Prezzo
Earlier this week the lovely fiancé and I had both had rather exhausting days and fancied dinner out, nothing special just a cure for hunger and laziness. Our local Prezzo is a mere five minute walk and seemed to be just what we needed. It is always a gamble however, going to our local Prezzo. I have never had a problem with the food, (more of that later) but the service has been so bad at times it has become a local joke.
One of the good features of Prezzo is that their entire menu is available for take-away, great idea in theory. However I have never successfully managed to order it. I once phoned up and very politely asked if I could place a take-away order, their response was to bark ‘Not now!’ and then hang up. On another occasion the response, by comparison was bordering on the verbose: ‘I am sorry we are too busy’. And heaven forbid you turn up without a reservation, even if it is 6pm on a Monday and the restaurant is half empty, oooh that makes them so grumpy.
Our drinks order was taken swiftly and they offered tap water as well as mineral, very good. However looking at me like I had just belched in their face when I politely declined olives, not so good. So you get the point, the service is pretty hopeless, on to the food. We headed straight to main courses, fiancé going for the spicy beef pizza, I wasn’t in the mood for pizza or pasta (yes I know, what the hell was I doing in an Italian then?) so I went for the Ciabatta Milanese (breaded chicken in a ciabatta with cheese and salady stuff) with a side of gratinated potatoes.
We didn’t have to wait long and the pizza arrived looking tasty, the base was just the right thickness and the topping was generous and well seasoned. My ciabatta too, was spot on for a simple dinner, with a generous slathering of garlic mayonnaise (can’t have breaded chicken without garlic mayo, no no no). But then there was the little dish of unappealing looking chunks of potato in a cheesy mess that I could only presume was supposed to be my gratin. The potatoes were undercooked and the creamy topping was shockingly bland. If I am going to order a decadent cheesy creamy gratin I expect to enjoy it, otherwise I might as well be eating calorie laden gruel.
To end, though both stuffed we shared a vanilla panna cotta with raspberry coulis. As you can imagine they didn’t look thrilled that we were sharing a dessert, which is a real bug bear of mine. We were pretty full so either we ordered no dessert or one, be grateful we ordered the one.
So to summarise if you want simple tasty food and are happy to overlook shockingly rude (though strangely swift) service and a bad gratin then its perfectly fine - its never going to be exciting - but it is fine. And being how it is only five minutes away I’m sure we’ll be back soon, at the very least we can be sure to gather some amusing anecdotes on hopeless service.
