Osteria Antica Bologna

We recently visited the osteria on recommendation and was not disappointed.We where there on sunday lunch and this is the kind of family run Italian restaurant you dream of finding. Kids, mums, dads, friends, all enjoying great italian food in wonderfully rustic surroundings. The food was plentiful and excellent and the service truly could not be faulted. I loved it.

While the food is good (used to be much better 3 years ago) the service as well as the time to be serviced are both terrible. Twice in a row I went for lunch and I had to wait some 50 minutes for my pasta (in the daily menu). In the meantime, neither the waiter nor the owner (a middle age lady not too bothered about me enquiring about where was my food was) were trying to sell me some wine. Bizarrely, they also added a "compulsory" 12.5% service charge to my bill.

It is quite bizarre that restaurants,such as Osteria Bologna, are not making an extra effort to keep clients happy. Maybe I was unlucky or maybe the lunch service is often bad (maybe at dinner the overall service and ambiance is better), but I would strongly recommend to spend 30 pounds in another restaurant.

If you think raspberry, blueberry and blackberry are a good accompaniment to steak this is the place for you. I really wouldn't advise this restaurant to anybody, the food was either bland or ill conceived. To be fair the service is friendly and professional and this place really has a brilliant rustic Italian feel. However the food was really disappointing (think monkfish and goat cheese soufflé). We ended up eating our main courses at different times and it is the only time I have refused to pay gratuity.