First things first – if you not only appreciate good food for your money but also good service – do not eat at this restaurant. I have never received such offensive, rude patronising service from a manager as I did last night. I pride myself on enjoying good food and good service. So when an offer came to have dinner at Il Baretto on Blandford Street last night – I jumped at the chance. I checked the menu online beforehand and couldn’t wait to sample what they had on offer. Things started off fantastically – the atmosphere was wonderful and the menu looked so appealing that we all struggled to choose just one starter and main course. But the first couple of slip ups started occurring with the service. The waitress – as shy and sweet as she seemed kept forgetting drinks orders, dropping cutlery on members of our party and completely forgot to bring our white wine over from the ice bucket. But the starters came and redeemed the slight lapse in service as they were all delicious.

But the deciding point in the evening came with the main course. I had ordered the sirloin steak with rocket and parmesan and asked for it medium. It turned up and looked delicious – but one bite proved that not only was this dish not medium, it wasn’t even well done, a more apt description would be ‘leather on a plate’. But still, these things happen in a busy kitchen so no grudges held, I merely showed the waitress, pointed out that I had ordered my meat medium and awaited my new, correctly cooked main course as the first attempt was simple inedible (and as it cost £22 – one would expect a lot more). Whilst waiting for the new attempt, the manager came over – one would assume to apologise – but no, to patronise. He came and said to me “you want the next dish medium rare then” implying that I had ordered incorrectly and sent back a medium steak because I wanted something different to what I had ordered. I responded that I was quite happy with it medium but the previous dish was so overcooked it was… More