Cristallo

I feel compelled to share my experience. Unfortunately, it was nothing short of a disappointment by a lack of courtesy, and basic professionalism.

The waitstaff's attitude was nothing short of apathetic. This is the worst experience must say where I politely refused to eat and still to the satisfaction of waiting staff paid for it.

Overall, my experience was one of the worst I have ever had. The lack of professionalism, courtesy, and basic customer service skills was astonishing. I would strongly advise against patronizing this establishment until they make significant improvements in their service quality. It's truly disheartening to see such a lack of respect for customers in today's service industry.

THEY ARE POLITE ENOUGH DURING SERVICE BUT THE FOOD IS BAD. THE PIZZA IS NOT PIZZA AND THE OWNER HAS NO EXPLANATION. SORRY TO LEAVE A BAD REVIEW BUT WE WORKED HARD TO BE ABLE TO BE ON HOLIDAY AND THESE ARE THE EXPERIENCES THAT GIVE ENGLISH TOURISM SUCH A TERRIBLE REPUTATION.

Absolutely amazing restaurant and food! We turned up unannounced a party of 18 and they couldn’t do enough to accommodate us a great end to our holiday Thankyou!!

I arrived at the restaurant at 8:20, I asked if i could add a chair onto my friends table which the server said there was no issues at all. I placed my order straight away, it was a spaghetti carbonara, I waited 1 hour and 30 minutes for this. I was constantly checking in wish the servers about where my food was. I found at the 1 hour mark that my order had in fact not reached the kitchen and assured it was being made. This was also the case for my friends meal who was sat next to me. This resulted in my party having to leave said friend and I as it was getting too late cold. No food was offered such as bowl of chips etc. I didn’t order a drink, no tap water was offered. To top it off servers kept making ill-landing jokes about the food which didn’t help the situation.

All this time they were still serving other tables and in some cases their food would arrive faster than ours. The carbonara was mediocre, definitely not 90 minutes wait worthy. The server placed my food in front of me and then what can only be described as ‘scampered’ off, it took me pulling another server aside to ask for parmesan and cracked black pepper. What made it worse was the atmosphere was so bad amongst the other tables, as we all saw them taking in more customers and not attending to the ones they had. When a group next to us got finally managed to get their food they cheered, it was sad. Finally they insisted giving us a service charge, I am all for including a service charge - I think it is right, however service charge is added when service charge is due and this simply was not one of them times. All in all terrible experience.

Hadn’t planned to go Italian last night but our sushi plans fell through and we decided to give this restaurant a try. We are on the area for a three night stay and even thought it was 9pm the place was buzzing. I am gluten free so had a selection of sizes and a big Greek salad all made to perfection and my daughter had the pepperoni pizza. All divine. Service was good and we would come back again in a heartbeat.

We had a lovely meal here, the staff were very welcoming & professional. The food was outstanding, the flavours were so delicious. The music was naff but we went for some great food which is what we got. Highly recommend.

Updated review: (downgraded!!)
2nd visit since our last 3mths ago. Came back as promised but what an awful 👎experience!
Walked in & asked to book for later but were told we didn't need to. Came back a few hours later to find it absolutely rammed! Inexperienced waiter took us to last table available (jumping another couple right in front of us! 😱).... then just abandoned us! Screaming kids belonging to a member of staff in the back room next to us + overhead speaker made an unbearable noisy experience the entire time. Had to attract Matthew's attention before anyone remembered we were still sat there with no drinks. Then waited another 15min before they arrived. Similar experience placing our order for starters. Took nearly 1hr to get them + another hour for mains. Gave up ordering deserts as it would have taken well over 3hrs total. Had to get our own cutlery & serviettes from the bar (because they forgot!) Served my own parmigiano (again, because they forgot!) Food was NOT prepared to same standard.... less of it & different prep. and not one person even thought to ask us whether the meal / everything was OK (probably a good job they didn't!!)
We KNOW the quality of food here can be very good (great chef 👍)... but all that is let down by chaotic inexperienced waiters (Asian?!!) who don't have a clue in conjunction with poor / non existent front of house management and TOTAL inability to cater at busy periods. Had we known how bad it was, we would (should) have walked out!! If you charge these prices and claim to be an 'Italian' restaurant, then I expect top-notch service. This was utterly abysmal!!!!
We definitely will not come back again at peak periods!

Previous visit: (only 3 tables occupied)..
Visited Cristallo on the last evening of a 3 day break in Bournemouth. Partner had Whitebait starter & lamb main & I had the Infused Mussels & Spaghetti Carbonara main. All dishes were perfectly presented & tasted absolutely fantastic. Matthew was an absolute star making some great recommendations (the lamb)... which was just amazing.
Highly recommend & will definitely be returning on our next trip.

Pictures from 1st visit.