The Barn Bistro- Italian Restaurant and Take Away — Restaurant in Waverley

I was organising a get together for some retired ex colleagues in Farnham and I had heard some good reports of The Barn Bistro in Farnham, So I booked online for 12:30 Tuesday15th July about 3 weeks ago. This was suitably confirmed by email and on 14th July I received both an email and an SMS confirming the booking on 15th July. On 15th morning I was phoned by one of my colleagues who said that The Barn Bistro website shows that they only open at 17:00 on Tuesdays. I finally got through to The Barn Bistro at 10:40 and explained what was stated on their website but the nice man said that they would be opening at 12:30 especially for us as the booking system should have prevented this issue. So, we all turned up and The Barn Bistro was indeed open, they honoured our booking. This was the first time I had visited The Barn Bistro and this was our experience: The food was of excellent quality and quantity. The prices on the good menu were also reasonable. The drinks were a reasonable price. The service was excellent and friendly. The ambiance was very pleasant without loud music so we were able to talk easily amongst ourselves. The toilet facilities were tidy, clean and fresh smelling. If that was not enough, they had a special price of £12.95 (an absolute steal) – this was for an Anti-pasta dish and a Pasta dish.- This is only available for about a couple of months. Location wise The Barn Bistro is very close to the excellent Caffe Piccolo and it gives the same food quality but with a better ambiance, much better drinks prices. We will definitely visit again and with the effect The Barn Bistro have created, they certainly deserve to be successful. Thank you for a very pleasant experience (we booked on the spot for our next meet up). The Barn Bistro is a real gem – try it and...

Tried here for the first time tonight. A warm welcome and then shown to the only table for two that wasn’t laid up properly.

Staff knowledgeable about the menu and what options were available as gluten free. Wine list isn’t great and for a supposed Italian restaurant, there’s no explanation as to where wines are from or their vintage.

Arancini felt as if it was frozen and brought in… however beef carpaccio was good. Nice balsamic glaze.

Crab ravioli was tasty (albeit served on a chipped bowl with greasy marks on it) and a gluten free pizza seemed to hit the spot. Desert menu had pictures, which for me, is always a no, no.

My main issue is the atmosphere, there was only one table when we arrived, the lighting is very bright (even with some bulbs removed) and the music is piped through a tinny speaker.

As a suggestion, some tealights, the lights dimmed and a quality speaker for the music would really lift the whole place.

Someone with a rucksack and hoody was working on a laptop at the back, staff were sitting down at tables and then someone arrived with bags of laundry (I’m guessing table cloths and napkins). Not a great look.

Two starters, two mains and a bottle of Pinot Grigio was £73.00….

I’d like to try a panini and coffee at lunchtime but certainly wouldn’t rush...

Very disappointing experience, took our friends for lunch and it was such a let down. Calamari was the worst I’ve ever had, not authentic and the tartar sauce was mixed with salad cream - just how they eat it in Italy (not). Arancini was bland, four cheese pizza had a really thin base and was overloaded with blue cheese, extremely sickly. The only good thing about the whole meal was carbonara, it was actually nice. I also want to say the service was great and attentive. Wouldn’t come back and wouldn’t recommend, this is an Italian restaurant for someone who’s never had proper Italian food in their life and can’t tell the difference. Really regret spending my money here as it was £60 for lunch so not the cheapest either.

Edit: I am editing this in line with the owners response - honestly it’s laughable you call yourself authentic Italian. And ok maybe this review doesn’t fit in with the rest of your “patrons” because your patrons are old white British people who never stepped foot on a plane; perhaps you can fool them you’re an “authentic Italian” restaurant but someone who actually knows their food will know there’s nothing authentic about what you’re serving. Learn how to take criticism and perhaps also how to cook Italian food....