PapaCiccio's Restaurant — Restaurant in Sheffield

Yesterday unfortunately we have been stood up from our table at Papa Ciccio’s. I haven’t even finished my main course as yet, whilst my loved ones who I’ve tried to treat to a nice evening just about cleared their plates. When I’ve booked the table I was told that we will have it at least till 8pm, but at 19:24 comes the waitress presenting me with our bill in a wooden box mid meal?!? Really?!? The waitress then confirmed that whilst pre-COVID they’ve done 2 sittings per night, now it’s 3 sittings between 6-12pmish. I am so sorry, but even with the 3 sittings stretching over the 6hrs or so mathematically isn’t it 2hrs one should have the table for? Or are you doing 1.5hrs, but then have an empty restaurant from 10:30pm onwards so you can tidy up till midnight? You service just simply isn’t quick enough to present the meals when you have a full house. (Indeed we were a few mins early, but that didn’t help us either.) You aren’t socially distancing the tables, nor trying to live up to any other COVID measures any longer (yes, you don’t have a legal obligation any more to e.g. wear masks, distance guests or e.g. enhance your cleaning between them), but so why are you cutting your guests short? Why the rush? You are unfortunately trying to generate extra revenue even vs your pre-pandemic occupancy / 2 sittings back then so we understand from your staff. Taking cash only then in 2022 also makes one wonder?! We are awarding 2 starts to you as our starters + mains were good - so a shout out to your chef, thank you!, but we won’t come here again unfortunately if we can’t finish 2 courses, never mind about us not even being presented your dessert menu! If we would have known that we are restricted to 2 courses, sorry, but then your guests may have the preference to skip the starters (well, I would have done and indeed I’ve asked for the dessert menu at the start, but your waitress told me it will be brought later…). We have of course paid in full, but having had to walk to a local cash machine whilst your next guests for our table already stood in the doorway felt more pressures / too overcrowded. We have expressed our dissatisfaction to your staff at the time - been offered liquor on the house to make up for the poor experience. I am sorry, but we aren’t drinkers, hence we politely declined this, rather hoped for 3 good courses of food on the night. A party of 10 people across us visibly arrived earlier & also been allowed to stay longer than ourselves. So if tables present more costumers than just the 3 of us, well, they may get better treatment at this restaurant. We hope you will revert to 2 sittings, better costumer service / more clear communication and start using card payments. Then perhaps we would look to return / give you guys another chance which you have asked for. I am ever so sorry for the “reality checking” review, especially as I am not a confrontational person & I really would have preferred to leave a 5 star rating. There are lots of fantastic restaurants in Sheffield which we regularly enjoy, but last night was...

We have been dining at the restaurant for a couple of years usually on special occasions. I booked for this evening for our wedding anniversary I did put this on the booking. Missed the warm welcome on arrival. We were shown to the table meals were ordered. Our company enjoyed the spare ribs, the mushroom soup was slightly salty for my palette. The mains arrived together but then left waiting 5 minutes for fries. We had to send one of the chicken dishes back as it was cold it was replaced very quickly and hot but by this time 3 of us were half way through our meals. When the bill came we weren't even offered a small liqueur on the house just told I'm bringing the bill as the table is booked at 6.45. We paid the bill but did say we haven't included a tip as we usually would have done as one of the main courses was cold. This caused a bit of a disagreement with the staff. We did finally receive 10% off the bill but this should have been done automatically or being offered a drink on the house as an apology. Having to complain rather spoiled the fact that it's our wedding...

The food was great - cannot fault it. Good Italian cuisine.

I’m giving a 1-star though because right at the end of the meal, the waitress told us that it’s “cash only”.

This ruined the entire experience for me.

I asked the waiter why they were “cash only” and he told me that the card machine was broken.

After reading these reviews, that’s a lie as they have been cash only for years.

It’s clear that they don’t care about the convenience of their customers. They just tell you to go outside and use the cash machine.

It’s clear that the business more than likely not doing their books right because it’s cash only, and pay their team with cash. They don’t want to be paying payment processors the cut for convenience.

They didn’t care about hygiene during COVID cus it’s cash only.

The business is run like it’s in the 90’s.

To the owner who I hope reads this - get a card machine, pay the fees that they charge, pay your staff via their bank accounts and make life more convenient for...