Italian Cafe - Bournemouth

We ordered couple of starters and then mains. First of all our starters arrived on appallingly dirty plates. We then waited for a while for our mains. It felt like the restaurant was short of staff, although it wasn't very busy. One of the mains was way too salty and my wife couldn't eat it and asked for something else. She didn't complain, but to my big surprise no one even asked if anything was wrong with that main. The plate was untouched and they just took it back to the kitchen!!! Child's main arrived without garlic bread and even though we asked for it never got it! the waiting time was long as well so we decided to skip the desserts and go elsewhere. Pizza was nice! It's a shame really because the place looks good and the music was pleasant...

It 's supposed to be Italian, it 's nothing more than a low rate hotel lounge/bar. Most of the tables crammed in this small space are for 2 people. The attitude of the staff was couldn 't care less, Left us for so long. Unhelpful. We made a request if we could move tables, was told do what you want. Any question we asked about the food, they had no answers. The menu is absent, vague and misleading. We weren 't given enough menu 's. Soup of the day, dessert of the day, cake of the day ask your server (who will have no idea) Sadly the food was excellent in this frustrating chaos. Back to the service, no parmesan or black pepper. We asked for it which caused another issue as the hotel staff had no idea. Other diners had a long wait and we saw other parties give up and leave. Music was on a loop, we heard the same pop/techno song 3 times. Didn 't add to the 'italian ' feel. We were ignored for long periods of time whilst clearing empty tables were a priority. We ordered at the bar in the end where we were lied to saying the kitchen had shut as the chef had left at 8.15pm. (Way before the advertised closing time) The tirimasu had to be 'put together. ' (The tirimasu appeared later and it clearly came out of a box) The only time staff came to us was to ignore the issues and ask repetitive questions which we 'd already answered and they 'd written down. Watch the menu, ice cream is priced by the scoop, the sorbet isn 't. We had one scoop priced at £6.75. A rip off. We came in at 6.30pm and was trying to get out by 8.50pm for a taxi booked to catch a train. We were still fighting to order dessert at 8.25pm. As soon as we got dessert, we asked for the bill, we explained the hurry and we were promised this would be done. We rushed the dessert, one had no cutlery. We had to find the member of staff who had promised us the bill, he was serving other customers at the bar. Trying to pay, the card machine run out of paper. 12 minutes to get back to our hotel for the taxi booking. I thoroughly regret spending precious family time being treated like this. It was stressful.

We wanted a snack and opted for cheese and biscuits for 2 people with a bottle of red. The Italian Cafe was very bright and stark with no candles on the tables so the atmosphere was flat. However, the staff were very attentive, just needs a rethink of the ambience it is creating. It could be a lovely space if it was given more thought to the decour etc.

Part of the Cumberland Hotel, this Restaurant has only been open a few days and serves authentic Italian fare, served by friendly enthusiastic staff

Awful. One other couple in there yet took 40 minutes to be served. Then pizza was l undercooked dough with very little topping. Calzone was the same with frozen chopped ham and chicken, undercooked dough and no tomato sauce inside.