On reading all the great reviews we couldn't wait to dine here. First of all the positives - staff are very attentive and friendly, the restaurant itself is quite nice and has a cosy friendly atmosphere. However these things alone are not enough to warrant...all the wonderful reviews given - if the food is not up to scratch then something somewhere has gone wrong. Therefore although I hardly ever write reviews (you either like a place or you don't in which case you don't go back) but I'm just not understanding how people can say this is the best Italian food they've ever tasted in this area. Really! For a starter I chose the avocado cardinale, smoked salmon and prawns in rosemary sauce. It was plentiful but I did worry about the pale colour of the smoked salmon and it certainly wasn't the best tasting smoked salmon I've had. The sauce turned out to be the bog-standard seafood sauce with no hint of rosemary. A little disappointed about that. For mains I chose the veal in marsala wine. As I ordered it the waitress told me that it was a sweet red wine sauce just so that I knew what to expect. What I didn't expect was for it to taste exactly like sickly caramel sauce (exactly like the type from a squeezy bottle to drizzle over ice-cream for kids). Also it only came with small roasties (the tastiest part of the meal). This is not like other Italian restaurants I've dined at where you could expect maybe 2 other veg to accompany the meal. Yes you can buy separate side dishes of course. I looked online to find out what I should have expected with the marsala wine sauce and here's what it said "Marsala is an Italian fortified wine with smoky, deep flavor. When making savory dishes like chicken or veal Marsala, dry Marsala is the classic choice; when making desserts, sweet Marsala is chosen". There was no smokiness or deep flavour in the sauce used on my veal, just a horrid caramel flavour - yuck. I did mention it to the waitress but she kindly suggested next time I may prefer the veal with lemon. Hmm ...... doubtful. To finish I ordered the homemade Panna Cotta. What came was covered in a chocolate sauce (no mention of this on the menu). The sauce was sickly sweet and I'd be surprised if it was homemade. Couldn't comment on whether the panna cotta was good or not as the sauce swamped it. I could have complained, I could have sent any of it back, I could have asked for a refund. No I don't want any of these things I just want to go out and enjoy good food in a restaurant that delivers this in a good atmosphere. The second part of this requirement was fulfilled but is futile if the food is not up to scratch. People are more likely to write in if they have a good experience so there will always be more good reviews than negative but it's a shame if you don't listen and act on constructive criticism also.More