How much!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? !?!?!?!? (Prezzo (in general))

Member Name: stuff10

Product:	Prezzo (in general)
Date:	05/10/09 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Food was nice

Disadvantages: A complete, total and utter rip-off

This weekend saw my wife's youngest cousin turn 18, and so the family went out for a meal on Friday night. As it was her birthday, we let the 18-year-old choose where to eat. Rather than pick a typical pub, the birthday girl opted for Prezzo in Gainsborough... fine I thought, I can write a dooyoo review of that! :)

Prezzo is an Italian restaurant chain, much along the lines of Frankie and Benny's and Bella Italia. The building was nice and modern, being located in the relatively new shopping area known as Marshall's Yard. We were quickly shown to our table where our jaws hit the floor once we'd read the menu and prices...

Burger and chips - £9.25!!
Chicken breast - £9.95!!
330ml bottle of Peroni - £3.25... for a bottle!! A flipping bottle!! That works out at £5.59 for a pint! In Gainsborough! Up north! Five ponds and fifty nine of my hard-earned English pounds for a bloody pint!! Surely they had a cheaper lager on tap I hear you cry... nope - it's Peroni or nothing I'm afraid Sir.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love Peroni - it's one of my favourite beers of all-time, but £3.25 for a bottle is taking the piss! Especially when we'd been to Asda on the way and picked up a 15-pack of Carlsberg Export for £5 - yes £5! That's almost 9 pints of beer for LESS than 1 pint of Peroni at Prezzo!

Begrudgingly, I ordered a single bottle (although I was tempted to go for the tap water) and sat sipping it for 2 hours, taking my time to enjoy the liquid gold that was sitting on the table in front of me.

When our food came (and I'll be honest here), it was pretty nice and I think there were clean plates all-round on our table. The waitress then came back with the desert menu and our jaws dropped to the floor again...

Chocolate cake - £4.50!!

Not quite as much of a rip-off as my £9.25 burger, but still enough of a mark-up that I decided to feign fullness in order to avoid giving any more money to the robbing restaurant chain.

Around half of us had puddings, and again the plates were all empty - so the food must be good.

When the waitress then came back with the bill, our jaws dropped for a third time...

Service charge - £14.50!!

Now, service charges are one of my pet hates - I will decide if you've given me good service, not you. And even if you've given me the best service imaginable, you ain't getting anywhere near £14.50 love - I could go out for another meal with that... obviously not at Prezzo though.

To sum up: If you've won the lottery, go to Prezzo. If you haven't, there's plenty of nicer restaurants out there who don't rob you blind.

Summary: I won't be going back!