Don Michele Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Scotland

Very expensive for pretty bad food. I got bad vibes when we walked in, we had to wait for our table to be cleared despite having booked a day in advance. There were also little things, like lots of typos and misprints on the menu, vegetarian options weren't specified on the menu so you had to read all the ingredients to suss out which ones were veggie, and cheap decor (random pictures that were hanging wonky) that showed lack of love or attention to detail. The menu was also much smaller to what I saw online with little variety. The only dessert options for example were tiramisu or ice cream, so we didn't get one as my guest was hoping for something chocolatey. There was also only one fish main (salmon) and no non-pasta/pizza vegetarian mains.

I ordered the mussels in white wine sauce starter as a main and it was quite nice (although mussels are basically impossible to mess up, and it didn't come with any lemon). My guest I was with ordered the pesto pasta as there weren't many exciting vegetarian options and found her pasta very heavy, overdone, oily and salty. It was also really expensive at £16 for just pesto pasta. She relayed her disappointment to the waitress but there was no effort to remedy it. We also got some garlic bread to share but it was just melted garlic butter on two slices of a semi burnt bread roll, not what I expected for the price. Should also add that none of our dishes were presented very well, all very basic looking. Not good value for money.

Also the menu doesn't specify volumes for the drinks so my guest assumed they would be getting a draught pint for the price they paid, but was disappointed to see they only got a small bottle of Peroni. Would've been fine if they'd known that's what they were ordering, but again the menu didn't list drink volumes like most places do. More lack of attention to detail.

Service for drinks was a bit slow (I watched the ice melting in my drink sat on the bar for about 10 minutes) but otherwise the waiters were working hard and I appreciate it was a busy evening. They were knowledgable and able to tell us which country some of the wines were from (again, this wasn't listed on the wine list/menu). However, they probably had too many tables to handle as I found the tables were very tightly packed in the restaurant and perhaps ought to remove one or two to make service smoother and have there be more room for staff to manoeuvre.

Overall a disappointing experience. It would've probably been fine if the food was any good, but sadly that's what let the place down the most. Meal and a drink each for 3 people came to £73 before service charge, about £24 each, but bear in mind one of us only had a £9 starter instead of a full price main.

Edit: I think the owner or someone has looked me up on facebook as I got a friend request from 'Patric Lochi' shortly after I wrote this review, which was probably a mistake as it was quickly deleted... but erm... please...

Disappointing experience – wouldn’t return. We came here after a holy communion, hoping for a nice family meal, but unfortunately the entire experience was underwhelming from start to finish.

The exterior of the restaurant looks very run down and uninviting. Inside, things weren’t much better – the space felt neglected and in desperate need of maintenance. While we were seated, the owner was taping up a reservation tablet with black tape right next to us, which set the tone for how poorly the place is maintained. The toilets were another story — broken seats, barely hanging toilet roll holders… it felt completely uncared for.

We were a group of around 16 and seated along one long table, tightly squeezed between two walls. It made getting in and out incredibly difficult for both guests and staff, and created a really cramped, uncomfortable setup.

Service was unorganised and honestly quite poor. Jugs of water would arrive long before any glasses, and cutlery came well after the food. Staff didn’t check in with us — we had to chase them down to get anything. One of the servers, a girl with her hair clipped up, spent more time angrily whispering to another staff member and pulling faces than actually serving. A few guests even noticed her visibly spiralling throughout the evening — trying to smile, but clearly unable to hold it together. It was unprofessional and uncomfortable to watch, especially in front of a large party with children.

The food was warm but lacked care or quality — it felt thrown together with no effort in flavour or presentation. Definitely not something I’d expect when dining out for a special occasion.

I understand hosting a large group isn’t easy, but there was a clear lack of preparation, professionalism, and respect for guests here. Won’t be returning, and I wouldn’t recommend...

A very average pizza for an above average price. The dough was dry and stodgy, like a frozen pizza, and the sauce had no flavour. The toppings were fresh and the cheese was generous, but on top of the heavy and chewy base it was all a bit much. It wasn't the standard you'd hope for from an Italian restaurant - much more like a takeaway pizza. Also, it came with a steak knife instead of a pizza wheel, which dragged the cheese and toppings all over the place while I was cutting it!

I would have gone for the pasta instead, but the two veggie options (pesto pasta or vegetables in tomato sauce) were both a bit unexciting.

The restaurant itself has a good atmosphere but it's very busy. The staff we met were very friendly and knowledgeable, but unfortunately there seemed to be too many tables for them to handle. We made a booking, arrived shortly after our booking time, and still had to wait ten minutes for our table to be made up.

It's a shame because I wanted to enjoy this place more than I did! But with the dry dough, tightly packed tables, delayed service, no pizza wheel, and the poor/poorly labelled vaggie options on the menu, there were lots of mildly annoying things that all piled up to make the whole dinner feel...