Ristorante Etna

We walked into Etna on a Friday evening and I could immediately see why this particular restaurant had mixed reviews from the people who had eaten there over the years.  Although I had read that this was one of the first restaurants in Coventry's Restaurant Quarter, it seemed to lack the sort of atmosphere that I would have expected for an eatery that has been around for more than twenty years.  The interior had been redecorated in recent history, but unfortunately it has left the venue with a certain clinical air to it, everywhere was clean but it seemed lacking in any particular personality (the decorations for example seemed a little disjointed) and lacked the friendliness of other Italian restaurants that I have visited.

The menu itself was large and varied, and along with the specials board catered for most tastes whilst
 keeping to traditional italian dishes.  We were, however, a little disappointed with the quality of some of the food, for example the garlic bread starter that my friend and I shared appeared almost shop-bought and lacked in flavour (I hate to say it but I've had better from Tesco's).  The Chicken el Fiorentina dish that I had as a main course was lacking in much other flavour than salt, however all the dishes came with a good portion of vegetables on the side, which were cooked well and tasted lovely. 
When it was time to order desserts, we were told that most of the dishes on the menu were unavailable, and looking at the dessert display we could see that there was very little there, some items were on their last slice, which we thought was a little odd for a Friday night.  I opted out of dessert in the end, and instead had a cappuccino.

I felt that the restaurant was further let down by its staff who weren't particularly friendly and the service which was quite slow - luckily we had plenty to occupy us so we didn't realise we'd been waiting to order our starters and mains for so long, although we did have to flag them down for dessert.

All in all we all felt that at £30 per head it was a little over priced considering the standard of the service and food, but the wine selection was good and that was reasonably priced (always a good thing).  This certainly wasn't the best dining experience I've had in Coventry, and I feel that there are a lot of improvements that could be made to make dining here more enjoyable.

Ristorante Etna
55-57 Hertford Street, Coventry, West Midlands, CV1 1LB
Contact Restaurant for Menu details.

ST