Cacciatore Cacciatore
Il Principe

Il Principe

82 Cowley Rd, Oxford, OX41JB, OX4 1JB, United Kingdom

Delis • Pizza • Pasta • Italian


"Il Principe Oxford, England. Authentic as pizza can get, Il Principe is well known amongst the locals and it should be better known to visitors. To thank the babysitter one day, there was a group decision for having pizza for dinner (what else to share? well, maybe fish and chips.. but where to go? After some negotiation and discussion, it was agreed upon for Il Principe. I had a cold at the time, so I stayed at the home base. From what I heard, the waiter there had a very strong Italian accent. Between six people, five pizza were ordered; quattro formaggi, vesuvio, napoli, parma and pesto Genovese. All five of them were good, for differing reasons some to varying degrees. By authentic, these pizzas had a thin base with few ingredients spread in a single and sparse layer on the pizza. This way, there is focus on the quality of the ingredients as well as the different flavours which contrast and interact. After this way, ideally there would not be going back to the pizza chains. For a four cheese pizza, the quattro formaggi was surpringly not overbearing. It was hard to detect the different types of cheese used but it was quite lovely to taste the different flavours. It would have been helpful if the menu told what the cheeses were to attempt detecting them better but it was a decent one, if the weakest of the lot. The vesuvio was advertised as hot underwhelming in that regard. Otherwise not bad, with a guaranteed dynamic of pepperoni, mushroom and chili oil. Parma was the surprise of the night, with the subtle flavours of parma ham and rocket mixed with the sharpness of parmaesan cheese. It was one that improved a second time around. The pesto genovese was pretty good, if a bit on the sloppy side. Tastes and ingredients here range from distinct and acquired to a bit strange for a pizza but the combination works exceptionally well. Finally, the winner of the night is the traditional and tried true napoli anchovies, olives and capers. Three salty and strong ingredients very familar to Italian cuisine. Combining these with good cheese and tomato and you have yourself a bone fide classic of Italian restaurants. This time was no exception. These pizzas were exceptional. I await going here on time, and anticipate eating their food. It is certain that I wish for a return."

Emilio's Italian Cuisine

Emilio's Italian Cuisine

United Kingdom, DN10 6LS, Doncaster

Steak • Pizza • Pasta • Italian


"Visited with a mix of family and friends recently for a special occasion, were served fairly quick and food didn 't take long to appear. Food was amazing and all thoroughly enjoyed. However, service definitely could do with improving. Spoons were brought out after ordering for those having pasta dishes and knives taken away one of our party had lasagna and said she would prefer to keep her knife. She was asked again for her to hand her knife over and had to repeat herself a couple of times to say she would like to keep it. Similar situation occurred when bringing parmesan to the table not everyone was asked if they would like it, three of us asked if we could have some on our pasta dishes. We were met with 'are you sure? I wouldn 't recommend it. It can be quite sour with that dish ' when we said that was fine, we want the parmesan, the same sentence was repeated. We all felt this was very odd, if we have asked for this we would like it, we shouldn 't have to be questioned multiple times. We had a jug of water on our table, which, as one of our party noticed, had a large chip in/chunk of glass missing. She pointed this out to one of the young waitresses when asking for some more water, to be told they would bring a new jug. They didn 't, the same jug was brought back. We had a child in our group what if the chunk of glass had been in the water and had been swallowed by him!? A few candles were also lit on our table halfway through the meal very odd as most restaurants don 't allow these due to health and safety reasons, proved right by our dessert menu catching on fire when placed on the table. When about finished, a young waitress was clearing unused cutlery and glasses off the table, when she swiped a half glass of wine. We noticed and had to tell her it was still being drunk she didn 't even check. Throughout service the waitresses were constantly leaning over each of us and our food whilst we were eating not great. Coming to pay the bill, we had each worked out exactly what we needed to pay for and headed downstairs to pay, only to be met with a blunt 'we only take a maximum of 3 cards for groups over 6 people '. Don 't see what the problem was when we knew what we needed to pay for we weren 't asking them to do mental maths and split the bill between 7 of us. This was not mentioned when booking, or on arrival. Just felt the whole service was very poor it was majority of our partys first visit to emilios and many of us have said we won 't be returning. It 's a shame as the food was beautiful."

Francesco's

Francesco's

53 High Street, HP23 5AG, Dacorum, United Kingdom

Pizza • Pasta • Steak • Italian


"An earlier conversation with the owner left me with eager anticipation of an evening with friends at Francesco 's last Saturday. My wife and I arrived to find an a homely restaurant setting with lively Italian music booming out. We were all set for a fun evening...Our friends arrived who we had not seen for a long time and stood to greet them. Instead we were instantly approached by the surly owner gruffly telling us all to sit down and order our food as they were busy that evening. We meekly complied, taken aback by this strange attitude and, quite frankly, rudeness on the part of 'mine host '.It got worse, the owner stripped off to a singlet vest top and roamed about the restaurant bellowing orders to his small staff who clearly were in fear of him. We asked a poor lady waitress if the music could be turned down a tad so that we could hear ourselves speak. She rolled her eyes and declined to approach the boss....In an earlier conversation prior to booking, the owner had assured me that all the food used in the restaurant was fresh. Absolute rubbish! We chose squid or antipasta to start and as far as the squid was concerned were presented with something that did not look like squid. It may have been squid it was difficult to tell but it was very ordinary and looked reminiscent of something from the freezer chest in Aldi. The antipasta was topped with nothing less than a bit of tinned salmon!This was followed by our mains. I was looking forward to my spaghetti marinara. What I received was a pile of steaming hot spaghetti, very al dente, on which a tomato flavoured pasta sauce had been slopped. If one looked carefully one could find the odd small prawn, an occasional small mussel or a squid ring. All very reminiscent of what one would find in a bag of frozen seafood. So much for fresh!The food was left on the plates largely uneaten. The surprising thing was that the staff were not surprised we had left it and did not query whether there was a problem! The bill £115.00 paid very reluctantly but we just wanted to leave it was all so appalling.A disappointing and embarrassing evening. The atmosphere in the restaurant was tense and unpleasant, the food, such as it was, decidedly below expectation.Our first visit to Francesco 's. Very poor experience; we will not be coming again, not only because of the food but the owner 's unpleasant manner and rudeness!"

Romulus

Romulus

12A Woodford Road, Stockport, United Kingdom

Pizza • Pasta • Steak • Italian


"Visited Romulus for the first time tonight, although have lived in the area for 20+ years and have driven past most days. It was a very last minute decision and only booked this afternoon for a table of 3 for 6pm. Lovely guy answered my call and sorted me a table. 15 mins before our reservation time, 3 of us became 4 and we were running about 10/15 mins behind. After a second phone call to explain and ask could they accommodate a fourth person our reservation was amended. The atmosphere in the restaurant is that of a very friendly family looking after you. We were seated immediately in an almost full restaurant and ordered our drinks while we looked through the menu. My husband just felt like ribs and cheesy garlic bread and myself and eldest son had pizzas. My youngest son had already eaten and do he just ordered a garlic bread. The food arrived promptly, and apart from the plain garlic bread being a bit dry and overcooked, everything g else was delicious. There were plenty of ribs and the pizzas tasted extremely fresh. To complete our meal we had chocolate fudge cake with ice cream which was a big hit and one of the special desserts, which was similar to a custard slice. While nice, this just felt a little bit hard as was still quite cold from the fridge. Our whole visit was very pleasant and the staff were all lovely. We will be back Service: Dine in Meal type: Dinner Price per person: £20–30 Food: 4 Service: 5 Atmosphere: 5"