Mamma Rosa — Restaurant in Great Britain

Having heard really amazing reviews we finally tried mama Rosas last night. The smell of the food when you walk in is amazing but the atmosphere was flat with no music just the sound of the table behind us engrossed in conversation. It didn't start well when my husband ordered a tetleys which came to the table in the form of a warm tinny with a room temperature pint glass that he had to pour his own drink in to at a price of around £4.The starters :cheese garlic bread and burnchetta were really nice, the salt and pepper squid was sadly over done. The mains we all agreed were bland and lacked any seasoning other than garlic, I couldn't eat my tagliatelle bolognaise, the pasta was under cooked and chewy and the bolognaise itself was full of big chunks of mince was was missing the bacon lardons . The chicken in mushroom sauce was again over cooked , the sauce was thin and appeared as though the mushrooms were an after thought and thrown on at the end and the buttered veg had no butter. The penne pomodoro, the pasta was slimy and stodgy and the sauce was lacking and really flavour other than beef. My 10 year old pizza wasn't bad other than the chicken seem out of a packet rather than fresh and it didn't come ready sliced it came with steak knife which was difficult to cut without it nearly sliding of the plate. The staff were friendly when they take your order but there was a lack of buzz and enthusiasm about the place, no one came over to see if everything was OK with our meal, and it took a while to get someone's attention to order another drink for my daughter. After hearing so many amazing reviews we were slightly disappointed that the food lacked so much of the authentic Italian flare that we were expecting for the £101 price tag added an extra element of disappointment as you would expect better quality . Such a shame, I hope this was just a off day for them. Sadly we...

In short - Small portions, over priced, mediocre food that was not on the level they were charging.

The longer version - We had fried brie and mushrooms to start. It had two tiny pieces of brie and about 5 pieces of mushrooms. It tasted nice but was dissapointing for the price. The cheese garlic bread was pretty nice and a decent size. For mains, I had spaghetti and meatballs which was really oily, to the point where there were big pools of oil all over the top of the dish which was quite off putting. The sauce was fairly bland and the meatballs were tiny and quite chewy. My partner had carbonara which was average but possibly the best tasting of the three main dishes we had. Our son had Canelloni which was OK but we've had better at supermarket cafes. The filling was overcooked and chewy and didn't taste like good quality ingredients had been used. We finished our meal with Tiramisu and Fudge Cake. The Tiramisu was pretty nice, possibly the only thing of the day that I really enjoyed. But the fudge cake was just a smaller than average slice of the same generic cheap chocolate fudge cake served in cheap chain pubs. The atmosphere in the restaurant is a bit empty and flat. The staff were attentive but it felt a bit awkward and we didn't get a warm friendly welcoming vibe off any of them which, in our experience, really makes a difference. All three of us spent the evening with heartburn after eating here.

Overall, the experience was pretty underwhelming and we left feeling quite dissapointed (and still hungry after 3 courses!) . We...

There's nothing particularly bad here, but nothing amazing either. We love independent small restaurants as it where the best food comes from but just not on par here. I can see why there are so many good reviews so don't let this one put you off but just not one for us to return to. I cannot comment on this one compared to others in the area as we are not locals.

It's a nice restaurant with friendly staff and nice Italian background music. Some staff seem a little inexperienced but all was served well. The starters were lovely, cheesy bread was nice with plenty to share and battered mushrooms and cheese, could have had a few more of those though, they were tasty.

The mains were small and I'm not a big guy. They seemed smaller than some of the other reviewers photos and being very honest were not great. We have eaten at lots of Italian restaurants as its our favourite food but didn't enjoy the mains here, its not terrible but not amazing.

I had the carbonara, that was OK, the pasta did not taste fresh, I suspect its shop bought but happy to be proven wrong.

The meatballs were very oily, we were left with a puddle of oil in the bowl, same issue with the pasta I suspect being shop bought, the meatballs were OK but again nothing special.

Desserts were OK, but again seem shop bought ad not made in house.

As said its all OK, but the price is a little high for the quality, around £65 for 2 starters, 3 mains, 2 desserts and a round of soft drinks.

Overall its OK but don't expect high quality...