Tartine bistro & wine bar — Restaurant in Warwick

Our group dined here recently and unfortunately left feeling nothing but frustrated and hungry. We had booked in advance after seeing the advertisement for a caricature artist drawing your portrait as you dined which we thought would be something fun and different.

Once our group was seated we asked about the caricature artist, who wasn't to be seen but was apparently upstairs resting or busy - the reason was unclear. Either way we understood but let the waiter know that when he was next available we'd like to have a drawing - this was why we had booked!

We went on to order two sharing platters and a side of padron pepper, we were also inclined to order another side but was assured by the waiter that the portions were big and another side wasn't necessary. This unfortunately wasn't the case.

The vegan 'sharing' platter was predominantly a serving board of salad with 2 (very) small falafel pieces, 2 small stuffed vine leaves, 2 slices of bread and a very small saucer of hummus. The Spanish 'sharing' platter (£27) was no better with equally small portions. I understand the concept of tapas but when you're paying complete meal prices, its difficult to not feel frustrated with such small portions. We made the mistake of ordering more food, this time off the tapas menu as opposed to the sharing platters, as we were all still hungry. Again, all dishes were very small packed out with salad with a high price tag.

When ordering the second lot of food we asked again about the caricature artist and was advised to join a 'queue' around another table which we did after placing our second order. We was sat next to the artist /around the same table whilst he drew another 2 customers and waited for around 20 minutes for our turn but once he'd finished drawing the other customers, the artist just stood up and walked away without even acknowledging us.

We were all a bit in shock about what had happened but tried to laugh about it and returned to our table (where our second order of food had been put out, without being told).

The artists then packed up and walked past us to leave when another table stood up and asked him if they could have there drawing done and that they had been waiting all evening. He replied that he was going home because he was too tired.

All in all, we felt somewhat lured in by a form of entertainment which we never got to experience and ended up paying an awful lot of money for a very small...

Argh, annoying. The food is brilliant and the atmosphere/decor is great - and that's the bottom line.

However, we were plagued with poor and inattentive service, we complained and the owner waved his hand in my partners face 'shooing' her away and telling her to sit down and wait for her food (90 mins after ordering). We decided to stick it out so as not to ruin our evening and were rewarded with a free bottle of prosecco as an apology.

It's a shame, the food is great but the owners (seemingly a couple that also work on frontline) appear to be personally affronted by anyone who has a problem with the service. This really lets the place down, because the food and atmos are really on-point. The apology was appreciated, but after literally hours of waiting for our food and slew of attitude and hostility - we felt that's the least we were owed. When my partner approached management for an explanation, the waitress told the owner "oh, she's after a discount".

This is purely our opinion, and seems to be contrary to many positive reviews - but I would suggest that the feisty owners should pay more attention to customer satisfaction in the future, recognise that they work in the hospitality trade and receive complaints calmly.

We won't be back, but it's probably worth checking out just to see if the owner is brave enough to wave his hand in your wife's face if she politely reports a complaint.

Oh, and my partner also had a cocktail spilled down her back by a waitress - but by the time that happened we just had to laugh about how badly they'd...

I’ve seen a couple of reviews with a similar experience to ours. We attended an evening advertised as a caricature event, where we would be drawn by an artist, which did not happen. Everyone around us was either called up and drawn or visited by the artist at their table, except us. We were extremely disappointed when we realised the artist was leaving, especially when we had spoken to staff about being excited for the event when we arrived (so they were aware we were there for that specific event). Before leaving we brought up to staff our disappointment over the situation and the only response seemed to be that it was their first time hosting an event such as this, which we didn’t feel was sincere. This review is not at all a reflection on the food or drink and the customer service on the whole was pretty good. But this was a disappointing evening and a poorly...