Valentino's — Restaurant in Newport

Visited October 2021 but Google would not let me review at the time. Me and my partner were on the Isle of Wight for a few days and after looking at the favourable Google reviews decided to give this place a try. The fact I have repeatedly checked back since October to see if I could leave a review yet should give you an insight into how much I needed to leave this feedback.

Firstly, the decor is really dated but that isn’t really an issue, could just do with an update as it feels a bit tired. Other than that it does feel quite homely.

The 1 star is for our waitress, who was very friendly and quick, couldn’t fault them at all. Served us everything with a smile.

What was awful was the food. I don’t understand how it was so bad when there are so many reviews saying it’s great with pictures of good food, ours was dreadful. I ordered the lasagne and it was a slab of unseasoned, bland, stodgy microwaved lasagne. My partner ordered carbonara and it didn’t have any sauce on, it was just wet spaghetti swimming in water, if it was a “sauce” it was the thinnest sauce in the world. Again, bland. The worst thing was the dishes were around £14. I’ve had better microwaved lasagnes from supermarkets.

We didn’t complain at the time because honestly we were just a bit baffled by the whole thing and wanted to leave.

There are other 1/2 reviews on here saying the same as me, I don’t understand the good reviews because it was shocking. We went on a Thursday night and it was pretty dead, so do they just not have an actual chef in on Thursdays hence the microwaved food? I don’t get it.

Feel a bit bad leaving this review as I never ever leave bad reviews...

We had a meal at Valentino's a few days ago. it's a local restaurant we've always been fond of. I was horrified how poor the food was and how abrupt the head staff member was. My auntie was celebrating her birthday and we were put in the back room up stairs, there was no banister and she fell badly up the steps. No staff member came to see if she was alright and when we asked to move there was no empathy or apology. The vegan dishes were really bland, pizza dry, pork Soo chewy, the vegetables accompanying the main were just boiled English veg, certainly nothing special, no seasoning or butter. No one came to ask how the meal was, didn't get asked if we needed more drinks. Everything seemed like a chore for the staff, even bringing out the birthday cake and itemising the bill.

I went home disappointed feeling like I had been robbed by such an overpriced meal of such badly cooked food and...

Friendly local Italian in Carisbrooke which was walking distance from our holiday let so we gave it a try. Overall a pleasant enough dinner, £23 bottle of Sauvignon properly chilled, attentive service, free bread. Decor is rather dated though not as off-putting as photos had suggested, the pasta dishes were tasty and - oddly perhaps - came with a choice of salad or vegetables. The latter (including roast potatoes) would seem more fitting with a Sunday roast than a plate of penne but were nicely cooked and great if you want to really fill up. My chicken with pepper and seafood was a disappointment - somewhat dry chicken breasts in a gravy that wasn't nearly as rich as one might have hoped and generally lacked flavour despite some interesting ingredients. Perhaps I was unlucky. Certainly the place seemed popular and maybe I should have...