Trattoria Rustica — Restaurant in Norwich

VERY DISAPPOINTING AVOID-

Just had the most disgusting experience in this restaurant. My partner booked a table for a Valentine’s Day meal, which was a set menu. We arrived at 08:30pm and were shown to our table. We ordered some drinks and I asked if we could have some olives on the table while we await ordering our starters, the waitress explained this wasn’t possible as it wasn’t part of the set menu - which I found weird, considering if I visited the restaurant tomorrow I would be able to order olives.

Anyway! Whilst waiting we heard a lady at the table next to us tell a waiter that if her starter didn’t arrive soon she would ‘start eating the table’. Meanwhile another table asked when their starters would arriving as they had been waiting so long.. they decided to leave straight after their starters were served, they left without paying and seemed very angry. The atmosphere in the restaurant was intense and unenjoyable.

We were asked if we were ready to order at around 9:00pm to which we agreed, the waiter then explained that he would go and find someone to take our order (why he couldn’t take it there and then.. I don’t know!). We got to 09:25 pm and quite honestly we were starving (still hadn’t ordered)…we had to ask a waiter AGAIN to order. We then finally were allowed to ordered.

The service throughout was appalling. Waiters pacing between the front door and the back of the restaurant. No waiter assigned to our table. Waiters would make eye contact with you and smile then just pace back and fourth. Everyone seemed like they didn’t know what they were doing.

Our starters arrived at 09:35 after over an hour of being at the restaurant.. The food in general was OK - definitely not worth the money or the wait. Quite honestly we were disappointed and wanted to go home. Considering it was a set menu, you’d think it would be easy to offer a quicker service.

We were then asked if we were ready for our main meal ( STUPID QUESTION - YESSS). I had stomach cramps as I had reached that over hungry stage. Our main meal was brought to us at 10pm. No apology from the waiters.

On taking away our main meal they asked if we were ready for dessert. At this point I was in no way prepared to wait for a dessert. I explained this to the waiter, who said ‘You will still have to pay for your desserts’. I stated how I wouldn’t be paying for the desserts. He apologised for the poor service but expressed how busy the restaurant had been, and stated ‘it is Valentine’s Day after all’. I was taken aback by this comment, the restaurant should not be catering for more tables, if they cannot offer a decent level of service.

The waiter offered for us to speak to the manager. When my boyfriend spoke to the manager he made excuses such as ‘we don’t want to rush people to order, we prefer our customers to approach us’. Some communication wouldn’t have gone a miss. Overall he was unapologetic, rude and very abrupt- expressing that they were very busy. He denied that people were leaving tables and stated that ‘they are my friends, I know them’. Seemed coincidental to me. Our evening was already ruined we didn’t have the energy to argue any further.

When I paid the bill, the manager agreed to take off the desserts - a measly £5.95 per person. The meal still cost just over £80. This was extremely disappointing and really tarnished our valentines evening. Last week we ate out at a Michelin awarded restaurant and the bill cost a similar price and the service, food and experience was 100x better. Trattoria...

Lovely meal on a Friday night. It was busy but the attention and service was fantastic very attentive and responsive to questions even though they were very busy.

Although the place is busy and tables were quite close together it felt nice to be back in a busy restaurant and the atmosphere is great with soft backing music but nice buzz of conversation. If you are still nervous about being close to others maybe give it a while until your comfort level increases, there was sanitiser on the wall though and we wore mask to the point of the table we were treated absolutely no differently or felt any less welcome. Felt very well organised and safe.

Onto the meal. For starter we had Calamari and minestrone soup. The smaller calamari were a little tough and I got a bit nervous that they were overcooked, but once I moved onto the larger pieces they were tender and tasty. Busy restaurant and only 2 small pieces were a bit tough so can be forgiven. The sauce was very tasty. Minestone soup was great

For mains we both had a meal from the specials part of the menu. Both mains were very good and well cooked. The only comment would be that there was quite a bit of dried herbs in one of the dishes that hadn't quite been softened or incorporated into the dish, this however did not diminish or spoil the meal and could well have been part of the garnish. Food was very good though and no complaints at all.

Had a palate cleanser of limoncello which was served perfectly ice cold.

The deserts were however the best accompaniment to the meal and the sebedas and italian style cheese cake was exceptional.

Exceptionally good food. good value and good wine. (Had the Merlot which was a good wine we do tend to stick to appassimento or ripasso style wines and prefer wine not sweet so the merlot was good).

They do add a 10% service charge which is optional so can also be removed if you so wish or uplifted if you feel the service is better, which on friday we most certainly did.

Well worth a visit if you are in Norwich and would most...

Food tasted great but the service was disappointing.

The two younger servers were very polite and pleasant. We then were greeted by another server who took our order, but never asked about allergies! One part of our order included a cheese free pizza due to allergy. Very clearly explained. Then we were asked if we would like to add olives or bread. We very clearly said only olives please. They came over with olives and bread so we clarified that aside from the garlic bread we had ordered with the rest of our mains, there wasn’t any other bread ordered.

The server returned with olives and garlic bread which tasted nice.

We then got our mains and they brought out one additional portion of garlic bread which we then clarified that we ordered only 1, which had came already. I think the confusion came because we mentioned that we wanted the garlic bread with our mains at the same time however when it came with the olives we didn’t mind and thought oh they must have brought it out as a starter and it didn’t matter really, so all is ok. The server then gave us attitude about this which wasn’t very pleasant.

They then served the wrong pizza (the cheese free one we ordered) which had cheese on it. We clarified which item we wanted and said again, this pizza that has no cheese. They returned with another pizza which had cheese on it yet again. Again, said this was wrong. The manager / owner (?) then came over and began loudly shouting at us about which pizza it was and was very confrontational - one of our guests then left the restaurant. Incredibly rude and unprofessional especially as this was to do with an order involving an allergy.

The food that the rest of us ended up getting was lovely.

They then put a large service charge on our bill, made us wait in the restaurant to count our money in case we hadn’t given enough, and offered us no change!

Such a shame as I’ve been here a few times and it’s been great before. Won’t be...