We booked a table for a meal with our friends, never eaten in restaurant before but thought we'd give it a try as the reviews seemed to be o.k. all but a few.
The waiters were friendly and everything was going fine, we ordered a mixture of starters all which were pleasant. However one of the starters, a minestrone soup didn't arrive until the rest of us had near enough finished out starters, we didn't complain as we wanted to have a good evening.
For the main meals we ordered the Veal, Porcini mushroom risotto for two, Mixed seafood spaghetti and two Lasagne's from the specials board. After a considerable time the waiter came back to the table and apologized that there were no Porcini mushrooms for the Risotto, after a brief discussion it was agreed that they would be replaced with normal mushrooms as a substitute (not ideal but our friends wanted to try the Risotto).
The mains arrived and the Veal was enjoyed by one of our friends, the Risotto seemed to be o.k. too.
The Seafood spaghetti contained tiny pieces of squid, octopus, a few small prawns and 4/5 mussels in shells. I attempted to eat the squid and octopus which were very chewy,I carried on trying a prawn and mussel which were also chewy. I can only assume that the seafood being so small, was overcooked making it inedible.
I did not want to make a scene however paying good money for the food and feeling hungry raised the issue with the waiter. His response was that Octopus and Squid are chewy and this was acceptable. I then added that the rest of the fish was also the same. He then offered me an alternative dish so I asked for the Spaghetti bolognese knowing it would be a reliable dish which you surely can't go wrong with.
My wife and her friend were sitting playing with their plates of Lasagne and hardly ate any. I asked what was wrong to which they replied that it lacked flavour and meat which seemed to have been replaced with a large amount of peas instead. I stated that they should raise the issue with the waiter but they didn't want to make a fuss and decided to just leave their meals.
My Spaghetti bolognese arrived around 10 minutes later with a further apology from the waiter.
Unfortunately my Spaghetti Bolognese wasn't great as it tasted predominately of tomato sauce with no herbs or seasoning of any kind.
The waiter came over to do a check back once half of our party had finished and saw the uneaten meal in front of me plus the two hardly eaten Lasagne's, he asked if everything was o.k.
I replied that I didn't want to make a fuss however the Bolognese was awful and tasted like a cheap tomato sauce with no flavour. I also showed him the Lasagne's and said that they were flavourless, lacked meat and were full of peas. His response was that the Lasagne had peas in it, then said he would raise our concerns with the Chef.
Some minutes later the Chef came storming out of the kitchen and straight up to me and asked if I was Italian or English. I replied 'English' and was met with a mouthful of loud abuse by the Chef in English and Italian. He would not let me get a word in and stated that I had called his Bolognese cheap tomato sauce and that he had been cooking for years and everyone loved his sauce. He the said a customer on the next table had the Bolognese and he loved it and that he would get the customer over to tell me how good it was. All the time he was still raising his voice at me embarrassing me in front of my friends. I then asked if he was the owner to which he replied no he was the chef. I asked that he lower his voice as I was trying to have a rational conversation with him and I said that he was embarrassing not only my friends and I, but was showing himself up. Nothing deterred the Chef from making a scene and he continued with his abuse, therefore I asked him to go away and leave us. I then stood up and apologised to the whole restaurant for them having to witness such an unbelievable situation, I was gobsmacked.
The waiter then came over and cleared our plates and asked if we wanted to see the dessert menu, to which I replied no and asked for our bill.
The bill arrived and I was amazed to see that we had been charged for all of our meals including the ones that we hadn't eaten. I called the waiter over to explain this and was told that they had removed the service charge and that is all he could do for us, but eventually took the bill back to the lady at the front desk. He returned again having removed one meal of the bill and I again explained that it was not o.k. He then told me to speak to the lady on the desk as he couldn't do anything else.
I approached the lady and explained the issue and after talking through the problem, she removed the three uneaten dishes from the bill. She was also very apologetic regarding the incident with the chef and explained that he was a bit deaf, this could be a partial reason for his shouting but no excuse for his aggressive manner.
We paid our bill and were apologised to again by the front of house team when leaving.
What can I say but a very unpleasant evening, several poor quality dishes, a poor mannered chef who definitely needs introducing to 'Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares' and we weren't really compensated for our whole experience. No gesture to compensate the bill in anyway,in fact I had to haggle with the staff to get the uneaten meals removed from the menu. Maybe the Chef doesn't get many complaints as his staff and probably many of his customers are scared of him using his bullying technique.
Will we be going to Villa Ada again.....no!
