La Vecchia Banca — Restaurant in Tewkesbury

La Vecchia Banca translates to "The Old Bank" in Italian, which might be a nod to the location being a former bank building, but these days there is a large display of fake flowers over a well stocked bar and the walls are a bright teal green. There were lovely fresh roses on all of the tables.

The restaurant is located in Bishop’s Cleeve, sitting in the picturesque Gloucestershire countryside. The "Bishop" part refers to the area being owned by the Bishops of Worcester for centuries - it’s a Bishop’s Cleeve, because a “cleeve” is a “cliff” or “steep slope”. Now you know it means, I can tell you Bishop’s Cleeve is located near the Cotswold escarpment in Gloucestershire, near the Cleeve Hill, the highest point in the Cotswolds.

If you’re on a date at La Vecchia Banca and run out of things to talk about, that’s a bit of local trivia for you.

Onto the food, we ordered the Bruschetta Napoli, it was a simple opener to our meal. The Fegato alla Veneziana (lamb liver) is a classic Venetian dish. Served in light sauce with onions and some bread. Acknowledging liver isn’t for everyone, I’d had it a bit growing up, so I was keen to try it here and glad that it was cooked well. It was not rubbery and not completely overwhelmed by the sauce but complimented by it. The Crochete Caprino (crumbed goat's cheese) was crunchy, creamy, and nice goat’s cheese, it offered a nice contrast to the other entrees, and I think we chose well.

For the main courses we went for a risotto pancetta with mushrooms was rich and hearty, the pancetta adding a savory, smoky element to the risotto. The ravioli special, filled with seabass in a deliciously creamy sauce was a highlight.

The glass of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, a rich and fruity wine that pairs wonderfully with hearty Italian dishes like pasta, risotto, and meat-based dishes paired as well as expected with the mains we ordered and would work with most of the menu. You can see from the photos the herbs on top and the smear of beetroot and pink peppercorns appear thematically on each plate we ordered except for dessert. I thought it was a bit odd, but it looked cool and actually worked well with each dish.

Speaking of dessert, we ordered the ‘dolci misti’, the menu said was a small selection of various sweets. When they brought it out the friendly table of local ladies next to us gasped and pointed at it in a mix of good natured humour and jealousy. These aren’t little delicate bites of the tiramisu, banoffee pie, pistachio cheesecake and brownie - but look almost like full serves of each on a long plate. It was an indulgence that my waistline won’t forgive me for, but the flavours of each was great. Everyone in the restaurant smiled as they watched us enjoy it, but eventually we were overwhelmed and defeated by it - it was decadent and delicious though.

I enjoyed by Coffee Italiano with dessert, the Amaretto-infused coffee brought warmth and the touch of almond sweetness was a nice way to close out the evening meal.

La Vecchia Banca was a lovely night out, the place was full of locals the night we went - which is always a good sign, everyone around us was happy they all loved what they’d ordered.

I’d recommend booking and going in for a nice Italian meal and a good yarn with friends. The staff were attentive and the atmosphere was relaxing given how busy it was. The food was good and I felt at home and like I was in safe hands here.

We were well looked after and left very happy and satisfied with our dinner. So I will say: “Complimenti, chef! Il pasto è stato eccezionale....

The excitement of ordering a wild mushroom porcini risotto with truffle oil and wild porcini mushrooms - only to get home and discover it’s more like Tesco’s own🤬 (see attached menu photo!) The “wild porcini” turned out to be bog-standard closed cup mushrooms, the so-called “truffle oil” was entirely undetectable (perhaps it merely passed by the bottle?), and the dish was so salty that I briefly wondered if they’d mistaken the North Sea for seasoning🤣🤣? Let’s not forget the extra Parmesan (I SPECIFICALLY asked for!) or should I say, the mysterious “mountain cheese imposter” (as Italians call it!) sprinkled with the same “generosity” as on an airline meal!

At £15 something for a rather small portion of Risotto I was expecting a REAL taste of Italy, with the ACTUAL MENU-STATED INGREDIENTS not a greasy, overpriced disappointment. Had I tasted it in the restaurant, it would have gone straight back. It’s clear the high ratings come from those unfamiliar with real Italian cuisine because authenticity is nowhere to be found here—just Italian-sounding names on a menu and Albanian run Business!

Would I return? Only if they start serving actual Italian food with GENUINE / AS ADVERTISED INGREDIENTS . After all, not all of your customers can be fooled with bogus/replacement ingredients and taste!

That said, I must give full credits to where it deserves to be give. —the staff were absolutely fantastic. Polite, attentive, and genuinely helpful !! ( just tragically working in the wrong restaurant!) - So I marked the service five stars! They deserve it - they all seemed very attentive (except 1 glitch! I was given one price £9.50, then when I was about to pay they changed to 15 something what I actually paid, but I didn’t mention anything, hoping I’m going to get some value for money food )

Atmosphere: - PACKED UP - Very crammed tables very close to each other

That said, I must give full credits to where it deserves to be give. —the staff were absolutely fantastic. Polite, attentive, and genuinely helpful !! ( just tragically working in the wrong...

I literally don’t know where to start and honestly cannot understand how this place has 5 star.

As we arrived we were seated right by the front door on a tiny table so we politely asked to be moved to a bigger one which they didn’t seem happy about and made that clear. My partner was then served a warm beer and glass (twice) but we asked for it to be changed which they did and looked past this.

We then ordered starters where I just had garlic bread which was nice and my partner ordered whitebait… which still to this day we do NOT think was whitebait. It was massive and the bones got stuck in my partners throat meaning he was coughing up blood. For anyone who has eaten whitebait this SHOULD NOT HAPPEN! The staff saw him choking and saw the blood and approached the table, once we explained they quickly took the plate away with the big bones on and said ‘we don’t make anything fresh here it’s all delivered’ ???!!!! Number 1 where is it made? Also is anything fresh then? And this was clearly passing the blame.

At this point I wanted to leave but my partner insisted on staying and that he was fine. We then went into having mains. I had the lasagne which just tasted like tomato and was really bland! No side or even salad came with it? Very odd! And my partner had the seafood pasta which in all honesty he did say was really nice!

Once we finished our mains we were handed the bill, not being asked if we wanted pudding but they clearly wanted us gone after the choking insistent.

At no point did anyone approach us asking if we wanted more drinks, if the food was ok etc and the bill came to £75! Which is a lot of money for a terrible experience.

When we went to pay, there was no conversation made and no eye contact.

I never write reviews but honestly I’ve never had such a bad experience in my life and for £75 it was a disgrace.

Maybe we just came on a wrong day or ordered the wrong things from the menu as reading the reviews it’s sounds like a completely different place! But it’s safe to say, we won’t be giving it...