Vele Al Vento - BARI

Last week, my young family stayed for one night in the Parco Dei Principi hotel, staff were lovely and hotel was comfortable. After a long day of travelling we decided to eat in the hotel- I hope no other family makes this mistake. We arrived ay 8pm and ordered 2 steaks and one pasta, 40 minutes later the pasta and one steak arrived, we assumed the other steak was following. 10 minutes later we asked a waiter, he called over the waiter we were dealing with who simply shrugged his shoulders and said I thought you ordered one- bearing in mind my partner was sitting there without even a plate if he did assume we were sharing, despite ordering 2. We waited 30 minutes for his steak to arrive, you have to order sides separately which were now cold. No apology, just slopped down what I can only describe as an overcooked lump with a drizzle of watery peppercorn sauce. We were told we had to pay at check out so the next morning my partner mentioned what happened, just said the stay was great but poor restaurant experience. The receptionist called our waiter out who denied never apologising, kept rolling his eyes and storming off. The receptionist said I'm sorry I don't know why he's treating you this way. Disgusting food, disgusting treatment and disgusting behaviour. AVOID.

I had an unscheduled night nearby the airport, thanks to Alitalia. Luckily enough was the hotel and restaurant much better than anticipated: a good beef filet with grilled vegetables accompanied by some primitivo.

It was a wet and windy evening and we had just arrived late at Bari airport and were in need of some dinner (we had researched on TripAdvisor for restaurants previously and this restaurant in a fairly new hotel looked good for being close to the airport). We had previously checked that they would welcome non residents. We both started with different seafood pastas, mine included cuttlefish and was very good, for me the main was a twice peppered steak excellent, my wife the sea bream which was beautifully cooked, served with a green olive sauce, presented whole and excellently served at the table. Unfortunately, we then had a long drive so we did not sample the wine list or dulce. The staff were all welcoming and as you would expect at an establishment like this spoke English. I think we may make a day out in Bari for dinner here as there was so much of interest on the Menu. Four Star Hotel with a Five Star Restaurant...............

È il ristorante dell albergo Parco dei Principi, durante il nostro soggiorno ci abbiamo cenato un paio di volte. Il personale è molto gentile e l'ambiente meriterebbe una cucina più solida. Consiglio di scegliere piatti semplici anche se la prima volta ho preso le orecchiette con le rape molto mediocri. Meglio la seconda volta con minestrone di verdure e calamarata con pescatrice, entrambi buoni. Tutti i primi costano eur, così come i secondi, un po' strano.