Never again .... A few years ago was an amazing restaurant but I came here in October with my son and partner wish we never did... I had a fillet steak which hadn't been rested so tuff and under cooked told them and pretty much got abuse back!!... Thanks for nothing waste of my hard working earnings!!!
thank you for your review from October last year.....im sorry you didn't have an enjoyable visit with us and i remember correctly your the gentleman with the small toddler and partner and asked for it to be medium rare and remarked to the staff you know how to cook a steak as you where the chef from Porthmeor Cafe st ives?....to which your not or arnt....either or, im sorry the steak wasn't up to your standards of "rested so tuff and under cooked" i don't understand as speaking to the kitchen the checked the steak and was cooked correctly and was still tender when checked but please accept my apologies for the disappointment of your evening, and we hope you would try us again one evening.
7 - 11 of 64 reviews
Stick to the starters they were fine.As for the mains very poor.Had the frutti de mare, fish was cooked to death came out like rubber balls,i think it was monkfish.Scallops tasted of nothing but water.Wife had chicken in breadcrumbs and said it was very bland.
On a last day of your holiday, don't risk coming here. We should have read the trip advisor comments before entering this restaurant. Tempted in initially by the authentic Italian feel with the rich Italian menu, we were rather excited to enter. When walking down the stairs it was empty. Not one person in sight. We should have taken this as a warning (also occurred in other posts below this one). To the restaurants credit the staff were welcoming but that soon changed. We ordered the calamari and caprese to start which was quite nice but definitely over priced for what you get. The mains were massively disappointing. My boyfriend ordered a pizza that was dripping in grease and was very stodgy. Not a authentic thin and crispy pizza full of flavour that was initially expected but merely a bland circle of stodge with 3, possibly 4 pieces of pepperoni on it. Then I ordered the special of the spaghetti de la marine, the dish that arrived contained spaghetti and prawns, the other ingredients added in were not supposed to be there but were; fish of the day, scallops, and I'm not too sure what was on top but either way, it was all over cooked. This would have been fine if I wanted to play ping pong with the rubbery sea food; but for dinner, definitely not a fan. Throughout the meal we were not asked if the meal was okay and when looking around for someone's attention the staff seemed preoccupied with gossiping and disappearing. When out plates were finally cleared, we complained that the meal I received was not actually the meal stated but something entirely different and that the pizza should be wringed out back into the deep fat dryer. This was 'rectified' with two pounds off the bill. I would just like to state that the money was only taken off the pasta dish not the pizza as 'cheese is supposed to be greasy' (said very patronisingly) and there didn't seem to be an issue with the pizza in the staffs eyes so no money would be taken off. So much for the customer was always right. Furthermore all the prices on the board were actually the same price if not more than on the menu that we ordering off, this resulted in being over charged very cheekily with the final bill. Overall not an enjoyable evening and the food was dire. Maybe the chef with the 30 years experience in authentic Italian cooking should read up on some Italian recipe books as the idea of Italian cuisine has been seriously misconstrued.
we are sorry for you experience with us and thank you for you lengthy review, im just going to go through in points, the fact you state that the restaurant was empty and this should be a warning is a load of rubbish, in fact the restaurant wasn't empty not busy i admit as there was other dinners there as well who had nothing but good to say about the food and restaurant, also you obviously don't know st ives in December to the fact that most restaurants are closed due to the lack of people, and the few open wont be full through the winter, also early evening, so the fact that the restaurant wasnt full for you when you arrived in winter i apologise but this is definitely not a way to look at a restaurants ability but maybe you will understand that as you grow up, now with the comment mentioning that this is"also stated below" they where trying to get free wine for a good review or no wine for a bad i noticed you didnt comment on the good reviews below that one, now the starter not being value for money i suppose for 10 pieces of calamari and salad with garlic or tartar sauce for £5.95 maybe a little expensive for some peoples pockets, but we dont as taking into effect costs etc, but this is also on the menu before you come into the restaurant , ok with the mains the pizza you ordered was a salsicia which comes with one cheese mozzarella and italian sausage and a pocket of ham and pesto and it definitely didn't come out stodge and greasy considering the pizza is cooked in a stone based oven but defiantly not ringing in fat! as you stated and also had more topping than you mentioned due to it being covered over a 30 cm pizza again more bending of the truth, the pizza is cooked on thin base till it is crispy and browned we have sold many of these pizza's to which we have not had any complaints but its maybe just no to your liking,
now your other main spaghetti de la marine as you describe? which we dont sell!..... we sold you a spaghetti frutti de mare and as copied from our menu With mussels, scallops, prawns and fish of the day in a pesto sauce? minus the mussel as you where told by our staff when ordering to which you asked for extra scallops? which you got, and funnily you have just said in your statement wasn't meant to be in the dish???? strange hows it on the menu! now over cooked it wasn't considering you ate the whole dish im sure if anyone wasn't happy with the way it was cooked over cooked tasteless undercooked etc would mention this when first eating their meal?...i would like to add there was a reduction on the dish due to it missing a product from it but we didn't offer a reduction on the pizza due to there being nothing wrong with it other than just personal taste and maybe farleys rusks and milk might be a good choice for you, its a shame that the vast people that we have including people eating on the same night as you don't leave their good comments on this place but that's probably down to them having a life
thank you for your review.
The starter was wrong not as advertisd, confirmed as correct, but later checking the menu found that it had been provided wrong. Tagliatelle and pasta pelle not very nice. As it was our last night in St Ives found this very disappointing. Place was empty so thought the food would be ok, but now we know why.
BRIBERY REVIEW PLEASE READ ON! TRIP ADVISOR KEEPS REMOVING OUR COMMENTS BUT NOT THE COMMENTS OF CUSTOMERS WHO ASK FOR FREE WINE IN EXCHANGE FOR A GOOD REVIEW BUT WHEN YOU DONT COMPLY THEY GIVE BAD UNTRUTHFUL REVIEWS LIKE THIS ON!
ok here i go again having to write our response due to TripAdvisor removing our comments that seems fair hey?......yes you did come into our restaurant and yes there was a roasted pepper missing from your starter not that it was advertised wrong!....this could have been rectified if you actually brought this mistake to our attention before you ate the whole dish........now regarding the tagliatelle considering you didn't order this dish i don't understand how you can comment on this ?....you went to order the Tagliata alla Toscana (serloin steak) which was explained we didn't have that evening due to a delivery issue you ordered the 8oz beef fillet which you kept referring to as a sirloin? not sure you knew what you where eating at all, now the pelle?......what on earth is that? we have never nor do we sell that in our restaurant so again another point of a bad review and un truthful one.....right to the point at the end of the meal where you wife and i quote got up and left saying "im not having anything to do with that".......to which you approached the manager and said you were not happy with the meal to which we reduced the price of the starter by half for the missing roast peppers and gave you the wine on the house due to you not being happy, you then continued to push the manager by saying if you don't want a bad review on TripAdvisor you will give us a free bottle of wine.....now you still put a bad review on TripAdvisor showing that your word is as valid as your review on this site....not at all.....again i will put the details to TripAdvisor which seem to only care about the reviewer.....not the restaurants comments as well as they seem to get removed hmmmm typical please don't come back thank you very much.
St Ives is a popular holiday resort, and has no shortage of good restaurants. The Italian on Fore Street, one street away from the sea front, is a little harder to find, holds its own with the best, and is well worth a visit. This intimate room has friendly service, generous portions, and an extensive menu, and is excellent value.
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