Pinocchio's restaurant — Restaurant in Norwich

An absolute shambles from beginning to end. We were running 20 minutes late and received an email saying “we are holding the table but where are you???”, slightly rude but it was our fault for being late so we got a move on to the restaurant. We apologised profusely for being late and were shown to our table, the floor of which was littered with mussel shells of previous diners. We asked for olives to snack on while we looked at the menu, the waiter deliberated whether or not they had time to shove some overpriced olives into a bowl due to our lateness, they did in the end and we ordered.

Our food arrives in just over 5 minutes and it was piping hot (perhaps the work of chef microwave), there was spaghetti in my penne dish and my partners pomodoro was average at best.

There was quite a bit of sauce which I wanted to mop up with garlic bread, I flagged a waiter over for them to say they were only upstairs to go to the toilet, totally fine, but then went on to not tell anyone that we needed serving. However, this was inconsequential as the waiters didn’t give one check back to see if everything was to our liking. They eventually came over when we were done and we asked for the bill. Almost 30 minutes had passed before I had to flag a waiter down and ask for the bill again, what was that about not having time for olives?

I told the waiter about our experience and that it had soured my girlfriends birthday meal, I offered to pay full price for the meal as I work in hospitality and understand that mistakes happen, and full price I did pay.

On our way out I was accosted by the owner, who seemed to only want to talk about the email, he said I was in the wrong for not calling ahead, he got very confrontational, getting in my face, interrupting and shouting in front of a room full of customers and in front of staff, it had to end with me saying “if you can’t talk to me like a grown up I’m going to leave”. I left and then he blocked my girlfriend from the entrance, saying the same things to her. She’s a very anxious person and this left her very shaken.

I will not be going back here and implore anyone to save money and get a microwave meal from tesco. The same quality without having to put more money in the pocket of this incredibly rude and unprofessional restaurateur. Shocking!

(Edited: wrote oyster shell...

Absolute car crash of an evening. My boyfriend was taking me out for a meal on my birthday, we arrived a bit late which was a complete accident and we were very apologetic on arrival, from that moment onwards we were treated as a hinderance. Firstly - I ordered the spaghetti pomadoro (my favourite pasta dish) and received a piping hot microwaved meal within less than five minutes after ordering. I had to add a lot of salt and pepper to my meal just so it had a hint of flavour! My boyfriends penne pasta had spaghetti strands in it and was mediocre at best. We wanted to order more food but were ignored and forgotten about the entire evening. My boyfriend flagged down a waitress who ignored him and once we finally managed to ask for the bill, we waited half an hour for it. Once we did finally get the bill my boyfriend spoke to the manager about how our evening has gone and the blame was very much being shifted onto it being downstairs problem. Once we had paid full price (which we shouldn’t have) we went downstairs to leave. The owner of the restaurant started shouting at my boyfriend and getting in his face, he was waving his hands around and wouldn’t let my boyfriend say a single word and just kept shouting over him. This happened in front of everyone at the restaurant. Once again he was shifting the blame onto it being upstairs problem and wouldn’t let us speak. My boyfriend left as we weren’t getting anywhere, the owner then cornered me and wouldn’t let me speak. I just had to leave it there and leave as I wasn’t getting anywhere with him. He was incredibly rude and arrogant. My birthday meal was totally ruined, I will never be going there again and I will be telling everyone I know not to go there either. Incredibly overpriced for...

Walked in off the street and immediately welcomed and shown to a table for 2 in an otherwise crowded restaurant. Good start but alas not to be continued. The reason for the empty table was its location over a loose floorboard, which - together with the main thoroughfare from the kitchen and entrance - caused lots of table wobbling and jarring every time someone passed. The restaurant clearly needed more staff (Those on duty very friendly and hospitable but still managed to get the starter order wrong.) However, both main dishes were (Liver and steak respectively) drowned out in the former by a heavy tomato sauce 'ish garnish and in the latter a heavy cheese coating. Which in both cases drowned out the taste of the meat. Shame because the cuts were of quite good quality and we did manage to to get a fleeting taste of the liver and my wife of her steak. I did mention this to our waitress as she cleared our unfinished plates. Nothing like similar Italian dishes we have experienced in Italy when I was working in Milan. I think maybe a case of over "Anglifying" the menu to suit local taste buds? Lovely ambience but we will not be...