Baci Ristorante Italiano — Restaurant in South Staffordshire

I visited the restaurant yesterday evening, in a party of 7 people celebrating a birthday on new years eve. Well, my whole experience was a disaster from start to finish, from the moment we arrived right up to departure. I looked at the menu the night before to make the choice of my main meal, so you can imagine my disappointment when the owner/waiter returned after some time to say the dish was not available. I made another choice from the menu, already feeling deflated. The main courses arrived at the table at intervals, but mine was no where to be seen so the rest of the party started to tuck in and eat their food while it was warm, I say warm as the food was definitely not hot. I had sat opposite my wife so that we could eat together, but sadly by the time my meal arrived she had almost finished eating, one of the party had actually finished all of his food before mine arrived. So, I ended up eating my food on my own with the rest of the group watching me finish. The main courses were nothing special, especially considering the high prices, my dish alone was £18. The others ordered desserts, but I chose the cheeseboard, after a delay the waitress returned and said they had no cheese! An Italian restaurant with no cheese, quite incredible, how can you run an eatery like that? I chose to not have the cheese or and dessert. One of our party was told they could not provide a simple hot chocolate drink off the menu, but after some commotion, one did arrive. The Irish coffee was undrinkable and the gin was served in clumsy tumblers you would give to a child. The whole evening was uncomfortable, the staff just didn't seem to care, the waitresses never even looked at our empty glasses and asked if we wanted refills, there was no attention to detail at all. We asked for the bill and it was a very expensive night out for below average food, what a shame, we had been looking forward to the family event for some time. I certainly felt ripped off, I was still starving hungry after just eating a small main course as only one of my 3 choices of food could be provided . Fortunately I was going to a new years eve party afterwards at a friends house where I really enjoyed a gorgeous buffet they put on. Oh, and going back to the bill, that was the final straw that broke the camels' back, they had only included the cost of the cheese board that they couldn't provide. That really was taking the pi## , and although very upset I didn't show it at the time. I cannot ever remember writing a review on a restaurant but I feel so strongly about our experience last night that I just felt compelled to write this. When the owners read this surely they must feel they let us down as a party, particularly with the prices being charged, but perhaps they just don't care. My wife and I will certainly never be returning....

Staying at the Safari Lodges in the West Midland Safari park, I had been looking for places to eat near by for 5, many were full but I booked online Baci and received an immediate confirmation, which I thought was suspicious as everywhere else was full, so to double check our reservation I called to confirm the next day. It was confirmed. Well we turned up to the restaurant and as suspected there was no table ready for us. There were tables free upstairs, one was quickly laid for us. The restaurant really needs some TLC simple things like replacing some of the bulbs may help! if they can't take care of the small things it did worry me about the food. We placed our order and waited and waited, as did other tables upstairs, the excuse came back that downstairs had flooded the kitchen with orders so was backlogged. Again attention to detail, if you had a working booking system you would be able to space your bookings so the kitchen could cope. The food when it came was average at best, the main course was warm not hot, sat to long before coming upstairs I presume, the pasta had hard parts, so either reheated or sat under a heat lamp to long? My sons Steak came with sauce on, which was requested on the side, again its the small details that matter. The side of veg was covered in salt, it was 99% green beans with one new potato sliced in 2, I generally like some carbs with my steak! The bill was £165, not worth it but however the card machine doesn't give a chance to give a tip to the staff, I always tip but these days never have cash, and as id flown to the UK that day, didnt have any UK sterling, again the little details.. Have a process so the staff can be tipped electronically, they really need you to look after them their job is hard enough. Finally I went to the toilets before leaving, again its the little details.. bulbs 80% out, door hanging off the sink, and all tiled apart from the unrinal which was in need of some major TLC, made whole bathroom look really dirty. I doubt I'll be in that part of the UK again but to the owners, take the blinkers off and look at your restaurant and systems and get looking after the...

I love italian food and fortunately we are blessed with a number of stand out restaurants in the midlands. With good google reviews I was really looking forward to giving Baci a try. Now I can not remember ever bothering to go to the trouble to leave a bad review before anywhere and generally accept some meals will be better than others and that taste is subjective. But when everyone’s dish on the table is consistently poor and some barely edible, I feel compelled to leave this review. I won’t go and describe every dish as I don’t have the time or energy to drone in about all the food. I started with the meatballs which were….. awful, not just in taste but they were dense and hard and wouldn’t have been out of place next to the yellow and green balls on a snooker table. Without saying anything… I offered my daughter a taste of the first meat ball only for her facial expression and “you can’t eat that” statement to confirm my own thoughts on the dish. Then to the mains… now a very good chef I know always says he won’t eat risotto in a restaurant because it should be cooked slowly and few restaurants give it the time or preparation but one of my guests decided to have it and I chose to keep the advice I’d had to myself…. unfortunately The foo’d proved the chefs advise to be right and the fact there was nearly raw mushrooms in it showed the speed of preparation. Other dishes had anaemic looking pancetta in tasteless sauce, a chilli and tomatoes sauce that had no chillies in and tasted like pasta out of a bottle. I know the restaurant had a large party upstairs and blamed it on that but I’m not so sure as the food was really poor, either way don’t take bookings if you can’t cope and serve quality food. The manager offered a return for half price but it’s not a about money and I would happily pay well over what they charge for their food to have good italian dishes. I just don’t think they can produce it so won’t be taking up the...