Volare — Restaurant in Sefton

Wheelchair Model Diaries

Volare Italian Restaurant (Lord Street Southport)

We arrived for our lunch date half an hour late (disabled issues) I let the restaurant know. When we arrived, we luckily found a spot to park on the road outside the restaurant! Parking here is of course first come first serve, and is on a pay and display basis so if you have a blue badge its free.

The first thing I noticed about the restaurant was the beautiful outside, freshly painted, with large windows and a large entrance where we were personally greeted by a lovely member of the team.

The entrance was a bit narrow for my wheelchair but as mentioned on previous reviews, I don’t take this into account in scores, I only mention it for information purposes should another wheelchair user have a wide chair. It was completely flat so easy to just roll through, and the doors had been opened already and propped open! So if I had gone alone, I could have easily accessed the restaurant!

We were shown to our table, where they had already removed a chair for me to sit at the table in my chair! This was so lovely and helped me feel less of a nuisance in front of other diners. The table was within very easy access to the disabled bathroom as well, double bonus!

The menu was very extensive! and we were also handed a specials list, and wine list. We chose a starter each and main each from the specials as they sounded so good and where in line with the average pricing on the menu too.

We had gnocci, and calamari to begin. The gnocci was with sicillian sausage pieces in a tomato, chilli and garlic sauce and was just delicious! The calamari came with lemon, and a tartar dip, it was so fresh and really tasty. Next we had the scallops, and beef medallions with fresh seasonal veggies.

The disabled toilet was clearly sign posted, and refreshingly was the closest to the restaurant tables, as apposed to right at the back of beyond like in most places! The facilities were excellent! and very clean too, and the drier was one of those fancy ones which actually dry your hands properly, I have noticed that these types of dryers are normally reserved for the other toilets and the disabled toilet one is often a 1950s throwback which takes an hour to dry one hand.

The staff were so helpful and friendly, checking on us regularly, and the food was served quickly, but was obviously very fresh!

We couldn’t squeeze dessert in and I now fully regret not asking for a take out dessert…. they had my all time fave, Tiramisu!

The decor of the place was fresh and modern, but the authenticity of the Italian staff conjured up images of very traditional italian restaurants from when I travelled there!

10/10 Couldn’t fault any of it, and the fact I could go there independently means everything to me as a young independent business...

So disappointed and actually quite annoyed My mum and step dad love Volarè and always rave about the food and service. So we booked their joint birthdays there this week. It actually felt like we had visited a different restaurant. The young blonde lady that served our table was pleasant and attentive. It was really warm in there (it always is) I politely asked would it be possible to turn the AC up so we were all comfortable. The rudest girl just glared at me, didn’t speak and went over to ask the chef. They both rolled their eyes turned to look at me, chatted amongst themselves and started laughing . I interrupted them and said “please if it’s a problem don’t bother” it was like I’d ask them for a kidney. It made me feel really uncomfortable. The table was for 12 and we spent a small fortune. The food was mediocre. My brother and I had the tagliatelle bolognese and his portion was huge, mine was like a child’s , the food literally looked like it had just been slopped on the plate. No care , no fuss , no attention to two elderly customers who have gone so regularly it was their first choice to book . Beyond disappointing . And I’m actually appalled we paid all that money for a joint bday party for dreadful service, to be ridiculed for making a polite request, food that had literally been thrown on a plate and what is totally unacceptable and unforgivable is to really not make a fuss of two regular loyal diners who had brought their whole family to dine at Volarè! Coincidentally on the lead up to the party I emailed the restaurant twice asking questions confirming numbers etc both emails ignored. The fish soup was lovely ! And literally that is the only positive I can...

Where do I start - although only open for 5 days, there were plenty of teething problems. Vourla as its name suggests ‘Burnt Rushes’, was very disappointing.

The starters were passable, although the octopus was very ”pappy” (as though it had just been taken out of the freezer).

Out of our 4 main courses off the a la carte menu, ALL were either overcooked, dry, Luke warm, hard to cut, or missing an accompaniment specified on the menu.

I do not think that 1 carrot and 2 small tender stem broccoli deserves the description of “served with root vegetables”. Or a cold crushed plum tomato deserves the description of “a chilli dip”. If the meal states it’s served with flatbread, TOAST is not a substitute!

We did try and give fair criticism to the manager/wine waiter (as he had requested it previously, and he said it would help them in the future), but after 3 of us explained to him what was not good about our meals, he totally ignored the 4th persons response to hers and walked off.

We were offered a glass of complementary wine each by way of an apology (as it was 2 of our birthdays), which we accepted. We then received the Bill which had included ALL the main courses on it, despite there being something inedible with all of them.

When we suggested that for good customer service the Main Courses should be removed from the Bill, we were then given another Bill with the Main Courses removed, BUT with the addition of the previous complimentary 4 glasses of wine ADDED TO THE BILL instead!

The food served was not good. Very disappointing hence the 1...