Milanos Ballymena — Restaurant in Northern Ireland

An established restaurant Ver. a reliable pizza delivery service… pick one?

Milano has a good and long established reputation for making premium, quality pizza in Ballymena. I don’t normally order takeaway pizza as I’m usually underwhelmed by the quality of made-to-order, delivered pizza but with a recent recommendation I thought I’d try their restaurant this evening.

I called by phone and ordered two large pizzas for delivery this evening where the restaurant’s waitress informed me that they were unable to take online card payments and required ‘cash on delivery’. Already suspicious as most online delivery services take payment by debit card, I agreed to pay with cash upon delivery.

The waitress took my order, told me the cost and stated my order would be delivered in 45 - 60 mins. After 110 minutes I called the restaurant to check the status of my order where I was casually informed that my order was just going into the oven now!!!

I hung up and briefly considered my options, I called the restaurant back 30 seconds later to be told “I had lost my appetite” due to the late delivery and requested for my order to be cancelled. The waitress then informed me that my order was now “baked, boxed and on-route” !?!?

Knowing the time it takes to bake an authentic, premium pizza, I wasn’t sure what to believe. I reconfirmed the definite cancellation of my order.

Restaurants who offer a delivery service need to decide what type of customer service they can offer; a customer-focused, sit-in restaurant or a premium delivery service. If they have the experience, scope and staff to deliver both options, great… if not then hard decisions need to be considered.

If I were sitting in Milano’s restaurant this evening and I waited 20 minutes to be told my order we being put into the oven then told by the same person 30 seconds later that my meal was on a tray and being prepared for serving, what would go through your mind… confusion, frustration, where is my food order, what value is my business to this restaurant and can they genuinely serve in-house as well as deliver?

The night-time hospitality economy in Ballymena is on its knees, it’s time for established and reputable businesses like Milano to-step, re-consider and re-evaluate their business model and decide what customer facing services can they...

Apart from the beer, nothing else in this restaurant felt Italian. I understand that restaurants here adapt to local tastes, but if you promise “The real Italian Experience,” then stand behind it and include at least a few authentic Italian dishes on the menu. The pizza (10") wasn’t terrible, but definitely not good either, especially at £8.95 for just two toppings. I only ordered it because, after speaking with the waitress, it turned out that almost nothing else on the menu was truly Italian. Another disappointment was the lunch menu – it was advertised until 5:00pm, but today it had already finished at 4:00pm. Very frustrating for a hungry customer relying on that offer. On the positive side, the staff were friendly and the atmosphere was pleasant. However, one big downside is that you leave the restaurant smelling of food, which really takes away from the...

I recently ordered from Miliano’s and had a mixed experience overall. When I started getting a bit impatient waiting, I called the restaurant and was pleasantly surprised by how professionally it was handled. The delivery driver was also a true gentleman – polite and respectful.

Food-wise, the chicken wings with cheese sauce were just what I expected – really tasty and satisfying. However, the pepperoni pizza was a letdown. It reminded me of a £2 Sainsbury's own-brand pizza – not what I was hoping for at all.

For dessert, I went with the sticky toffee pudding and ice cream. The toffee sauce was nice, but the pudding itself was dry, and the scoop of ice cream was tiny – not enough to save it.

Surprisingly, the bottle of wine I ordered turned out to be quite decent – no...