Il Piacere — Restaurant in Leeds

In the end very disappointing. We were there to celebrate our birthdays albeit late, and our first impressions were good. Decent seating ang good decor.

A reasonable selection of food and wine with a specials' board to select from.

My starter was fine (King prawns in a spicy sauce) and my friend had Calamari, which I would say looked as if it could have been deep fried longer as the batter was white. The house Merlot was ok but on reflection, in may have been worth paying extra for the Merlot on the main menu.

Sadly, things went downhill from there. I asked for a 5/10 minute break before the mains which ended up being at least 20 minutes which meant that the meal was warm rather than piping hot. My friend asked for Chips and not french fries, which is what was brought to the table.

I had the roast potatoes which, with the best will in the world, were boiled potatoes maybe "splashed with oil. The common theme seams to be that anything fried is not done long enough

We both said to each other we would never return, especially when the bill for two courses and wine was £64.30.

On refection, If I returned and had a more traditional Italian main course, I may feel better but, especially in these times, the restaurant needs to take on board my critique which I have published in an effort to be supportive...

Arrived on spec and we were seated outside. Two young girls waiting on tables were attentive and very pleasant. Skipped starters and ordered mains of Pasta and Pizza and children’s meals. Meals arrived swiftly and portion size, particularly pasta was lacking. These were full priced mains, not on a set menu. The Linguine Frutti Di Mare was poor and had several cracked mussels, resulting in mouthfuls of shells. The mussels themselves were overcooked and by the looks of them, not fresh. The Arrabiata although tasty, was a starter or children’s size. Pizzas were average at best. Children’s drinks, included in the meal were not served. We only realised after we left. We had to ask for ketchup twice and were given a bottle of own brand budget supermarket. I have given an atmosphere of 1 star. This is because while we were seated a full sized refuse lorry reversed to within touching distance from the outside balcony and emptied the contents of an industrial bin. The smell was overwhelming. Whilst the premises may not have control of the timing, it’s simply not on to seat paying guests to be exposed to rancid smells of waste while dining. Not recommended my...

We had a lovely evening for my son's birthday but I feel they still haven't got it right. The food was OK. Steak was good but sauce didn't appear to be homemade. I had the salmon penne pasta and I'm pretty sure it was tinned salmon... it was mushy liked tinned fish rather than flakey like fresh. My son had pizza; that was great, really tasty, great dough and obviously freshly baked. The service; what can I say? Although they tried, it was just poor . We left before ordering dessert because we didn't want to wait again. We were never asked if we wanted more drinks. Dirty plates were left in front of us for quite a while. Everything was just a bit slow. In their defence, they were busy and the staff are just lovely. Our favourite local Italian is Cena Bistro and they could learn a lot from them. In a nutshell, lovely people serving great pizza, just appears they still have a lot to learn about quality and...