Roberto's Italian — Restaurant in Sefton

I’ve been here a few times and it’s always been quiet nice. The food was always good and the service has always been spot on. So when I was looking for somewhere to take my family on boxing night, this seemed a good choice. There were 8 of us in total and pretty much everyone didn’t enjoy their food, but myself and my niece (who the person serving us kept referring to a ‘him’) ordered mushrooms. The mushrooms were basically those ones you get in a bag from Iceland, and when they arrived they were frozen in the middle. As way of apology they upgraded my small wine to a large, but I was driving so I couldn’t drink it anyway. But I appreciated the gesture. For the second course, myself and my partner ordered the prawns wrapped in prosciutto. They were truly the most disgusting prawns I’ve ever had. They smelt pungent and tasted like you were licking a cold dead fish straight out the ocean. My partner will literally eat anything, and even he couldn’t stomach them. Upon them asking how the meal was, we replied politely with the fact that we were not enjoying the prawns and they had a strange taste to them. If I’m honest, I was worried they weren’t fresh and they’d make me ill, because the smell was that bad. When the bill arrived I went to speak to a manager in the hope we could get some money taken off as the prawns were £22 a pop and we’d each only eaten two off the plate, So we’re talking £44 in total. The staff were so incredibly rude, and told me that everyone else loves the prawns. I mentioned that both my starter (the mushrooms) and the prawns had really been very disappointing, but they simply said they’d upgraded my drink and I should be happy, and that the chef had said the mushrooms weren't frozen in the middle (I mean, of course we’d make that up wouldn’t we! It’s enjoyable watching everyone else eat while you wait for your starters to be recooked). When I asked to speak to the manager they said they didn’t have a manager on, they were all managers. I said who is the most senior person here, to which they presented me with a rather terrified looking 20 year old. They eventually took off the prawns, and the starters, which I was grateful for and tipped the ‘manager’ £10 for sorting it out, eventually, although on reflection he carried on arguing with me until I actually left, so maybe I should have kept my money. Despite finally getting some resolution, it was a nightmare and highly embarrassing. I won’t be visiting again, and honestly I’m starting to see why the place is always empty! I never write bad reviews, but I feel it’s important to warn people about this place, and it’s a real shame. We can’t always get things right, but customer service is paramount when you don’t. Unfortunately, Roberto’s failed in both the food and service on...

Sadly the worst dining experience we've ever had last Sunday evening!! We stay in Southport every year at the Premier Inn...and last year we enjoyed a lovely home cooked meal at Roberto's Italian restaurant opposite... this year we wanted to repeat that dining experience. Arriving around 6pm.. the restaurant was half full...we hadn't booked a table but I asked the manageress (owner) if they could accommodate us?? She invited us to the bar while the student assistants cleared a small table for us. That was the first warning sign. Half the bar top was covered in dirty glasses and bottles. After 5 mins we were shown to the table and given a drinks menu... the first 2 standard wine choices were unavailable ... we settled on a bottle of Rioja. We waited...and waited and waited..the manageress kept walking past...saying..your order will be taken soon! Half an hour later...she took it. My husband ordered mussels for a starter and calzone for main and a side of chips. I ordered barbecue ribs then pasta meatballs. Again we waited...and waited and waited... my husband was beginning to lose his patience. We watched families walk out..their young children past their bedtimes still waiting for food. A young couple left most of their food and walk out too!? This is when we found out Roberto's was under new management. After another half an hour our starters arrived... mussels rather poor...barbecue ribs a bit tough. Another long wait... mains arrived... calzone burnt..watery..ingredients barely cooked. My pasta meatballs... pasta hot...meatballs tepid...chips didn't arrive until we had finished altogether!...I sent those back! Everything was no better than supermarket pre-cooked food warmed up!!! We were asked by the manageress our thoughts...and my husband gave it to her unapologetically. She Wasn't at all sincere in her apology.. asked why we didn't leave like everyone else was?! Anyone who stays in Southport knows Sunday evenings you need to decide on your preferred restaurant as they close early... you can't have a last minute change of mind and find somewhere else to eat...we only dine in NONE ultra processed food... home cooked restaurants. Roberto's is definitely NOT typical of fine Italian food...the students were working their best under shocking managerial circumstances... Next time we stay in lovely Southport..we'll be searching restaurants more...

went a few weeks ago for the 1st time 6 adults and 2 babies in prams but ended up being massively disappointed.

i have to be dairy free due to severe allergies which i passed on to the waitress and asked for an allergy menu. i was told to just pick anything and they would make it dairy free as best they could. to be sensible i picked a chicken burger told them any cheese sauces etc don’t worry about it i will have it plain but there was milk in the actual chicken itself so i was asked to pick again. i asked again if there were any options or suggestions and was shrugged off. this had taken over 10 minutes extra to the usual time of a large table ordering so in the end i played it massively safe and got spaghetti meatballs. at no point did i see a manager about the allergy and my food didnt come out with any sort of indication that it was for someone with an allergy despite others ordering quite dairy heavy foods.

we also ordered a round of drinks and had to watch as the bartender took about 20 minutes to make and bring them over which meant those whose drinks had been made first were quite watery as ice had melted.

i found my spaghetti meatballs were bland and greasy. i won’t speak on behalf of the rest of the table but no one was massively impressed. i will say though that one of our group ordered the salmon ravioli that evening commented that something didn’t taste right and subsequently had food poisoning by midday the following day. this wasn’t alerted to the restaurant as it’s impossible to say if it 100% definitively came from robertos but its looking like it did.

overall allergy menus should be available when requested no one wants to guess and it doesn’t inspire confidence. for the price you pay regardless of whether its a simple dish or not it should still have some taste and an almost empty restaurant shouldn’t take 20 minutes to serve drinks. the only positive i can say was that the restaurant was polite about the two babies and when my baby needed breastfeeding they were polite and made no...