Martini Ristorante Italiano, Leighton Buzzard

Have just got back from Martini's, having been many times. Never disappointed by the quality of food. Lovely setting in the garden. The best restaurant in Leighton Buzzard. A little gem.

Oh Martinis! I have known this place for 14 years. I have agonised over it time and time again. I can think of two occasions when I've had a nice time there; one was with my Dad when he started singing opera and everyone took it in good spirits, and another where I was with my Mother whose fiancée decided he and I should have two main courses! That was fun!

I have been on maybe 10 occasions - I think that's fair.

I know the prices are up there - not too high but not a cheap night out. That's fine. I'm completely happy with that. However that does mean you have a certain expectation.

I'll focus on two things - the steak and the seafood:

I reckon if you have pasta it's probably fine. I think on some nights if you have the special fish it's probably also fine. But in general their steak is absolutely cr@p. They don't know what a fillet is. The sirloin is just rubbish.

The seafood, the seafood. Deary me. The last time I was there I had mixed fried seafood. It was soggy and some of it I swear was off. I love whitebait. I know how to cook it myself. It's almost impossible to get it wrong with a good deep fat frier, but Jeez, this was bad. I would have been seriously embarrassed as chef to put this out. Soggy. I had to leave the prawns as I swear they were off as well. Verified by my wife.

For me in summary, this is the nicest intimate restaurant with lovely staff, a nice ambience and always good service. The food on the other hand is average at best and a massive rip-off at worst.

I think it's time they either made an effort or just gave up.

I know you will find plenty of people who don't agree with me but honestly I've tried and tried to like it and I come away every time massively disappointed.

I've been there for the last time now. I won't go again.

We were staying at the Wetherspoons hotel (the Swan)

didn't fancy the food there so asked hotel receptionist

if there were any Italian restaurants near by. She recommended

Martinis which was about one minutes walk from the hotel.There were four of us, we found the restaurant, cosy and welcoming and the staff very

friendly. Our starters of soup,mussels in tomato sauce and seafood salads

were delicious. We followed this with three meatballs and spaghetti (special of the day) and a chicken with spinach and side of vegetables there were four clean plates. Desserts were three profiteroles and a tiramisu all washed down with two bottles of Valpolicella. A perfect evening had by all. Leighton Buzzard is for us a cental point to meet up

with family and we will definitely be returning to this great little Italian.

Sat 12/11/11. We arrived in a group of 10 to celebrate a friends engagement & birthday. We ordered a bottle of red wine and a bottle of white wine along with some still waters to start with. Considering it wasn't extremely busy we still waited about 15 minutes for our drinks( the bar was just 3 meters away) bar tender could have provided. Anyway we ordered some starters and main courses. My self and a friend ordered the beef carpaccio ( very small portion, the mix salad had cabbage!!!!) defenitely not italian style ( more suitable for kebabs) if you have had carpaccio before you know what I mean, also the parmesan shavings did not look like shaings, only few little pieces. Once we finished the starter I ordered another starter as I was still hungry.I had the mozzarella with crispy bacon, it was okay.As a main course I ordered a grilled fillet steak with peppercorn sauce on the side, side of potatoes and mix salad. Once the fillet arrived it did not look right! no mark of grilling on the steak on both sides...it had been cooked under the salamander(salamander is a kitched equipment and should only be used to keep food warm or to gratine cheese and so on...I could not eat the fillet, it smelled almost boiled and the blood smelled as the steak was neer grilled or even pan cooked!!!! the waiter was extremely sorry and his face went red!! by the way at this point i had my potatoes( salad never showed up)..The owner/Manager is extremely unprofessional,at one point he was singing and swearing in italian behing the bar! Uniforms: owner/manager was wearing a black polo ( Eric Cantona style) with the collars up.By the end of the meal I just could not wait to get out, waiters were drying cutley just behind the bar( that noise is pretty annoying.If you know good food,decent service, manners I would defenitely not recommend this place, however try it yourselves!! I almost forgot, the atmosphere is easy going, the place looks very old and tired,it is bad news....

You'll get a warm welcome here with great service in a cosy atmosphere. Well presented Italian food cooked by the gregarious head chef (Anton Mozziman meets Basil Fawlty)! Starter was Bruschetta (good size) and melon with Parma ham, both went down well. For mains we had tagliatelli with pesto, mushrooms and smokey bacon, very tasty! Star of the show was Filleto Martini which came in a delightfully rich sauce and side salad.

A good local fine dining restaurant which we shall be returning to soon.

Expensive and tired looking restaurant with below average quality food.

Brash and rude Italian owner. Would never go back. McDonalds would be preferable!

I recently moved to the area and this restaurant was highly recommended.we went there for our daughters 21st birthday and had a great evening. The restaurant is superb and the service and food 1st class.It is the best Italian we have been to and will definitely use this restaurant on a regular basis.I would recommend it to everybody.

Just moved to the area and having asked around this restaurant was recommended as being the best in the area. We have to disagree, the food is average and expensive, the restaurant looks tired and the bathrooms, well lets just say, make sure you go before you come, enough to put you off your food! the service is good, but thats about it.

Review of Martini in Leighton buzzard.

We have eaten here many times as it is the only fine(ish) dining restaurant in Leighton Buzzard, but have not been impressed during recent visits. The risotto is dry and NOT creamy, when we questioned this the chef was bought out to hold a debate about risotto. We have eaten there just today and had the most expensive steaks on the menu, they were OK, for £17 we could not complain.

However, the arrogance of the chef put us off the whole experience, browsing the valentines menu having already been told the restaurant was fully booked and I asked for menu for inspiration for something I could cook at home, the chef whilst walking past said "we are fully booked that night SIR" and walked off. I do not think that is a polite way to speak to someone who has just paid £125 for a meal for two. They do treat some customers with respect but only those who have been silly enough to come back over a period of ten years or more.

I have since found out that the owners are simply waiting for retirement and just seeing out the remainder of the days and do not care who eats there as long as they pay.

The food is not true italian, the pasta dishes are not sold that often, the steaks, chicken and fish dishes sell most frequently, even the fillet steak was not up to much and the cannelloni was constructed with the poorest quality mince I would not even feed my dog!

The best italian in Leighton Buzzard is without a doubt Ask, though the ambience is not as good, the food is guaranteed to be the same, better wine, cutlery, service etc.

Depends if you catch it on a good night, I may be able to give it the benefit of the doubt now as not been there for a while and the place is really welcoming but we have had a couple of bad experiences there.

Try Mama Rosa's, it's not as nice a restaurant or welcoming but I think the food's better.