Donatellos is a Brighton institution and as a resident for almost 60 years, I always recommend it to visitors. I won't anymore. We had the worst experience there ever last night. I appreciate it was a busy Saturday night but that's no different to any other time we've been. It's always full, with a queue outside. We had booked well in advance. When we arrived our table wasn't cleared. We waited half an hour for our drinks order to be taken and a further half an hour before they finally arrived after 2 prompts, and us offering to collect them ourselves from the bar. We had ordered water for the table, which never arrived in spite of a second request for this too. Eventually one of our party went to get some himself. During this wait, the upstairs area where we were sitting which had been full, almost emptied out. We had high hopes for our food arriving more promptly. It did not. We waited an hour from arrival time to receiving our starters. I'm a creature of habit and always order the same starter and main. The garlic mushrooms were terrible. Simply a plate of mushrooms in oil. No seasoning and no discernible garlic. They are usually delicious. We had another very long wait for our food. When it arrived several of the meals were lukewarm at best. After such a long wait, we couldn't even be bothered to complain or return it. Not that anyone came to check if our meals were ok anyway. We weren't even offered the obligatory black pepper and parmesan. We had been there almost 2 hours by this point and were not prepared to wait even longer for a hot meal. I always clear my plate but couldn't eat the last bit as it was stone cold by this point. When the plates were collected we were not asked if everything was ok in spite of 4 of the 6 plates still having food on them and didn't get chance to say before they were whisked away. The desserts came quicker but it was now 9.45. Our original booking was for 7.45. These too were disappointing. 4 different ice cream desserts were almost identical. Overall I'm sad to say I cannot recommend Donatellos anymore. I felt embarrassed that we had recommended it to our friends and family and no one had a good meal. We looked for the manager to speak to before we left, to avoid leaving what could be a damaging review, but although there is usually always a member of the staff at the door there was no one in sight. My husband waited for a while but no one appeared.