The Fat Italian Ormskirk — Restaurant in West Lancashire

Disclaimer: none of us are individuals who enjoy complaining. But this occasion necessitated a complaint

My friends and I visited on Thursday for its notorious steak night… safe to say it was a huge disappointment.

First and foremost the starters were acceptable, and the mocktails we ordered tasted really nice, albeit on the smaller side considering the price.

All of us ordered the ribeye steak medium rare which has always been the go-to at any other restaurant we have been to.

When the steaks arrived we were all shocked at how abnormally tough they were. They also smelled a bit funny and were full of gristle. They were difficult to cut into let alone chew. All of us struggled to chew and swallow the steaks- so much so we were swallowing pieces whole (which was extremely unpleasant).

When the waiter approached and asked us how our food was, we politely asked if he could take it back to the kitchen for it to be cooked more as it appeared to be more on the rare side and we thought maybe that was the problem. None of us have ever ordered blue steaks at any restaurant, so we didn’t know if it was meant to be that tough. We made excuses and assumed the chef thought we ordered it blue, even though we explicitly ordered three medium rare steaks. Even after this, the steak was the exact same.

The lovely waitress eventually took our plates after we gave up and we hesitantly told her how we didn’t enjoy the meal. She apologised and said she’d send someone over to sort it.

A woman, who we assume was the manager, insinuated that it was OUR fault for ordering the wrong cut of steak (ribeye) and kept saying we ordered it ‘blue’ when we stated multiple times we ordered it medium rare which we always request at any other restaurant. She also implied that it was our fault for not ordering it medium instead. This is irrelevant anyway as it’s only her opinion, and we were never advised to order it medium whilst ordering. As three younger girls we felt patronised and we felt as though our reluctance to complain was taken advantage of. We were annoyed as we had all been so accommodating and tried to excuse the state of the food. We didn’t expect a refund, but we were insincerely offered a free cake between us. I understand this matter is subjective but those steaks were truly inedible. It was as though it was cooked or boiled in a microwave. Not to mention, the chef was clearly informed about the complaint, so he kept coming out to glare at us.

We really do not recommend eating here. Go to the...

The food was of an excellent quality. Well presented and tasted great. We came here after previously having eaten at the Crosby restaurant a few months ago which was also very good.

We had the £34 deal for 3 courses which I found was reasonable value considering the high quality of the food.

The 2 managers/front of house were friendly and approachable, as were the servers.

My constructive critique would be that I felt some of the drinks were overpriced, particularly circa £7 for a pint of beer and £6 for cider. This combined with being asked whether we wanted more drinks by the servers over 10 times in an hour gave us the impression that revenue from drinks was quite important for the restaurant.

There was also a pricing error on the bill when we received in which the total showed as being approximately £11 more than it should've been, however to the managers' credit he did quickly resolve this.

Overall we enjoyed our visit, and particularly the food, albeit being asked 10+ times if we wanted more drinks! Can't fault the friendly...

Booked a table for 8 of us on 30th November 2023. Politely greeted and shown to our table. Given the evening menu and a special menu offering 3 courses for £29.95. Ordered drinks which were promptly brought to the table, everyone placed their order. As we waited for our food to be cooked I noticed that we all still had our coats on as it was -1c outside and not much warmer inside the restaurant. I felt the radiators and they were off. Spoke to waitress to turn the heating on, she explained that due to the weather pipes had frozen and the heating would not work. We were given our starters after about 20 minutes I noticed the air conditioning heater had been turned on. No complaints about the food it was very good. We asked for the bill, my daughter then began to go through it and felt it was too high. So went off to see the manager to discuss it. Returned minutes later to inform us we had been over charged £40. I won't be returning to this restaurant as it had no atmosphere, cold and was...