Don Giovanni's

I was taken to Don Giovannis last Tuesday evening. My friends wanted to thank me for helping them and wanted to buy me dinner as a thank you.

The restaurant looked impressive, clean and modern. The service was adequate but a bit cold. Unfortunately the food was not very good.

I ordered sea bass on a bed of vegetables… it came wrapped in a burnt pieces of paper. The waiter, rather comically, started to unwrap my fish with two spoons. He gave up with his endeavour after a while and asked if he could use his fingers, I agreed.

The fish that appeared from the paper was very unimpressive, it was dry and looked most unappetising. The alleged bed of vegetables were almost nonexistent and very sorry looking.

I asked if these were the vegetables…I asked for more vegetables. When they came they were obviously cooked from frozen, they were watery and tasteless.

The sea bass didn't taste as if it were fresh, I suspect it had also been frozen. The skin was rubbery and the meat stuck to the bones and didn't flake away when cooked properly.

I didn't want to make a fuss at the time, I was a guest of my friends, I didn't want to spoil the hitherto nice atmosphere.

I have been in touch with the restaurant… I asked to speak to the owner. I was given an e-mail… I've written, but no reply.

I wouldn't go there again.
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Mac
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Tuesday, December 07, 2010

We went for an early evening meal on Saturday, nice atmosphere however all went downhill after the initial greeting & drinks, definitely not what I expected, starters arrived at roughly the same time as the mains - even though it was only olives!!! Staff clearing away before you finished, wrong bill .... not thinking of going back in a hurry.
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Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 1
Sunday, November 21, 2010

we visited the restaurant last monday evening as we thought that we would enjoy but it was really disappointing. the manager went confused and didnt take the food order properly. the means came cold and not at the same time. it was frustrating to recieve this service from the manager himself.
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Steven
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 1
Monday, October 04, 2010

I went with my girlfriend in your restaurant yesterday 29th Sep. I chose this restaurant after having read a glowing reviews, also, i was fascinated by their location, but the reality failed to live up to my expectations. First we were taken by the manager who seemed unfriendly and led us to our table without menus for about ten minutes. that was the beggining. Furthermore, the meals were not what we had ordered also, not served in the same time. Finally, the coffees tsted burnt which came after a nicely-decorated inedible desserts.
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 3
Friday, October 01, 2010

I am not usually one for writing reviews for bad service. We went there after my daughter's graduation party 17th June, it took them 10 minutes to bring us the menus. I was displeased at the way we were neglected by the manager when we asked for drinks. The attitude of this manager was absolutely weird. Were very busy serving customersas such didnt have time to get them your-self instead of chatting with other tables. I would be happier if you would show more concern towards us. The food arrived very late in addition to the frozen dessert which we had after ages .
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Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Sunday, August 08, 2010

I have eaten many times at Don Giovanni’s since the time when they had a fine little restaurant at its original location across the road next to the old Odeon. Since moving to its new premises a few years ago, I must admit the standard of food and service had diminished considerably each time I had visited. After each time, I had always decided to give them another chance but the last straw was on a birthday occasion with a group of four on a weekday.

The restaurant was not busy and we had a table by the window. It took a while once we were seated before we were asked for drinks. Our food orders were eventually taken and starters were delivered within a reasonable time. We had to desperately seek attention of the waiters for the pepper pot.

With the mains, the steaks were overcooked. We had asked specifically to cook the steak right when we ordered (as this had happened on a previous occasion) and we could see that the steak was not medium rare as requested but more medium. When speaking to a waiter, he was incredibly arrogant and stated that he himself was a chef and that the steak was indeed medium rare. After further deliberation with the head waiter, the steak was changed and arrived as requested.

Obviously, our celebratory mood had evaporated and for the rest of our meal, none of the waiting staff approached us and were giving us 'dirty looks'. How very unprofessional and terrible service for supposedly a good restaurant. This is totally unacceptable from any restaurant and naturally we will not be returning nor recommending Don Giovanni’s to anyone. Apparently, this place has changed ownership a few times, but there is no excuse for such shoddy and rude service.
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Ant
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Monday, July 06, 2009

I had recived a very good recccomendation about the restauraunt and was looking forwards to lunch. As We had not eaten there before we went for the lunch menu and decided if it was good we would come back in the future and order al la carte. Initially service was quite poor as we had to wait for anyone to speak to us and show us to our table for over five minutes despite the restaurant being quiet. We found that generally the service was quite poor and the waiters were inattentive. The starters were passable but the mains were horrible. My partner ordered a veal pasta dish but the veal had a very gristly texture and did not taste nice at all. I had an extremely bland pizza with mince and beans which seemed to have been put together for the lunch menu only. After the meal I had to ask for the petit fours offered on the menu and they were quite stale biscuits from a packet.

If the meal had been nicer I would have no doubt returned as the setting is very nice but I would not reccomend it to anyone after the lunch we recieved.
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richard - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Friday, March 13, 2009