ASK Italian - Castleford — Restaurant in Wakefield

Think this was my first visit to ASK, having frequented other brands of similar concept we were drawn in by the '3 course kids' menu assuming it would offer some sort of pizza and/or pasta that would please our 8 and 11 Yr old.

Having waited out the lunch rush on a Saturday afternoon we were easily accommodated with no prior reservation. The pretty standard question of "any allergies" out of the way, my first question before even being shown to our table however was "Is there anything you don't have". Too many times in the recent past have we been seated, given a menu and then only after making our selection and attempting to place that order with our server have we been informed that one or more of our choices was not available for whatever reason.

I forget the specifics but suffice to say it was a mushroom dish and some other main course that we had no intention of ordering anyway that was not currently available.

We were pleased to take advantage of the at-table online ordering facility shown to us by the staff upon being seated. This allowed us to make our choices and add more drinks etc without having to wait for someone to pass by.

Order placed and drinks arriving shortly afterwards we waited.... but not too long until a member of staff came to advise that despite us asking before being seated, and it being available to order via the online menu that both of our adult set menu desserts were not in fact going to be fulfilled.

For context, we order from the Christmas set menu which had a decent choice including 5 desserts but to be told that 2 of these 5, and in our opinion (since we ordered them) the best two were not available was a little disheartening.

No attempt was made to offer an alternative, something from the a la carte menu perhaps, no we just had to pick something we probably might not like from the remaining 3 choices.. by this point we'd had our first round of drinks and managed to get the kids to pick what they wanted so leaving seemed much more hassle than it was worth.

We persevered. Starter was good all round but we had both ordered the Christmas Carbonara and found the pasta to be almost inedible. Far too thick and rubbery yet somewhat al dente at the same time. When we mentioned this to the server they replied with "yeah it is that kind of pasta isn't it. I usually get it substituted for spaghetti". This was of little comfort to us at this point, and rather than offer to swap the pasta they instead offered pepper or parmigiana to accompany our chewy dish.

As expected the dessert we were coerced into picking instead of our original selection was not what we wanted to end our meal on. Luckily with the kids in tow it did get eaten but a dissapointing two out of three courses for the adults dining that day.

I suppose the takeaway here might be to avoid ordering with an app and to get first hand comments from your server on what is good, any recommendations such as swapping the pasta and maybe even being told immediately that certain options were not available.

Wouldn't rush back to this chain restaurant but it's by no means the worst dining...

Pollo Milanese with Chips

£18.30

"Breaded butterfly chicken breast, seasoned and roasted. Served with chips, broccoli and a creamy mushroom sauce."

(AKA a substandard chicken burger)

The menus don't come with pictures of the dishes. So for £18 I was picturing a fresh chicken breast, sliced sideways, freshly seasoned and roasted in an oven, with chips (or potatoes per the menu). There was no mention of any coating or batter.

What I got was a flat, reconstituted chicken burger in a crispy batter that was, to all intents and purposes, on the same level as a big flattened out fish finger.

It bore zero resemblance to a seasoned butterflied chicken breast and no resemblance to an authentic Italian meal.

I ate as much as I could because I didn't want to upset my partner, but it was a struggle. It was like eating a very salty rubbery flip-flop and it had ZERO taste. For something described as "seasoned" I was surprised that all I could taste was lots and lots of salt.

The mushroom sauce was a very thin soup, thinner than the Sainsbury's own mushroom soup you can pick up from the supermarket for 66p. I stupidly poured it on top of the chicken, hoping it would disguise the taste of the nasty thing, but it was so thin it immediately soaked into the coating. I tried scraping it off, but it was too late, it had vanished. The pot it came in was cracked all the way through, too, which was less than hygienic.

Probably the most expensive chicken burger and mushroom soup I've ever had.

I don't like pizzas, but this looked really tasty on the menu before we entered. Sadly, there were no photos to tell you what you were ACTUALLY ordering.

The restaurant gets ZERO points for its misleading menu listing and ZERO points for charging the kind of money you would expect to pay for something fresh and tasty. Even MacDonald's chicken burgers are tastier and better quality than this.

On entry, unasked, the meet and greet person on the door sloppily splashed raspberry lemonade in the vague direction of two shot glasses. Fortunately, the tables were covered in plastic table cloths from the 1970s. However, the squash was very tasty, but when ordered came with noticeably less raspberry.

Finally, the place was incredibly noisy. I imagine it was designed to mirror a pub atmosphere, to be deliberately noisy in order to give it a "buzz".

It could be that the pizzas are delicious and if you like noisy pub atmospheres it will be right up your street. But I wish that Italian fast food restaurants like this would only have on its menu what is decent to eat, rather than offload garbage onto its non-pizza eating customers.

In summary:

Meal was hot ✔️ Chips were tasty ✔️ Squash was tasty ✔️

Meal was tasteless and rubbery ✖️ Meal was overly salted ✖️ Meal wasn't as described ✖️ Meal was overpriced ✖️ Squash not mixed as nicely as the taster shot glasses given on entry ✖️

Service...

We booked here mainly as we were staying at the Premier Inn nearby and had some Tesco vouchers to use. We really weren’t expecting much but how wrong we were…from when we first entered and were ushered to our table and presented with a complimentary glass of their homemade lemonade, the customer service was second to none. We were served by 5 different people while we were there and all of them were extremely attentive and friendly. We were so impressed with the customer service, from the waiter who recommended the New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc (really excellent!) to the waiter who, on delivering my husband’s plate of food, 5 minutes after mine, apologised and immediately said that it would be taken off the bill. We have dined in many restaurants where we have barely been given an apology! The staff were clearly happy in their work as, despite how busy they were, nothing was too much trouble. I rarely give reviews but this restaurant and the people who work here totally deserve to be credited. We will most certainly visit again and would recommend to anyone! Well done to the management here who have done an amazing job in training their staff! I almost forgot to mention the quality of the food - the best calamari we have tasted in a long time with a tasty garlic mayo. My husband had pulled beef pappardelle (free of charge due to the lateness) which was absolutely delicious while I had a pizza with goats cheese - again delicious and all...