Adrianos Fortuna — Restaurant in Newcastle upon Tyne

Having grown up in Gosforth and visiting Adriano’s regularly since it’s inception, I’m really sad to say that last night will probably be my last visit.

We had a table for 4 booked in the restaurant for 8pm. The occasion was for my mum’s birthday the day before, as unfortunately we could not attend on that evening due my mum’s brother’s funeral taking place the same day. I must state at this point that my mum and dad have visited Adriano’s at least once a week for the last decade (me and my wife not so regularly as we live in Yorkshire) and it’s not an exaggeration to say that they have spent thousands of pounds in the restaurant. We’ve previously had some amazing nights in the place; booking the entire upstairs for my dad’s 50th for around 50 guests and booking a table of 30 for a celebration when myself and my wife came back from living abroad, are just two that spring to mind. There have been many more family celebrations/Mother’s Day/Father’s Day etc.

We arrived around 10 minutes before our scheduled booking time and were forced to stand in the alley that leads from the High Street into the restaurant. Absolutely no social distancing taking place, and no differentiation as to who was waiting for the restaurant and who was waiting for the bar. The outside bar seemed quite busy (and loud). We learnt from someone in front of us in the queue that they’d overbooked the tables for the outside bar.

We were eventually seated at around 8:15, with no menus. There was a QR code in the centre of the table, so I assumed that we had to order from a smartphone. This was fine, but when I downloaded the app, it was for drinks only and was linked to the outside bar. When I queried this, this is when we were given the menus. At first, I thought that this was the specials menu as it was quite small; three pasta dishes and 5 pizza choices isn’t an ideal look for an Italian restaurant. Another point to make is that whilst I could understand music being loud in the outside bar, I naturally assumed it would be toned down once inside the restaurant. Wrong. The music was still blaring inside. One of the things I used to love about Adriano’s was the ambience and atmosphere where the noise was made up of people enjoying themselves.

When the starters arrived, the food was pretty bland and unseasoned. Two of us had the dough balls which were OK, nothing to write home about. One of our party had the venison salad which looked and tasted nice and the final person had the rosemary and sea salt focaccia, with the problem being it had neither much sea salt or rosemary. Add to that, it was also burnt and brittle in the middle.

Surely the mains had to be better? Yes and no. My wife and I both had pizza. They were delicious so no complaints from either of us. However, my mam and dad both had the sirloin steak. Priced at £24 each, the presentation and quality of the steak was absolutely abysmal. Steak burnt on the outside and like warm on the inside. No garnish, no vegetables, no sauce for the steak and the French fries were undercooked, frozen chips. When you are paying a premium price, you expect a premium product. Their sirloin steak looked pathetic and sorry for itself. We perhaps should have said something, but we were at 9:15 at this point and quite frankly just wanted to get out of the place, and certainly didn’t want to be waiting around to be served a second helping of substandard food.

Another thing that used to make Adriano’s really stand out was the fact that their waiting staff were professionals; not incompetent young waiting staff who stood around on their phones looking bored. It’s really sad to see that only Pietro remains and he is a credit to the restaurant. Perhaps the new younger staff could take some advice on what it takes to be a great waiter from him. Another point on the staff, apart from a lot of them running around like headless chickens aimlessly, is the apparent incompetence of the management. Three times during our meal, we had orders arrive at our table that we hadn’t ordered, ranging from drinks, to...

The restaurant has a beautiful ambiance and well-thought-out design. We sat in the indoor terrace area, which was particularly lovely and added to the experience.

Service started off efficiently — we were seated quickly and our order was taken without delay. However, within the first five minutes, three different waitresses approached our table to ask if we were ready to order. This came across as disorganised and could easily be improved with a system that assigns servers to specific tables or allows staff to track interactions, making service smoother and more professional.

As an industry professional I would suggest:

1. An industry professional hostess/ host to train the younger less experienced staff.

2. One or two members of staff, dedicated to taking orders who can manage the flow between the kitchen and the tables, eliminating repetition and making sure not to overload the kitchen.

The food itself was fantastic — a real credit to the kitchen team. Unfortunately, the front-of-house service didn’t live up to the same standard. We were left waiting to ask for basic items like side plates, cutlery, salt, pepper, chilli, and additional drinks. At no point did anyone check in to see how our food was, and once our plates were cleared, the waitress didn’t even make eye contact or ask if we wanted anything else.

With more attentive service, we likely would have ordered more drinks and even additional food — something that benefits both the customer experience and the restaurant’s bottom line. In that sense, the team missed an opportunity to upsell and create a more polished, welcoming experience.

The automatic 10% service charge also felt a bit cheeky given the quality of service, though we still paid it out of appreciation for the excellent work done by...

My girlfriend works in the area and we had pizzas to take away many times. The quality (and taste) of the food has always been good so we finally decided to eat in. Unfortunately our experience wasn't as we expected.

Nothing wrong with the pizzas: they were really good and tasty as usual. Service was the real issue. Most of the staff is disinterested and careless. I worked more than 10 years in the hospitality industry as a bartender and manager and never really been in an environment that tolerates staff chatting and drinking behind the bar or long fingernails.

Also, you expect to be welcomed when the waitress approach you for the first time, but not at Fortuna. Just got asked: "ordered some drinks"? in the worst possible way.

Staff should mention when the service is included in the bill. Honestly I much rather took our drinks and food by myself than being "served" by our waitress. Here's why I refused to pay the service charge.

Fortuna is nothing special. A mix of a touristic restaurant (the ones you could find in the busy streets anywhere in the world) a bar and a club. Atmosphere isn't really something we'll be back in future.

Don't get the tiramisu at the end of your meal. Nothing to do with the real Italian dessert and, TBH the ones you could buy from supermarkets are better. Only coffee should be served in a Portioli cappuccino cup.

One last thing: Italian Martini isn't even a cocktail. Giada de Laurentiis is more of an influencer than a real bartender. That being said, if you really want to put it in your menu at least make sure to make it properly. Yours is...