La Vita Piccolino e Vino

"When we entered the restaurant looked nice there were plenty of staff. No warm welcome just a look we said who we were and time of table. Seated at our table thinking this is cramped. Service was good drinks arrived promptly, the white wine was not cold, glasses were clean but warm... Not good. Starters were well presented and tasted nice. Main course was ok"

"Lovely service, and a very busy place. Disappointing food though. Carbonara lacked flavour and was so hot it was clearly microwaved. Pizza was ok, but not as good as I'd hoped. More like a family chain place than a quality restaurant."

"Roast beef lunch was tender and tasty. Not so the Yorkshire pudding which was neither."

"From start to finish, our experience at La Vita Piccolino e Vino was nothing short of horrific. We were greeted at the door by a grumpy waiter who reluctantly showed us to a table after a 5 minute wait. We were given a table in an extremely cramped space next to the kitchen window despite there being other, more spacious tables available. Once the drinks order was out of the way, we waited 10 minutes for our food order to be taken. As a starter, we ordered bread and olives to share but were left waiting for half an hour, probably more, for the starter alone. The restaurant was quite busy, but half an hour for a bit of bread, olives and dips is ridiculous. While we were waiting for the food to arrive, we noticed that the kitchen was infested with flies. Through the kitchen window next to where I was sitting there was an uncovered box of olives on which flies were constantly landing. Regardless, we attempted to put this poor hygiene issue aside so we could enjoy our meal. When the starter eventually came we were given a couple of slices of brick hard and badly burnt bread, olives which were so loaded with garlic oil that you couldn't taste them and trays of balsamic and olive oil. The balsamic vinegar tasted off. Italian food isn't supposed to be loaded with garlic, this signifies that what you're getting is inauthentic – garlic is to be used sparingly, if at all, as a seasoning for olives. When the waiter came over, he asked us why we weren't eating the olives. When I explained to him, he gave me a funny look and shrugged his shoulders. The main course took an extra 15 minutes to arrive after we'd finished the starter (ridiculous). I ordered the Farfalle Verde, and my mum ordered the Spaghetti Con Capesante (scallops). When it eventually arrived, my dish looked like it had spent the whole 15 minutes lying under a heat lamp as the tagliatelle was brick hard at the top and the sauce was starting to congeal. As for the taste, it wasn't bad but, again, the abundance of garlic drowned out the other more subtle flavours that you'd expect from an authentic, well-seasoned pasta dish. As for my mum's dish, garlic was all we could taste. The only positive thing about this meal was that the manager was kind enough to deduct the starter from the bill. Otherwise, this was an absolute disaster: taking together the indifferent attitude of the staff, the fly infestation, the burnt bread, the 'if in doubt add more garlic' approach to cooking, and the overall presentation – hands down the worst Italian meal we've ever had. In fact, you'd be better off going to Toni Macaroni. (After reading other reviews on TripAdvisor, it's come to my attention that others have also raised serious hygiene concerns – one couple had bugs crawling all over their food! Another found a disgusting looking creature in their food. This is a matter for environmental health.) (P.S. I can also recall a waitress being shouted at and taking abuse from one of the chefs. This is unacceptable behaviour and indicates a toxic work environment.)"