Prezzo Italian Restaurant Rayleigh — Restaurant in Rochford

To say something is very wrong would be an understatement. My friends and I have eaten at this particular Prezzo for years, and never usually had problems...however, recently things have gone rather wrong. The order sizes have shrunk, especially the pasta dishes. We usually order the spaghetti carbonara with added chicken....it used to come in a lovely large dish and now it's a tiny portion with 4 or 5 tiny bits of chicken (which for an extra £3 is ridiculous).

But more worrying was the serious lack of communication between staff. I understand it's a busy time of year, but the restaurant can only get so busy as there are only a set number of tables. So surely the staff should be able to handle it at it's busiest, if not then management need to restructure their staffing needs.

On our last visit for example, we waited 45 minutes for our food, and when it came the waitress bought our desserts before our mains....took them back....then we waited a further hour for our mains to finally arrive (que the disappointment in the tiny carbonara) then a further hour past whilst we waited for our desserts which they had tried to serve us previously....in the end we told them to cancel the desserts and asked for the bill so we could just leave.

The table next to us were having the same problem and also decided to leave half fed.

£50+ it cost me for the privilege of two tiny dishes and a couple of fruit juices over the time span of 3 hours of waiting.....and it then took 4 staff members just to sort out our total and give me the bill.

But sure, take my £50 I guess. I sincerely hope...

My daughter, 3 yr old granddaughter & I had dinner at 5.15 on Sunday. We were shown to a table without being given a drinks menu, it took ages for waitress to attend us & take a drinks order. We asked to order food at the same time as it was obviously going to be slow service despite very few customers eating. Again we waited a very long time for our main meal to arrive; a pizza, a children's meatballs & a ,chicken milanese. The milanese was very dry. We could not seem to attract a waitress to our table, they seem to have perfected the art of looking straight through you despite obvious attempts to grab their attention. In the end we had to call quite loudly to get our table cleared (even this was done in a half hearted manner as our used napkins & some dirty cutlery were left behind). We ordered a child's lolly & 2 sundaes for dessert & asked for the bill at same time. The lolly had to be returned as it has quite bad freezer burn, was slimy & had ice crystals all over it. Our sundaes eventually arrived but without the bill which we had to ask for again. I feel saddened to write this review as we have eaten here many times before & always found the service to be quite acceptable, unfortunately this was most definitely NOT the case yesterday. I feel your staff should be actively looking for customers needing attention, NOT looking straight through them then averting their...

I can not praise this restaurant highly enough. We were seated straight away, drinks orders taken, food orders taken, and everything was so beautifully prepared, presented, and brought to us in a timely fashion. We had a vegetarian and a nut allergy, and these dietry requirements were well considered and catered for.

However, this is a review with a difference.... one young person serving was really something a bit special. Unknown to her, 4 days ago, we had a very significant family bereavement. We didn't say anything to the staff as we are private people and just wanted to have some normality but one of the servers must have picked up on something as at the end of our meal, she came over with some handmade necklaces with crystals that she herself had made and gave one each to my partners teenage daughters. She allowed them to pick the crystal that most resonated with them.

This gesture was one of the kindest, most thoughtful, serendipitous moments, and honestly, she will never realise what her kindness in that moment meant. Her name began with an "A" she had multicoloured hair in bunches and had a compassionate and wholesome nature. Honestly, I say this with all sincerity, protect this person at all costs as she has the most precious soul.

Blessed be, your kindness won't...