Dolce Vita — Restaurant in West Oxfordshire

If I could give this restaurant zero stars it would still be review too highly in my honest opinion. Our saga started when we originally visited the restaurant at the beginning of September to celebrate my in-laws moving to Carterton. We ordered 4 main meals and was told due to how busy they were there was a slight wait to which we replied “no problem”. We didn’t expect to wait almost 2 hours. When the food finally did arrive it was so over cooked, over salted and dry that it was inedible. The waiter that we had argued with us that we had been waiting that length of time, showing us when the food order had been put on the system (and hour after we ordered. Eventually we got an apology and we’re given a voucher and begged to give them another chance to which we agreed; which led to our visit last night. We returned last night to give them the second chance that they had asked for and it was the worst mistake that we have ever made. The wait for food this time was completely reasonable, we were in good spirits and had forgiven the previous transgressions. My father in law and I both ordered the Bolognaise, which when it arrived was far too salty for my taste and I couldn’t eat it. I didn’t make a fuss as I didn’t see much purpose. When the wait staff came to ask how our meals were I said nothing until he looked at my uneaten food that was pushed away from me, which I then explained was too salty for me but not to worry. He did offer to get me another serving to which I responded that it was okay and not to worry as it would likely taste the same if it had come from the same pot. Problem resolved (or so I thought). 10 minutes later the same waiter saunters up to our table, learns over my in laws who were eating with the smuggest look and says “the chef has tried the bolognaise and it’s not too salty” before storming off, basically calling me a liar to my face, loudly so that other patrons could hear and interrupting what was otherwise a nice evening. I went to the bar and asked to speak to a manager as I was furious at the ill treatment and was told that no one knew who the manager was which was a poor start; I then explained what happened and asked that the same waiter come back to apologise for his rudeness as his comment served no purpose other than to humiliate and belittle me. When this particular staff member returned to our table he called me a liar once more, refused to listen to why I was upset and then got into a very heated argument with my partner and was incredibly obnoxious. It was at this point we placed the voucher on the table and walked out. We will never return - the food is not true Italian food, it’s is over salted and to be honest tastes like a ready meal and the wait staff are so appallingly rude that I think I would rather use a wasp nest as a punch bag than have to deal with those horrible...

The wife and I do not go out as often as we would like to so we were really looking forward to this meal out for our 5th wedding anniversary, having heard good things about this restaurant. It was a Friday night but I would not say they were packed to the rafters. We sat down at 7:30pm and were given menus and our drinks order was taken quickly. This is the only thing that happened quickly all night. 15 minutes went past without a sign of our drinks. Then a different waiter came over and asked if we were ready to order at which point he apologised and got our drinks straight away. He took our order which was one starter for me and my wife asked for cheesy garlic bread to go with her lasagne main course. My starter arrived 30 minutes later? I then asked for another drink which also didn’t arrive I had to ask the waiter where it was?? Another 20 minutes after they took my plate from my starter our main course had not arrived? We again had to signal for a waiter to question why our food was taken so long!?!? The mains came out another 6 minutes later and they got the garlic bread wrong? They gave us plain garlic bread? We didn’t moan. We were going to order some desserts and more drinks but after 10 minutes of us finishing our meal still no sign of someone collecting our plates or asking if everything was ok? I must say all of the food was delicious and I will go there again but they need to improve on their...

Didn’t even want to give this a one star review. Shocking customer service, flavourless food, didn’t even get the order correct after confirming it with us, don’t try and bring us a dish the chef cooked by mistake in hope we’d accept it, never ordered lamb but fair play that was the quickest cooked lamb in history. Partners dish was watery, flavourless and because she ate the cheese on top of her dish, finding the pasta underneath flavourless drowned in water, “she’d eaten” the dish (although all the rest of the dish was still there) well you have to at least try it first to make sure it’s alright. Asked to speak to the manager and waited over 20 minutes for him, when he came to us he was laughing and had nothing but attitude. The laughing manager even had the chef come to the table to tell me that the food is cooked because it was cooked at 200 degrees, good one. When they both walked away laughing that proved to me they didn’t care. Heard bad reviews before we went but thought we’d make our own minds up. Wish we’d listened to the reviews now. Shocking restaurant, terrible customer service and disgusting food. Refused to offer any form of discount, only when I offered to pay half for the cheese my partner ate they accepted, speaks volumes. Will not be going back and will deter others from going there wasting their money. Over priced tasteless food, eat dog food for...