Cecchinis - North Ayrshire

This place is a disappointment. Went there for a Valentine's dinner with my husband and won't be coming back, at least not for food. Upon reading the reviews, I gave the place the benefit of the doubt but please, pay attention to the reviews in this case. We ordered a sharing platter antipasti for £17. Now, I am not petty and generally we get our bang for the buck, but it was not the case here. For £17 a lá carte starter, we got 18 half slices of stale bread 8 white, 8 wholemeal, 2 garlic , 2 pieces of parma ham, 2 pieces of italian salami and 6 pieces of sausage, accompanied by 50 75ml of balsamic, 50 75ml of olive oil, and some olives soaked in more oil. Essentially paid £17 for half a loaf of bread and an absolute tonne of oil. My Cecchini pizza had more parma ham on it than the starter. The only reason why I counted the slices was because it did not seem appropriate for £17 sharing starter. The girls/waitresses were all polite and nice, except for a gentleman owner/manager ? who has no idea that a little smile goes a long way. The additional toppings on pizza are also coming at an outrageous price I've asked for extra chillies £1.75, and my husband added peperoni for £2.20 . Also, the pizza.... If youre looking for a nice, fluffy sourdough neapolitan/italian style pizza, you will be deeply disappointed. This was a Domino's thin crust base. Weird, huh? In a nutshell, I am giving this place 1/5, and the only reason is nice staff and relatively decent atmosphere, thats the 1 point of 5 here. The owner of this place definitely has a lot to learn. I've never been here, and apparently the place is open since the 80s, but whoever is managing it now is not doing a good job.

Alarm bells tend to ring in your head when you arrive at an all but empty restaurant. Maybe it was quiet because it was mid-Jan, maybe it was the sub-zero weather. After being looked at sideways by a couple of staff we were offered a table (obviously the professional welcome was being saved for weekend diners, kept back as it was a Thursday) Orders placed and food arrived. My wife chose the mushroom starter and I had the soup (lentil, wouldn’t really expect to be able to order minestrone, it’s only an Italian after all). Other couple had chicken tempura which they said was okay. Unfortunately, both our starters were cold/look warm at best. Returned both to the kitchen and eventually came back hot. By which time the others had finished their starters. The waitress kindly removed the cost from our bill. But sadly, that is not the point. Serving hot food in a restaurant is not difficult. Serving not hot food is unacceptable. Maybe I could now understand why the place was empty. Although the staff were ok (my wife was still eating her starter as they cleared the plates) the mains helped highlight why it was like the Marie Celeste. Lasagne: hole tube of tomato purée Macaroni: nice if you like the taste of flour Burger: appeared to be out a packet. Suffice to say we all dodged the coffee and suite. Won’t be back

Was looking forward to a Christmas dinner with friends and hadn’t visited this place for a few years so was hoping it would be good. The place was very empty the Wednesday before Christmas which was a surprise. Service was great but food was very poor I had beef and my friend’s chicken and pizza. I would recommend sticking the pizza if you go there as there is less to go wrong.

I was totally disappointed and let down by the service on what was supposed to be a memorable occasion. My family had booked a meal for myself and my family and closest friends for my 60 th birthday. It began with an apology from the waitress that there were items not available on the menu as it had been busy the previous night and they had ran out. There were no steaks, no mashed potatoes, no prawns and only four available Christmas dinners from the festive menu. We were also informed that we couldn’t have childrens portions for the three children under 8 in the party. Knowing that there were many items unavailable from the menu I feel they should have contacted us prior to our booking. Having got off to a less than great start, service was appalling. The waitress missed taking some of the orders, the starters came at different times, some of which had to be chased down. This was after waiting nearly 40 mins for any of it to arrive. One of the children was upset and crying because she was so hungry. Some items of the main course also had to be chased down as were forgotten. No desert menu was offered and the only people who were served desert were the four who had ordered from the festive inclusive menu. One of the guests was told she was a fussy customer for asking for a specific drink. As we were the only customers in the building for most of the meal, there was absolutely no excuse for this level of poor service. The whole experience left a bad taste and ruined what was meant to be a lovely memorable night. We could easily have booked elsewhere but believe in supporting local business but if this is what’s on offer we will be looking elsewhere in future.

Went to Cecchini's Ardrossan for dinner last night. On arrival you are met with a nice building overlooking the Marina. The 2 waitresses were polite and helpful but Sorry but that's where it ended, we ordered breads and dip to share £13). 4 different types of bread which were served cold and stale accompanied by 4 small pots of different oils total lack of presentation. This dish took a while to arrive at our table considering the small amount of customers in the restaurant at the time.. When the mains arrived, we were told not to touch the bowl containing the Lasagne as it was very hot. As my wife began to cut up her Lasagne to allow it to cool she noted it was cold in the middle. I had the Penne Salsiccia which had little taste but similar to the lasagne had a deep red appearance, possibly too much tomato puree. They offered to provide another Lasagne although we decided not to waste anymore time and asked for the bill. How hard is it to present, heat and serve food. To rub salt in we were charged for the drinks....... changed times from when I worked in hospitality.