Sarti — Restaurant in Scotland

I was really looking forward to having dinner at Sarti Wellington Street, especially after finding it being mentioned in the most recent Elle Decoration magazine and then reading great reviews. It was Friday night, my bestie and I were catching up and we were going to an Italian restaurant (!). I do not go to restaurants or places to flirt, but if upon my arrival to ITALIAN Restaurant I am not greeted with that warm Italian manner, something is off. My playful "Buongiorno!" was met with a straight and confused face clearly indicating indifference and ignorance. Awkward! Especially in an Italian restaurant (and I've been to quite a few!). We were seated by the window, great! Ordered blueshell mussels in tomato and chilli sauce for starters that were delicious. For the mains my friend ordered spaghetti with surf clams and I ordered meat filled ravioli with ragu sauce. The waitress asked my friend to choose an alternative to clams as the restaurant didn't have any that night, so my friend chose prawns. After the waitress left to proceed with our orders very soon she came back and notified my friend that her meal will now cost £19.95 instead of £16.50 because the alternative to clams were prawns and "the prawns were more expensive". Very unprofessional and rude. The person in charge should have taken any dishes with clams off the menu then. Our mains arrived and though the plates were full, they looked really sad, outdated and not up to a restaurant standard. My ravioli with the ragu sauce were splattered on the plate with no attention to detail or customer in mind. Simply put, it didn't feel as if I was in a restaurant. The ravioli were bland with a sharp tomato flavor coming through which meant the filling and/or the ragu was undercooked. Sainsburys Taste The Difference or even Lidl Deluxe ravioli taste far better! My friend's spaghetti had a good texture, but the dish was way too salty, even though it contained anchovy the balance was lost. Thankfully the manager has taken our mains off the bill. Desserts! My friend's tiramisu was fantastic, soft and silky with just the right amount of booze coming through, so kudos to whoever made it! My cannolo was alright, but due to the filling being not as creamy, I wasn't enjoying it as much as I'd anticipated. The journey to the restrooms was interesting. The stairs felt rather unsafe and the whole "decor" on the way to the toilets and the toilets itself are in urgent need of repair. Let's keep those restaurant standards! Overall it seems like someone fell out of love either with their business or their job, or both.., lost their passion, drive and authenticity.....

We have been going here since before the children were born. Tonight it was another family birthday. The manager directed us to our table on sight. We ordered a focaccia and giant prawns to share. The giant prawns were in their shells, cooked in chilli, butter and garlic. Followed by very large fluffy light pizzas, the famous Spaghetti allo Scoglio (seafood) on gluten free pasta and Porchetta alla Brace (doorsteps of rolled pork with a heap of roast tatties). All talking stopped at this point. We were all full but somehow managed the giant profiteroles and tiramisu and coffee. The young man who served us was lovely. Dinner for 5 with wine and a tip came to £170. I always feel the food is excellent value, being freshly made to order with best quality ingredients. The staff are always attentive and friendly.

PS We always get some fresh Sarti Italian sausages to take home.

Access to Wellington Street is up some steps. The toilets are a long way down stairs. The entrance from Bath Street is down stairs more easily accessible to someone who is infirm but neither are wheelchair friendly. Children are welcome. There is an excellent selection of Italian wine and other Italian produce to take away. Try to book because Sartis is busy all day long. They can do a takeaway service if you call in advance and cater...

Booked a table for a long overdue catch up with old work colleagues. The brief was simple, nice food at a reasonable price and draught beer. We picked Sartis over a few other similar restaurants as they ticked all the boxes. Our catch ups usually consist of a leisurely 2 or 3 courses and a few drinks and much chewing the fat. On arriving at the restaurant we had to wait for our table as the previous patrons weren’t clear. No big deal for us, we weren’t in a hurry. Once seated we went to place our drinks order, but unfortunately there was no draft beer available, only bottles. As a beer drinker this was a huge disappointment to me, more so as the bottles of beer that were available were 330ml which in real terms makes the price of your drink more costly. I may be getting cynical but I’m finding this to be a regular occurrence in restaurants and wonder if it’s an intentional practice to maximize profit? Anyway, due to this we had one 330ml bottle and a main course then moved on. The food was served promptly and was very good, as was the attention of the staff, however the disappointment with regards to the drinks took the edge off our night and accelerated our departure from...