Ida

We were really excited to hear of this new, unpretentious Italian restaurant - family run, well sourced ingredients - none of the Locatelli pretentiousness, just great food reasonably priced and close to home.

Oh dear.... what a disappointment. Bresaola seemed amazing value at 4.50 - but the uniform shape and tell tale 'straight out of the vacuum pack' shine were a give away. The lack of any taste whatsoever was another. With at least three excellent delis within a half mile radius there is really no excuse for this poor quality.

Pasta dishes were bland and tasteless - why bother making your own pasta just to plonk it on the plate with no discernible flavour? The advertised porcini were visible but tasteless.

So far so bad but at least it was cheap. However this final consolation was out of the window with the arrival of the main courses - seafood skewers were dry and - a bit of a theme this - tasteless. Fillet of beef (12)was a tiny, but tiny piece of what we strongly suspected was a supermarket minute steak The accompanying side dish of 'al dente' broccoli was overcooked to mush and an outrageous 3.50.

All in all this was without question one of the worst meals we have had in ages. The service and decor (kiddies drawings on the wall, faux naif lettering on menus etc)hint at 'charmingly amateurish' - no it isn't , it's just bad. However I'm sure that its overt child-friendliness alone will keep the yummies of queen's park jostling prams and SUVs at the door for a while yet,dahling.
By the way I wanted to give this place no stars at all but I wasn't allowed - hence the one!