Albero Italian — Restaurant in New Forest

My wife had wanted to come here for a long time as she loves Italian food and have eaten in many great Italian restaurants and for her birthday we went here this evening, when seated we were not asked if there were any allergies they should know about, my wife ordered the calamari and it came out inedible as it was so tough, my wife had to send it back and we could repeatedly hear the waitresses speaking about us. When it did come back it was actually hot this time and was ok but still not nice. I ordered “stuffed pork” thinking it would be a medallion as it did NOT say it was a cold dish, I received 3 wafer thin slices of pork straight out of the fridge so it tasted of nothing, sat on dry, wilted rocked with no oil or anything, also I don’t eat mustard and I came with a dollop of honey mustard on each slice! I told the waitress but when I told her she just said she’d pass the feed back on and I was still charged £9 for 3 tiny slices of “stuffed pork” this was not served as advertised! My wife bought this up to the waitress and she looked at my wife like she was stupid and said “ yes it’s a cold dish!” However it was literally freezing and dose NOT SAY anywhere on the menu that it is cold!!

my wife for mains had carbonara which was ok however was made with pure butter! And was so rich she couldn’t finish it due to the amount of butter it was made with and not egg yokes as it should be and she loves carbonara however it was swimming butter and even though small portion she couldn’t finish it. My pizza was under cooked, the onions were barely cooked and the “chicken” was cubed, tasteless and the cheapest chicken I’ve ever seen, we feel gutted as we travelled quite far to come here and we were in and out within 25 minutes as we were made to feel very uncomfortable! If it hadn’t of been my wife birthday I would have made more of a effort to be heard as I was extremely disappointed due to this being my wife’s birthday meal however we just wanted to leave immediately and put this down to a lesson learned. NOT to come here again. Give this place a miss guys I’m afraid and save your money. I’m a 20 stone ex squaddy and I’ll eat anything but this was shocking and for me to not enjoy a pizza…..that is saying something!...

Really bad first impression, wouldn’t return.

I went on a Saturday night looking for a table for one just before 6pm. I hadn’t made a booking and asked if they had a table. The waitress went to check with the manager and then told me I could sit on a table for four but i would have to leave in just over an hour as they needed the table back. I was a bit disconcerted but agreed as I assumed they had decided they could accommodate me. I made the effort to choose my dishes quickly, and after a few minutes the manager came over to take my order. I started speaking and asked for my starter then said “and for main”, then was interrupted mid sentence by the manager saying “no. You can’t have a starter and a main. I can bring everything together if you want but I can’t do a starter and a main for you as we need you to leave by quarter to seven”. I said “Ok, don’t worry about it then, I will go somewhere else” and she replied “well it is Saturday night, its a busy night”. I responded, “I know, but if you don’t have a table then just tell me you don’t have a table”. I then left and easily found another great restaurant who had space for me.

I was really disappointed that in the interests of money grabbing another customer the wait staff would behave this way. The menu looked great but wasn’t cheap - my starter was £10.50 and my main £20. I don’t expect to sit down to a meal in a nice restaurant and be treated like i am taking someone else’s spot and need to hurry up and leave, nor indeed that i would be interrupted mid sentence and told that I could not have my meal the normal way. I come to eat out on my own to relax.

The New Forest is full of fabulous restaurants. I visit a nearby equestrian venue every year, and I now will never return to Albero Italian after this experience. There is no need when I can easily find another great restaurant where the staff have a better attitude towards their customers. I would have had no problem if I had been told that unfortunately they were fully booked, and might have tried again next time. Now, certainly not. It is never a good idea to make one customer feel like less...

Great food but unfortunately the customer service was unfortunately very bad two simple requests and the could not deliver it to us it was very simple to do We asked for bottle water with the cap on to be open at the table and the could not carry that out without making us so very uncomfortable asking for a simple thing Then we asked for a bottle of wine to come to the table with the seal on and that was ok we then asked for a second bottle of wine to come to the table and we said to the waitress make sure it not open she came with the bottle of wine open we said to her the wine was open before it came to the table she said back I thought you were only joking We to be honest we were totally shocked with her comments What ever you think whats the right way the water and wine comes to your table if a customer asked for a simple requests it can't be that hard to carry that requests out So disappointed with the whole experience they did not seem to bother with us after that After been in a lovely restaurant white tails the night before to this so very disappointed with the service Top marks to the chefs well done but front of house you have let...