Locanda Bagutta St Albans — Restaurant in St Albans

As written by my wife:

St Albans isn't exactly short of restaurants, especially Italian ones. We chose Locanda Bagutta for an early dinner before a show at the Roman amphitheatre because it looked like the most authentic and its menu had the most appealing selection of pizzas (always a good option when you need a quick meal). Unfortunately, we did not have a good experience, and ultimately felt extremely ripped off.

It is authentic, certainly - run by an Italian family with multiple generations all taking part. However, things didn't get off to a good start when we were told on being seated that we couldn't order any pizza for at least half an hour, as the pizza oven was busy with a mass order (60 pizzas for takeaway for a wedding). Given that an order that size would likely have been placed months ahead, I would have hoped to have been pre-warned when I phoned the restaurant that morning to book our table. Yes, the rest of the menu offers a broad variety of pastas, meat and fish dishes. But you don't expect to come to a restaurant to find half the menu unavailable.

We began with a portion of olives. When the bowl arrived, we were astonished to find that our £4.50 had purchased precisely 6 olives. That's 75p per olive. Granted, they were large olives, but imagine sharing that portion amongst a table of 4 people - one and a half olives per person.

Moving on to the main meal, we didn't fancy pasta, so went for other dishes. None of the mains quite appealed to me so I chose two starters: melanzane parmigiana and gamberetti piccante. In fairness, both dishes were very tasty. The aubergine parmigiana was rich and warming, the aubergine creamily soft and smothered in lashings of melty cheese. The prawns were leaning slightly towards overcooked but not badly so, and the tomato sauce was full flavoured with a decent bite of chilli. However, serving the butterflied prawns still in their shells (legs and all) when they're smothered in sauce does not make for easy eating. I found myself eating bits of shell and leg as I couldn't see whether I had successfully removed them all from the prawns as I went along. Being starters, the portion size was quite dainty, so I did still feel somewhat hungry afterwards - especially given their prices (£12.50 and £13.50 respectively).

My husband, meanwhile, went for the Pollo Milanese. Now, whenever we have had any meat (be it chicken, pork, or veal) "Milanese" in any Italian restaurant anywhere in the world, it has meant an escalope of the relevant meat, hammered out thinly, crumbed and fried, and served with a generous heap of spaghetti in tomato sauce at the side. So we were quite surprised when our waiter asked my husband if he wanted any potatoes along with his £18 chicken Milanese. Seeing our blank looks, the waiter suggested some spaghetti with tomato sauce, which my husband accepted - not quite sure at this point whether there would be a separate charge for it. When it came, the chicken arrived on a large plate, atop a superfluous and sad looking lettuce leaf, while the spaghetti was brought on a separate side dish. Both tasted good, with the chicken tender and crisply crumbed, and the spaghetti nicely al dente. To our dismay, though, the parmesan offered to sprinkle on the spaghetti was not freshly grated but looked like the powder version you get in a tub in the supermarket.

My husband drank diet coke because he was driving, while I had a glass of red wine (Dolcetto d'Alba). I had to send the first glass back as it tasted oxidised - like the bottle had been sitting open for too long. To their credit, the waitress readily replaced it with a new glass from a fresh bottle.

I don't think we have ever felt so ripped off by a restaurant. For 6 olives, 2 starters, 1 main course with a side, a glass of wine and a diet coke, and a 12.5% service charge, we were charged £75.37!!! And that side dish of spaghetti for with the £18 piece of chicken? That cost £7.50?! We'd be surprised if the ingredients for that quantity of spaghetti and tomato sauce cost...

I’ll be honest that I am perplexed by the great reviews on here. I have to wonder if they are real. We booked as we’d often walked past and the environment is beautiful. We also met a couple previously leaving the restaurant who said it was good. We therefore planned to go. The menu looked good. It isn’t cheap but we were really looking forward to going. 6 of us went this evening.

Firstly, we waited almost an hour for our starters. Of those, one was good, all 3 mussels marinere were tasteless and in a liquid that was salty. All 3 of us agreed it was poor and advised our waiter. I left over half of mine. I love mussels usually.

We then waited for our main courses. 4 arrived. 3 were fine but one was really not good. The waiter argued with our friend about the freshness and the fact that the polenta was soft when quite simply she could not cut through it with her knife.

This was replaced by another pasta that was equally unappetising, most of which was left. We waited some time for two pizzas that arrived after all the other meals were finished. Neither of us finished more than half since it was all cheese and, once again, tasteless.

We tried to engage the waiter quietly but he was extremely rude. At the end, he gave us the bill and advised that we should pay what we thought it was worth. Our friend offered his address and name and suggested they could sue him for the cost of the bill as he was so angry at the treatment and the food.

I deal with things differently and, again, quietly tried to explain the situation to the waiter who then called the owner over and I very once again quietly tried to tell him that there must be a problem with the kitchen tonight whereupon he suggested that they’d served the same food to everyone without complaints. I’d be amazed if that were true but maybe it was.

He added, without much grace, that he was ‘sorry’ that it didn’t meet our standards and that we shouldn’t pay and suggested that we leave. This was all done quietly from both sides and we were about to pay and leave anyhow. We did leave some money reflecting the fact that a few of the meals were okay (1 starter and 3 mains and we had drinks).

My wife has just notified me that she now has an upset tummy. Hers was the starter and main that was fine by the way.

It was really disappointing that the staff were rude and they did not accept what was meant as constructive criticism and which was proferred very quietly.

All in all a stressful evening and really poor food and we are so disappointed at the attitude. Such a shame post COVID as we wanted to support local restaurants and we do this a lot. We heartily recommend Thai Rack 50 yards down the street. Great food and great service.

I hope the owners take this review as it is meant. I’d love it to be great and I really hope that this was just a one-off bad experience. We won’t be back but if I were the owners I would not have been so defensive and rude and would have done my utmost to get us back to change our opinion....

This place made me very ill!!!

I visited last night for dinner with my boyfriend. I ordered pasta with tomato sauce and he ordered the vegetable risotto. I explained to the waitress that we have ordered vegan because I am allergic to eggs and milk and so can they please also be aware of this in the kitchen. I am aware of cross-contamination in the kitchen. I did not mention that I am just extremely lactose intolerant because I have a severe egg allergy as well and I need both taken seriously. I will eat out because I do not have instant anaphylaxis so I am aware that is my risk.

However, what happened last night was unacceptable. I ordered very clearly and the waitress brought our food and I double-checked again. Me and my boyfriend were sharing so I tried the risotto and I just felt that it tasted very cheesy. So I asked the waitress three more times to go clarify and my boyfriend also backed me up asking an extra time making it veryyyyy clear that I'm allergic.

I decided against eating any more of the risotto because my lactose intolerance won't show for another few hours and I didn't want to take the risk. But once my boyfriend had completely finished the meal, the waitress came back and said "Hi. Just to let you know. Sorry but the risotto contains butter and cheese."

Honestly I was absolutely shocked and horrified that after checking so many times and being reassured by her on 4 occasions she came back to tell us that she had lied to us.

As far as she was concerned, I had an allergy and she is "lucky" that i am extremely extremely intolerant. But I was up all night feeling poorly because of this and it will also ruin my day today. But actually if it had been my egg allergy we might have been calling an ambulance.

The waitress did not handle it well. I demanded that she removed the service charge from the bill. But I didn't get a further apology and thinking back, I should have argued that we shouldn't have paid for any of the meal. I just wanted to get out of there before I started feeling really unwell.

I won't come back here and I suggest if you have an allergy, intolerance, dietary or religious requirement you do not come here. I recognise when there is human error but here I was clearly lied to multiple times and that is...