PLEASE NOTE: Since the original publication of this food review, Pier Luigis Restaurant was taken over (April 2005) and is therefore now under new management.

Pier Luigi's, Princes Avenue - 19th June 2004 By Nick Quantrill

Birthdays are special. They are even more special as you hurtle rapidly towards the door marked 30. It's becoming increasingly rare, for one reason or another, that my friends and I all gather in one place. All it takes is one bad decision to ruin it. That bad decision was going to Pier Luigi's on Princes Avenue. From the moment that we walked into the restaurant, to the moment that we left, it was a disappointment, and it wasn't even my birthday! I'm no fan of formality. If I hear anyone say Mr Quantrill, I automatically think my father is stood behind. It just makes me uncomfortable. Even so, you maybe expect a little more than to be greeted with a bored alright mate from a gum chewing waiter who showed little interest in our reservation.

It's lucky the restaurant has a large waiting area/bar as we waited, and we waited and we waited..after an hour of this waiting/spending our money in the bar we had to complain. Complaining seemed to do the trick as we were then swiftly seated. Now for the fancy food review bit. I'd like to say the food, of which we had a mixed table encompassing pasta, pizza, fish and vegetarian options served with fresh side salads was delicious. As I say, I'd like to. Mediocre might be the best description, as a fair amount of it didn't get eaten.

My side salad in particular was poor value. Not only was it somewhat lacking in taste and presentation, I had to ask for it THREE times! It could have been worse, at least I had a drink to moisten my throat which enabled me to attract the waiters attention. Despite repeated requested, it took four attempts for a glass of wine to arrive for my girlfriend. So far, so bad. Should we have desert we pondered as we waited for the plates to be removed? We pondered, and then we pondered some more. Maybe it would have been easier if the clearly finished with plates were actually taken away. In the end it was easier for us to stack them up ourselves and move them out of the way.

Surely asking for the bill would elicit a quicker response? You've probably guessed what's coming right? You'd be correct, although it only took two requests this time. Laughingly, the bill arrived with a 'service charge' which was swiftly deducted. I don't know if this was a representative experience of Pier Luigi's. I'm sure the restaurant would like to consider this to an irregular occurrence. I don't care. We were treated as an inconvenience by the staff of the restaurant. The point is though, this was a special occasion to celebrate a birthday and engagement, we left disappointed and received very poor value for money.

All in all it was a very poor experience. After our complaints were made, we were waved away with a sarcastic 'please come again' from the surly staff. It was a particularly classy touch I thought though it was certainly the most attentive they'd been all night.

I certainly wouldn't recommend Pier Luigi's to anybody. After all, there is more than one Italian restaurant in the area. It's certainly a fact that Pier Luigi's should remember.

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