Sorrento Restaurant...a taste of Italy — Restaurant in Stratford-on-Avon

This place used to be incredible. It used to be a classic, warm friendly Italian family restaurant. However, it appears to have recently changed ownership, and my visit here on Saturday 26th July was really not good. We came with a party of 4 who remember the restaurant fondly and have had many meals here before. But, we will not be coming back.

Lots of things went wrong on the night:

The restaurant has increased the seating capacity by converting the front room from a drinks / lounging area, to a dining area. Therefore, there is nowhere to relax and enjoy a drink before your meal. The staff were not able to keep up with the number of orders. This is probably partly because they have increased seating capacity. But they generally seemed to be under-staffed. We had to wait for 1 hour between our starters and mains. A couple sat close to us even chose to get up and leave because it took too long, it was that bad. Upon arrival, I asked for one of the cocktails written on their specials board (the Passionfruit Martini). The bar-tender very blankly responded "no, we do not have it". Cross it off your specials board then. Related to the last point, and probably the worst offence of all, the atmosphere was cold and stressful. The main impression we received from the staff was that they did not want us to be there, and that they did not want to be there. They were stressed. They were understaffed and over-booked, they even had to squeeze another table into the dining area and set it up while people were eating, to sit another booking. The food itself was actually OK. Unfortunately, definitely not as good as before, but still quite decent. I ate the pate, sea-bass and cheesecake which I can generally recommend, but it's not good enough to justify the price tag any more, no way. One of us specifically asked for a bottle of coke to be served separately alongside a rum on the rocks, but they instead provided a pre-mixed rum and coke, which was not asked for, and the barman was not in a talking mood to make any changes. We asked for a jug of tap-water, which took 15 minutes to arrive, and when it did it was plonked on the table by the waiter who then immediately walked off. We were not provided glasses for the water. In the end, we decided not to ask and re-used our wine / beer glasses. Again, the vibe from the staff is, it's just better not to ask. The glass of wine that we ordered also took 15 minutes to arrive.

This was a really long / rambling review, but this place upset me so much after such a good reputation built by previous owners, that I felt the need to share and provide details for other potential visitors. I hope that the new owners and staff read this, and sort themselves out quickly, because this place used to be great. It was a really rubbish night for us.

Having a quick read of other reviews here on Google and Trip Advisor, I can see other people have similar opinions to me, that it's gone downhill and fast. That's...

The place could do with a total make over and it’s a bit of a tourist trap if I’m honest.

Mouldy awnings and a roughly mannered female front of house, expensive drinks which do not have refined settings to compliment the prices..

Food was ok. Kids meals were the best part. Steak not great and it didn’t come with so much as a mushroom at £20+ for a ribeye, I’d expect a mushroom. Steak came swimming in oil. I did mention it but I was ignored by aforementioned front of house.

We queried the bill after a meal that was so so. We dined at 6.30. The woman in question said to me, ‘I’ve managed to get ‘rid’ of all the pre theatre ones. They’re all being chucked out so we can seat you’. To be clear, earlier I asked if I could move our reservation from 7.00pm - 6.30pm and we were told we could come earlier and just try our luck. However, I did not think we would be greeted in such a common manner. Talk about rough!

So, when we queried the drinks bill it got really embarrassing. Bear in mind this place has every other wall hung lampshade knocked off its shoulders, paint is coming off the walls and it needs a total make over so when you’re charged £3.20 for a Diet Coke and £6.75 for a small bottle of Peroni well, you have to question it when you’re in the setting you’re in. Rome this place is not. It would settle quite well in Skeg-Vegas. They charged me £2.50 for a soda top to a single glass of wine. Apparently I had asked for a dash more which warranted a further £2.50. At no point was I told every dash on ONE glass of wine was going to cost me a Fever Tree bottle @£2.50 a go.

Honestly, after seeing all the mould on the outside awnings we tried to change our reservation. It was Saturday night with kids at 6.30. We had no choice.

So, this is where we get really Skeggy-fied. We question the bill. The British lady comes over with a huge calculator out of the 1980’s with a huge paper till receipt and goes through the bill, smacking at the keys as she goes. The Italian waitress apologised and cringed throughout the whole process of dealing with her British counterpart. She understood and looked a little...

Very Disappointing

We were really looking forward to visiting Sorrento again following initial lockdown. Chosen from menu on line , to find when we arrived, the menu was not the same ! I then chose Bruschetta, covered in tomatoes, which were very nice but no other taste. I then chose Hake which came with new potatoes, I asked if I could change the new potatoes for Dauphinoise I was told by the waitress, no as that is how it comes. In my mind that means the meal is already prepared?But surely any decent Chef , who is supposedly cooking fresh could of facilitated my request.However, it came as described and had no taste at all.Thw waitress did ask if our meals were alright, I replied , it’s ok. Left the majority of it. Then still feeling hungry , we ordered Tiramisu, no better than Sainsburys. Following this we went to pay, £95 in total, when asked if we wanted to leave a gratuity, I said no. At that point I said the meal was not as good as it used to be and was disappointing, the receptionist, then became argumentative and intimidating, saying, I’d told the waitress fine, she’d checked my plate and I’d eaten it!At this point we were surrounded by a male kitchen worker and a waitress who all appeared to want an argument and intimidate me further. We paid and went to the door, the woman, receptionist, followed us to the door, commenting and attempting to be antagonistic. Unfortunately her attempts did not work on me. As you can probably tell we will not be returning and will not be...