Mamma Mia — Restaurant in Scotland

Having looked at google and trip advisor then this restaurant looked like a good bet for a nice lunch for the last day of our holidays, however this was a big mistake. First of all we showed up at 12.15pm only to be told there would only be pizza on offer until the grill opened @ 1.30pm so we decided to try a little later but I made a tel enquiry at 12.25pm from 50yards up the road to be told that they started serving lunch from 12.30pm and not 1.30pm so back we go and take a seat, order drinks and after asking for the lunch menu we are presented with a pizza menu asked again for the lunch menu only to be told that the grill does not open until 12.30pm, by this time my watch and phone are telling me it is 12.34pm but the old shop clock is the one they go by and it is reading 12.28 so no menu yet after another 5 mins by which time we have our drinks I again ask for the menu to be told it is only pizza or grill and not the advertised lunch menu so I ask for the grill menu and here it gets real weird as I am told it is outside so I told him to fetch it so we can read it, he disappears and is replaced by a more experienced waiter who rattles off burgers, hot dogs, chicken wings, chicken burgers off the top of his head with no mention what they are served with and for what cost, by this time we have had enough and if it was not for already having our drinks we would of walked out so we ordered a mamma mia pizza to share and when it arrived it was nothing special, average dough, good amount of meat topping but overloaded with cheese so it was swimming in grease and tasted very salty. Halfway through our meal the waiter returns to shake our coke tins to see if they are empty and removed one empty without so much as uttering a word before he picks them up. If this lunchtime experience is anything like what it is at night then we will certainly not be making the trip, Faulty Towers springs to mind. Yes it appeared to be a schoolkid that served us but there were plenty of people spare to supervise him and it was a more senior woman that fed us the wrong information regarding what time they started serving lunch. It really was one of the worst experiences we have had in...

False advertising. If you order a Margherita pizza, expect a cheese pizza. I prefer cheese, so I ordered the Margherita knowing I would get something different, which isn't good. The cheese pizza was tasty though, so I'll give them credit where credit is due.

All of the desserts are not made in-house, they are shipped in from a supplier pre-made (a waitress volunteered that information when 5 out of 9 dessert menu items were out of stock). When we got a dessert that was advertised as a "3 layer chocolate" dish, we noticed the second layer was rock hard (similar to very frozen ice cream) and tasted identical to Nutella. When we pointed these unexpected things out to the waitress, she asked the chef himself to come out and speak with us. When we told the chef himself about it, he insisted that there was a 'cookie' shown in the description. He actually brought out the description, as if it was the gold standard, to prove he was right. When we read the description aloud in-front of him, there was clearly no cookie listed in the description as we had known. The chef clearly doesn't know what goes into his desserts and took criticism of desserts he didn't make personally, which is ridiculous. As far as the hardness of the 2nd layer, he insisted it was a different type of chocolate (even though the description of the dessert labeled the 2nd layer as milk chocolate).

In summary, the pizza is not what it is on the menu (Margherita pizza is not supposed to be plain cheese), count on them to be out of your favorite dessert, as it's shipped in from a supplier, and if you have a problem with any of your dishes, be prepared to have a lengthy discussion with an Italian chef who can't take criticism.

I will never...

Keywords: Best pizza, friendly staff, decent prices.

I've been to 67 different nations in my travels and almost all of them had some version of pizza. And in my home of Scotland there are some really really good pizza places.

This one is the best. It's not even close. Restaurant located on the high street in Banchory and there's plenty of parking either on street or nearby there are couple of carparks.

Dining room isn't huge but it's well decorated and cozy without being cramped. Staff are attentive and friendly.

There is pasta here on the menu but I can't comment on that. The pizzas are the stars as far as I'm concerned. The toppings are top notch, the base is perfect and the cheese is good. It's obvious that the owners have taken the time to create wonderfully tasting pizzas.

I had one of the their special's, the Ciro Pizza. Vegetarians often get forgotten in the world of pizzas but not this time. This pizza sang with complex tastes that all just fit perfectly. My wife had their signature pizza, the Mamma Mia and the homemade italian sausage stole the show.

After our dinner, my wife and I were still talking about those pizzas for hours. No joke. She can normally take or leave pizza - she finished all of it but one slice which for me is a strong indicator of just how good it is.

We will defo be back, this next time to introduce my daughters to this...