Mediocre Meal - review added on Sat 12th Jan 2008

The website for Villa Rosa in Bedford looked promising; good, down-to-earth, tasty, REAL Italian food cooked and served by Italians. The startes were alright I suppose. I must say that of our party of five, one lucky young woman DID get a tasty one of fried goats' cheese, greens with poached pear, olive oil and balsamic vinegar compote. As for the rest, mediocrity reigned supreme for the evening. Everything tasted the same: bland! My tomato soup was undoubtedly made of tomatoes. Obviously a tin of Italian tomatoes with some added basil, but no depth of flavour and decidedly lacking in taste! The croutons were greasy chunks of toasted bread. Adding pepper hardly made a difference. The bowl went round the table. Nobody thought much of it. For mains, three of our party ordered small portions again. The pasta was all the same, albeit in different shapes. Bland, tasteless. No sauce on the pasta and shredded duck dish. Dry and boring. The veal escolopes were thin, dry pieces of veal which had been grilled and the sauces were suspiciously canned and commercial. Instaed of the veal escalopes in marsala sauce, the waitress brought one with butter and lemon sauce. She apologised when the mistake was pointed out and quickly replaced it with veal escalopes in a marala sauce. The dish didn't marry. As for my veal escalopes with mushrooms . . . well, the mushrooms were of the tinned variety. The veal escalopes were the same overcooked grilled, cardboard-thin slices as the other veal dishes. I was expecting a good piene of veal, crumbed and fried in a good olive oil, succulent and fresh. Underneath the dey veal were a number of baby potatoes in their skins. The dish was B-O-R-I-N-G. We were all hungry at the start of the meal and so four of our party ate most of their food; I couldn't bring myself to eat most of mine, even though I made a brave attempt. Food should be a celebration and not simply a means of filling up one's stomach. Well, not at those prices, anyway! Some of our party, being eternal optomists, ordered ice-cream and sorbets. I tasted them and pronounced them overly sweet, commercial (once again) and awful. By this time I was thoroughly upset and miserable (shouldn't have been as this meal was meant to be a celebration!) We drank one bottle of Italian wine which was fine for people who drink very little. The food portions were generous but unremarkable, to say the least. To add insult to injury the billwith which we were presented was incorrect. Upon our inspection, we discovered that we had been charged twice for the drinks(one soft drink, two bottles of water and one bottle of white wine. The waitress excalimed to my husband, 'Well spotted!' Perhaps this was some kind of a test which we would fail or pass. The bill was almost £100.00. Too hefty for mediocrity.All in all, an unremarkable and disappointing meal. We shall vote with our feet and not pay Villa Rosa a return visit

Overall:	2
Food:	2
Service:	4
Ambiance:	4

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