Mamma Amalfi, Southend-on-Sea

Mamma Amalfi's food is rather average now although it used to be much better. Seems that much is microwaved. The Disneyesque Italian style, once quite amusing, is more than a litle tired and grubby. I still go there but only really because it is very handy for a pre-cinema dinner.

My family and I have been going to Mamma Amalfi since it opened. We were so impressed with it we just kept coming back. The food was delicious and at the end of the night you would come away with the feeling that whatever else was happening you had had a good time. Recently everything seems to have changed. The food was ok (not good enough to be,just ok!). I don't mind paying any price for good food but in my opinion the price went up and the food went down. The staff seem to me to be permanently stressed, therefore annoyed. My sister payed me a visit last week we decided to go because we still had faith that they were having problems that would sort themselves out, no such luck. The waitress just didn't understand what we were asking for. She went to get what appeared to be the hostess who also didn't understand what we were asking. For in the end we just settled for what we didn't want for a quiet life.(not good enough) When the food came we were asked if we wanted parmesan on our food. When the waitress was grating it, the cheese got stuck in the grater and to our horror put her fingernail inside to unblock the cheese ontop of the food. Needless to say that area of my dinner was pushed to the side! We there and then decided we would never go there again as we had never seen anything like it before.