Rico's Restaurant — Restaurant in Leeds

This was my first visit to this place (despite passing it umpteen times) so I want to go again to see if the experience is different. Unusually (in this day & age) you don't have to book ahead which has its pros & cons (a booking system would let the restaurant know when they'd reached capacity & reduce the number of customers left disappointed, for example). The food is very good - relatively cheap but well cooked & served hot & like many Italian restaurants, there are long pauses between courses which lets you digest your meal before the next course arrives. Downside to this visit was the lack of space between tables (we were in the upstairs area) & when a party of 5 arrived on the table behind us, I was effectively wedged in and between us & the table behind, we were blocking access to a fire exit - not ideal. There was also a lipstick mark on the glass I was given for water but a quick wipe with a napkin soon resolved that matter. Although not busy when we arrived (around 5:30pm) it soon filled up so they must be doing something right! I don't feel I want to pass final judgement until I've been again as I hope this...

Booked nearly a week and a half in advance for my daughters birthday - explained on the phone that it was for 2 children, one whose 2 and one were 4, so they were well aware there were children going to be present. We were placed in an area at the back that had barely any room to move about. Order had to be requested to be taken after 30 minutes of waiting. Over an hour and a half after arriving, we'd still relieved no main and had only had starter. We were placed next to a rowdy group of around 9 people that weren't eating and were just drinking they pushed my son in his highchair by accident but because it was too crowded and small because of the excess of people. Another couple requested to be moved, and they were, but due to our table size, we were unable to be moved. We, therefore, left as the lady we spoke to seemed to be more concerned with the drinking group than my daughters birthday meal. My daughter even said it hurt my ears, mummy! In the end, we left hungry and...

went here multiple times with no problems before, loved the food and service was always good. but then the last time i went the waiter told us that there were no tables, which was understandable as it was very busy. So we agreed to sit upstairs and wait for a table. the waiter came over and gave us a menu and told us it would be a 10 minutes wait. about 20 minutes later we still haven’t gotten a table neither did the waiter come over and tell us. We then asked again and they just said we have to wait longer with a very impatient and annoyed tone. We left afterwards as they wasted us so much time and was so rude to us for no reason. However, some other people (3) got served right away, so we asked why they got served first and they were unable to give us an answer then just brushed us away. i have a reasonable suspicion that they are either racist or just disrespectful to non regulars. It’s a shame how we won’t be returning as the food we had before...