Last Friday, pizza fanatic Michael had organised us to go to one of his favourite pizza venues, Piazza di Roma right at the top of Whiteladies Road. It was a freezing cold evening when Rich and I trekked up the hill to meet Michael, Emily of Bristol Bites, and her partner Chris, luckily the restaurant was cosy, warm and inviting and we were shown to our table by a friendly waiter.
I think it is important to mention that the service from the off, though friendly, was extremely slow. Taking our drinks order took 20 minutes alone and half that time to arrive, there were only 5 of us. The menu is very traditional, what you would expect in an Italian restaurant in the UK, pizzas, pasta, bruschetta and side salads. The ambience is also pretty standard to what you would expect too, cosy, candles on the tables and the lowest of low lighting.
Rich and I opted out of a starter but Michael and Emily picked a tomato pasta dish, all pasta mains can be served as starter portions, and bruschetta. The starters took about 25 mins to arrive the portion sizes were good and made us all feel exceedingly hungry and regretful. I had ordered the Americana pizza, which had pepperoni and sweetcorn on and Rich picked the Festa di Carni, with chilli.
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| The Americana |
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| Festi di Carni |
Our table had been booked for 8 our pizzas arrived at 9.30 by that time I was pretty much gnawing at the table corners, pizza to me has always been one of those foods that you can pop in somewhere for a quick bite before heading to your destination. Some foods are meant to be taken time over, like roasts, pizza is not one of them. Having said that the toppings on the pizza were extremely plentiful and tasty, had we not had to wait so long I would have possibly be praising them higher. They are better than some pizzas in Bristol but they still don't beat Beerd's and Planet Pizza for me anyway.
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| Pacman Pizza |
I have always wondered about this little pizza place, and now my curiosity has been sated. The staff were very cheery but in a tiny restaurant of about 45 seats and only half are full it should not be taking over an hour to prepare 5 pizzas. This could have been a bad day for them I suppose, the food is nice enough I just don't know if it inspired me enough to recommend it above other places, plus the outside toilet doesn't exactly draw me in on a cold night. To check out the menu for Piazza di Roma please visit their website.
Hi Abby,
ReplyDeleteI hope that you are well and that this e-mail reaches you in good health.
I am the waiter from Piazza di Roma restaurant.
I thank you for your positive comments, how kind of you to say those nice things.
I hope you can forgive me for saying I cant understand how you can say that:
"I think it is important to mention that the service from the off, though friendly, was extremely slow".
We have never ever been told that the service is slow.
I have to apologise to you for feeling that way, we take your comments very seriously and it did upset us because we care so much.
When reading this please have in mind that I have alot of respect for you and your friends, and i think that you are all very friendly and polite, and it was an absolute pleasure to serve you. all i wish to do is tell you about how I saw the situation.
When you came in and I gave your table the menus and I asked if you would like some drinks or would you like some time to decide, your table requested some time to decide. I was standing a few feet from your table and i am trained to always look around the tables to see if anyone needs anything, I have worked at the restaurant for 7 years and everytime i looked over to your table, you didnt look ready to order drinks or food for quite a while. There seemed to be some debate as to whether you wanted to order wine or not. Once you had decided on your food then you decided on drinks and i took the order together, and then i made the drinks on the bar which is only a few feet away from you, 1 sprite, 2 beers and a jug of water takes 1 minute at most to get done and served. If anyone wants to make a drinks order or any order, all they would have to do is look over to the servers and we would come to you.
And regarding the time taken for your meal, everything is cooked from fresh and made to order. Once the starter plates were cleared from you table, the cutlery was set and it was 20 minutes at most until the main courses were served. The pizza dough is hand stretched and the ingredients are freshly prepared. We couldn't possibly make your pizzas before your tables had finished the starters because that would mean re-heating them once everyone was ready which wouldn't be fresh. We only serve fresh food.
We have authentic Italian pizzas that are cooked directly on the oven stone, made by the boss who has over 35 years experience, and he uses only the best ingredients. When your table left and didn't leave a tip the waitress and i discussed the possible reasons why you wouldn't and the service being slow didn't come up because we felt it wasn't, thats why it wasn't mentioned (it's what the waiting staff do when tables leave. It's our way of discussing the quality of service, in the hope of improving to ensure all customers have a great experience, and we hopefully get better tips).
The boss wasn't pleased when he was told about your review, because we try so hard to please everyone and you made it apparent that you didn't leave happy or satisfied as you would recommend other places over us, places that don't claim to make authentic Italian pizzas.
We would love to welcome you back, so we can show you how quickly we can work when requested to do so. We work as fast as we can considering the circumstances, of which there can be many that have to be taken in to consideration.
Everything I say is with the utmost respect, I'm just someone who cares enough to reply. The boss doesn't even know i am writing you this e-mail. Nothing has been written in anger, or to annoy you, i just wish to respond is a respectful and peaceful way.
Thank you for reading this. I hope you have a Wonderful Weekend
Many, Many Thanks And Kind Regards
Yass
Thanks for your comment Yass, as you know I have already replied to your email. And I am sorry again if you feel this was an unfair review, although I did mention several times that myself and the party enjoyed the food part of our visit and no malice was meant, it was just what I experienced on this particular night.
ReplyDeleteThanks
Abby