Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Ristorante Al Mare, in East Preston….


 A Birthday Mistake
Yesterday we needed to quietly celebrate my husband Steve’s sixty-sixth birthday. My daughter Jacqueline and her husband Martin came with us to a recently opened nearby restaurant that none of us had been to before and so thought we would give it a shot. I rang to book a table and asked if they could rustle up a little cake since it was for a birthday; I should have read the warming sings when the woman said she couldn’t do that without at least one day notice. This restaurant is no more than a hundred metres from a village store where they could have bought a ready-made cake to please new customers.
It is an Italian restaurant but only tiny. A young girl brought the menus and handed them to each of us. They were double sided and sealed in plastic film but the selection looked ok, if standard. We ordered wine for Jakki and me, a Peroni for Martin and mineral water for Steve who does not drink alcohol at all. The wine and drinks were brought and served and the wine placed in a bucket of ice on the next table. Our order was taken though we did say that we would be lucky if the young girl had got all that written down correctly.
The first course dishes were brought before the pre-dinner nibbles that we had ordered, Italian bread selection and olives. I had asked for extra lemon with my Calimari and had to ask again for that before it was brought to me. When we were half way through the starter, the bread and olives arrived at which time the table was cluttered.  At the same time another group of people were seated at the table that held our wine bucket and so that was placed carelessly on the floor between my daughter and I! The first courses were all tasty enough but nothing special.
For the main meal three of us had ordered a pasta dishes,  and Martin wanted a pizza. The pizza looked ok but the pasta dishes looked like starter size portions. My choice was Spaghetti Carbonara  and it held very little, very thin meat and what there was, was very fatty indeed; I hate fatty bacon, it makes me want to gag. The only sauce barely coated the pasta with nothing extra on the plate, it was also a little over cooked.
The acoustics were dreadful and were having to speak up to hear each other over the Spanish (?) music. The waiting staff, were untrained to say the least.
The company was good though and we still managed to enjoy ourselves. We did not order dessert but went home for Ice cream.
 

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