ASK Italian — Restaurant in Winchester

We were sat at the worst possible table, crammed in the corner right by the kitchen despite booking nearly 3 weeks ago (and requesting to sit upstairs, which we were told on arrival wasn’t open) but did soon get moved to near the door (which I had to get up and close several times on this chilly day) when we asked and something else became available. The general atmosphere was of very stressed staff, some more polite than others, and a general lack of organisation. We had to ask multiple times for the basics like the full range of menus, cutlery (we just grabbed some from the next table for our mains in the end), salt and pepper, parmesan, and our dessert, to name just a few things. We spent over 3 hours having the 3 course set menu, which was fine as we were happy to sit and have a catch up, but the time was a reflection of the simple lack of attention/organisation rather than in any way our choosing or fault. The restaurant was busy when we went in, but the attentiveness did not increase in any way as time went on and we were gradually the only people left at 4.30pm, having arrived a little early for our 1.30pm booking. Our main waitress seemed very stressed and overworked but was polite and sweet and trying her best, and we take no real issue with her. She had disappeared (end of her shift I think) before we had managed to finish our meal, seemingly taking our dessert order with her in her head, so this needed to be chased up.The food when it came was on the whole pretty good, and fortunately on this occasion we were reasonably happy to linger and take the day as it came, but sadly neither of us will be visiting again. Even if the service had been better, the ambience downstairs is cramped and noisy and dark, which is such a pity as the (closed) upstairs room, which we had requested and dined in previously, is beautiful and charming. I appreciated being able to use my £10 birthday voucher as part of the perks scheme, but sadly no amount of sweeteners will persuade me to make a...

I’ve been going to Ask for around ten years with my two sons and they’ve always loved it. Was such a personal experience when H was the manager, and service was always quick. This time we went on Saturday around 6pm so a little busier than usual, although there were still quite a few empty tables and we were seated quickly without a booking. They seemed to be doing quite a lot of take away service around that time. Waiting staff were polite and competent, and drinks came fairly quickly.

The wait time for food was really long. We were seated at 18.00 and ordered at 18.06. The starter arrived at 18.45 and the mains at 19.20.

It would have been really appreciated if the waiting staff might have acknowledged the delay and apologised - this would have gone such a long way. What was particularly annoying was seeing bag after bag of takeaway being collected whilst we waited for fairly simple food to be prepared.

Another minor gripe - the calamari gets smaller and smaller. We counted just six pieces this time for £8.95. It used to be a full bowl. My eldest son has always rated ASK calamari as the best and was so disappointed this time. Food otherwise was good.

This is the first time in years I’ve not left a tip. Felt bad but it’s really not good to leave people waiting for food for so long without...

Generally Ask chain of restaurants are good-very good service wise, but this time it was unbelievably unprofessional!

Aside from the supervisory manager seating us and being lovely, the 'delivery' staff were rude, impatient and sarcastic! There were 7 of us booked at a table with an over sized sieve of pumpkins which were impractical when the large pizza boards came out. The 'server' was impatient with us moving everything around, and finding space for the sieve of pumpkins without an offer to help.

None of us ordered wine, yet the wine glasses were left on the table to clutter it up, and we were expected to move them to make room.

Note: the restaurant was hardly busy.

Each time a place or drink was delivered it was with a 'sorry!' impatient/rude tone, and by a grumpy looking waitress/waiter.

Dessert time, delivered WITHOUT cutlery.....so when a member of our party asked politely the bar staff for some the simple was retorted with a 'yeah in a minute' sarcastic tone.

Quite unbelievable that I even wasted my time booking there when two other Italian restaurants were probably better.

The supervisory manager did apologize profusely, and was the only professional.

It will be a very long time I decide to dine at Ask in Winchester, or...