Alberto's - Chipping Norton — Restaurant in West Oxfordshire

Racist and discriminatory ownership! Avoid!We are visibly brown and went in and asked if there was availability for lunch for 3. The lady who professed to be one of the owners said there was no availability, I asked whether there was anything available today or tomorrow. She said no and that the restaurant is fully booked. I walked out, went online and saw that there were availabilities for this evening and all day tomorrow. I went ahead and booked for lunch for tomorrow. I then called to understand more re contradictions in availability that she mentioned vs the website. The lady on the phone said she was waiting for a group to confirm their booking for tomorrow so that’s why it’s not available (though it was available on the website). I asked her about this evening. She justified her response re a lack of availability by saying “I thought you only wanted to know about lunch”. I told her I was okay with dinner and whether 6pm for dinner is confirmed then as it was showing up as available? Her response was “by all means go ahead and book on the website”. Okay but does that mean it’s confirmed.?. “We normally send an email to confirm”. Okay but is there availability for dinner today then at 6pm?. “If it’s showing on the website then go ahead and book”. Does it means it’s confirmed?. “We normally send an email”. Unbelievable round-about skirting the question to avoid taking a couple of brown people in for dinner.

No surprise, as soon as she ended the call, suddenly the whole of two days were booked out (however I had already booked for tomorrow before the call - and there is nothing on the confirmation regarding expecting an email for confirmation, see attached..)..

It’s astonishing that there is such racism and discrimination displayed by the owner. She knew she was doing something wrong because she refused to give me her name despite my asking her twice.

I’m looking through reviews and I can see a pattern - the owner lets people in based on their ethnicity.

Edited after the owner’s response: Claire, so does this mean my booking on your “live” system for 12.00pm on 25th is confirmed? As per the screenshot..? I suspect no. You skirted around and changed your statements multiple times on our call and kept saying I should just go ahead and book online without giving a straight answer on whether or not that meant it was confirmed or not. Yes you took my number when I met you in person - why wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t want to be openly racist would you? It’s interesting that there is a certain type of clientele who doesn’t get service at your establishment or gets rude service, as per reviews show below. I wonder how you justify that.

I won’t respond to your justifications further. It’s a waste of my time, you and I both know what happened and what you were trying to do. Instead of blaming me for slander, reflect on what truly happened and how you conducted yourself on our conversation...

Visited Alberto’s with family for a special occasion on Tuesday. And it definitely did not disappoint. From the second we walked in to when we left the both of the owners couldn’t have been anymore welcoming to all of our party.

I can only describe the previous review claiming the “staff” to be rude and inappropriate asbolutely farcical . From the second we walked in to when we left the both of the owners couldn’t have been anymore welcoming .

We were seated in the upper half of the restaurant close to the kitchen which gave us a chance to see our food cooked which we personally enjoyed. Both half’s of the restaurant are intimate and very personal.

We shared a charcuterie board between the three of us and some of the nibbles as a starter . With a Rigatoni carbonara and beef shin ragu for mains and the special scamorza and speck pizza For dessert we had tiramisu and pistachio cannoli’s. we shared a bottle of wine between the three of us and the bill came to just over £50 per head for three courses . we really couldn’t fault anything about the experience from start to finish and will definitely...

Visiting Chipping Norton for the weekend. We booked a table for dinner for two in advance. We arrived and were indicated to our table, which was a very small high bar table opposite the bar. This table was snuggly fit between two other bar tables either side, of which one was occupied. To try and get to sit at the table we had to move it . I asked the lady who was behind the bar if the unoccupied table next to us was booked. If it wasn't we could have moved our table along a bit. We were informed it was booked by people who were arriving shortly. My friend and I had great difficulty getting our legs under the table and when we did we felt very squashed in. The surface area of the table was tiny and the thought of trying to eat a meal at this table was ridiculous. We left the restaurant without ordering anything. The restaurant was busy as it was a Friday night. The lady behind the bar was cold , not welcoming and did not seem the least bit interested that we left. We did find a lovely venue to eat which was both warm and welcoming and the staff were lovely and food was great. This venue was...