Piccolino Bramhall — Restaurant in Stockport

Visited on Tuesday the 3rd of January 2023. Was very disappointed with the overall service, staff and food. Considering it was a Tuesday night and the restaurant was hardly full our server was constantly disappearing or on his phone and well as the host and another front of house member which was visible to a number of customers as well as us. The restaurant was not busy but it took over 25 minutes for our waiter to come over and take our drinks order after trying to call him over a number of times we were told to 'be patient', despite our waiter being visibly on his phone in-front of us. Our main food came out lukewarm with freezing cold plates; a pasta and two pizzas, we hadn’t even been able have a mouthful when our waiter asked if the food was ok. We sat for a further 40 minutes or so with dirty plates in-front of us and empty drinks to which we were not prompted to order any more drinks. While we were waiting for our plates to be taken away from us our server was visibly on his phone (again) visible to all customers with dirty plates and drinks scattered around us. We attempted to get our waiters attention, which included going up to the host stand where we were told to ‘sit down and wait our turn’. We then noticed that our waiter walked out of the restaurant got into a car and then came back roughly about 5 minutes later, something that we we shocked to see seen as we’d been wanting to speak to him to order more drinks and food, never mind that he was in the middle of a shift. We asked for a desert menu, when he finally decided to come over to our table, and ordered a chocolate fondant and two ice creams. The chocolate fondant was stone cold and when I tried to find someone to ask for an amendment there was no one who was on the front of house team to be seen anywhere for a good 10 minutes, when a team member finally appeared and I asked for an amendment the desert took again another 20 minutes to come out from the kitchen and was again freezing cold inside and out. After this I no longer wanted the desert as we had been sat in the restaurant for 3 hours already. There was no apology from any member of staff for the cold desert. We then asked for the bill, our server saw the cash and cards on the table and walked past numerous times, we asked for the card machine which we then asked for again 30 minutes after asking the first time and again, while doing this saw members of staff on their phones. Despite all of this there was no apology from the waiter or any other member of staff for that matter, which sadly just topped it all off. Due to this poor level of service and standards we asked for service charge to be taken off to which our server looked extremely surprised and started talking to other team members who were looking over and giving dirty looks. Members of this party and I also feel that despite us being a group of girls and not a family or older individuals, received a completely different level service to those who were older or who were there as a family. Extremely disappointed as when we have visited Piccolino restaurants before both in Bramhall and elsewhere have received great food and a great service, it is just a great shame that this time may so happen to be our last… Emailed the management and have had no reply back… poorly...

Take any good reviews about Piccolino Bramhall with a pinch of salt. People clearly go there to be seen - not for the quality of food or service.

We recently visited Piccolino for what we thought would be a pleasant meal. We had received vouchers against our bill and thought it would be a good time to use them. The sun terrace seating was really lovely - until the smoke from the workers in the back kept wafting over us. The starters were quite nice and we looked forward to the rest of our meal. Unfortunately the main meal came which we mistook for another set of starters due to dish size. We overlooked the portion size as we were having a family day out and didn't want to put a dampener on the day......this was until one of the group bit down on their main only to find a full sized pebble amongst her pasta.

We informed the waiter on what we had found, who then looked at us like we were something he had trodden in. He left to get the manager who returned with a pseudo apology because the excuses he was making made it blatantly clear that he assumed we had placed the pebble in the dish ourselves. As one of our group used to work in this establishment, it must have been quite difficult for him considering it was obvious that the manager did not believe it could have been in the food. He tried to say that the pasta was fried and so the chef would have heard the pebble in the pan. I have watched enough cooking programmes and worked in enough kitchens to know how noisy a working kitchen actually is.

The manager continued to make pathetic excuses as to how they could never, ever be at fault (obviously an inflated ego with his position and the establishment).

Now, please take in to consideration that we had vouchers for the meals - so there would be absolutely no point in placing something in the food to get money off a meal as we weren't actually paying for it in the first place.

The manager deducted the cost of the one meal from the bill (pointless really) and tried to leave it at that. The pebble was so large that it hurt my sister's tooth and so we insisted that they put this in the accident book, as they didn't offer in the first place. Hopefully we won't have to refer to this document after she has visited the dentist.

The member of our group (call him R) who used to work at Piccolino bumped into this manager a few days later and informed us that the manager had stated that the only reason he acknowledged the incident was because R used to work there. Otherwise he would have had no doubt whatsoever that we had put the pebble in the food.

Overall - the food was bland and overpriced and the service was shocking. We could have overlooked the salty pasta and the child-sized portions had the service been up to scratch and had the manager not insinuated that we were liars. Also, considering the poor service we received we found it laughable when we realised that they had added a 10% service charge on top of our bill.

Rest assured we shall never be visiting there again and I shall be advising my colleagues, who regularly take clients there for drinks, not to eat there.

Shocking doesn't...

In short, they can't cook here. And the service is lacking.

I'm used to decent restaurants as I spend a lot of time in Hong Kong and elsewhere in Asia. This isn't one.

We wanted to celebrate my daughter's 16th birthday without venturing into the city centre. I’m not usually a fan of chain restaurants, but with good reviews and a Bramhall location, it seemed promising enough. I’d tried the Hale branch before and expected something adequate, if forgettable. When we arrived early on a midweek evening and found it nearly empty, that should have been a warning sign, but I didn’t take the hint

I ordered a fillet steak, medium well. What arrived was a chewy, bone-dry medallion about half an inch thick, cold, over-salted, and over-cooked. It resembled a shoe sole - small and tough. I strongly suspect it had been frozen.

My wife started with scallops and followed with king prawns. The scallops were hard, and while the prawns weren’t off, they clearly weren’t fresh - almost certainly frozen.

Both kids ordered pizza. The sparse toppings and soggy centres meant the toppings slid off, rendering the pizzas inedible unless you wanted to scoop up the mess with a knife and fork. Once again, not cooked properly

When I mentioned my steak, to their credit, they did offer to make another, but having established already the quality is subpar and they can't cook, what would be the point? They did cough up a few free drinks in an attempt to compensate.

With only three occupied tables and three floor staff, you’d expect attentive service. Instead, they were mostly invisible. I had to pour my own wine and call for plates to be cleared. When we were ready to leave, we’d already retrieved our coats from the cloakroom before anyone appeared.

When the bill arrived, they encouraged us to download an app for 25% off food. Since we had no intention of returning, we wouldn’t normally have bothered, but we used it (with disposable data) to reduce the cost slightly. Even then, it didn’t feel like value for money. We also asked to have the service charge removed, as it wasn’t deserved.

After all that, it came to just forty odd quid per person. And there’s the problem: at that price point, given Bramhall’s overheads, they can’t afford to serve high-quality food or hire skilled chefs. This forces them to cut corners, which leads to a disappointing dining experience. As customers stay away, they resort to further discounts, creating a vicious cycle that only drags them down.

We'd have had a better experience at a Zizzi or a Pizza Express, I'm sure. And that's not saying much....