CENA ITALIAN — Restaurant in New Forest

We were really looking forward to our visit here on Saturday night whilst spending a few days in the area, mainly due to the reviews. The restaurant was quite busy and we were shown to our seats then told actually this had been reserved by someone else, so we're shown to another table. Orders were taken but none of our waiting staff engaged in anything more than 'can I take your orders' - no conversation or smile. Also, this is the only Italian restaurant I have ever been to that does not have specials of the day. The food came out promptly and hot but that is probably the best I can say about the starters and mains - all extremely bland and lacked finishing touches, which was a shame (2 of the pasta mains tasted the same despite being different orders). Perhaps we just frequented on an off night or perhaps we are just lucky to have fantastic Italian restaurants near us - unfortunately we left...

We were staying in the New Forest and our host mentioned this place, a twenty minute drive away. We decided to skip lunch and head over for the first sitting, at 5:30 on a Thursday evening. Unsurprisingly, we were the first people in, but we were warmly welcomed and given a table in the window to people watch. We'd had a look at the menu online, so we knew what to expect, and ordered a couple of starters to share - pan fried tiger prawns in a white wine, garlic and chilli sauce, and V&G's homemade spicy Italian sausage. Both were lovely. We'd asked for recommendations and found that there were a couple of fish specials that sounded good. I decided to try one of those (the cod with Parma ham, tomatoes, garlic and chilli) while my wife went for the spag Bol (always a good test of an authentic Italian). Both were excellent, and went well with the classy Pinot Blush we'd chosen. Would...

Food was good for 3 out of 4 of our party. I can appreciate that it was difficult for the staff to get back into this service . But I had to remind a waitress for my chips to go with my meal, which came when I was halfway through my mains . My wife wanted no chilli in her pasta and it came with chilli !!! They offered to replace it but that would be another 20 mins. I then asked for a glass twice to the waitress so I could have a drop of wine . In the end I went to the bar and asked for one . There was a big party of approx 20 guest and it seamed all of the waiting staff were busy with them moving tables and chairs around . So all in all ,not a totally satisfied eve. The V& G did remove from the bill the pasta dish that my wife could not eat. Will try again sometime in the...