations that you may never have considered before. Last night we had roast duck with roasted apricots and blue-cheese mash and it was delicious. The starters are lovely too and are always just the right amount to get you started on road to satisfaction that will eventually culminate with one of their exquisite desserts, which may have familiar names but will not be what you are expecting as RM Italiano have put a unique and inspired twist on almost all of them.

I couldn't recommend this restaurant enough and we can't wait...