January 2024 by Devon Taylor
We recently visited and were not pleased with the wait times and service. It seems this ASK is prioritising Deliveroo orders over its customers in the restaurant. From ordering, we sat waiting with young children an hour and a half without our food arriving and without staff checking on us. We couldn't even get tap water!! The entire dining experience was slow and took over 2.5 hours in total, which was not by our choice. Several other tables seemed to have children in meltdowns for waiting on their food too.There was no lemon "shots" which we did politely ask for, but never received. The calamari was undercooked, pale, and unpleasant. The pizzas and pasta were basic and fine, but just not a good standard for eating out and paying extra for.The toilets were a mess to the point staff's solution was to lock two of the three cubicles, causing queues. There was no hand soap available either. The bench/booth we sat at was filthy and dirty hand marks all over the seat.Staff acknowledged the food was slow yet did not apologise. The slow, poor service was the second time it has happened recently. We won't be back to this ASK any more.
January 2024 by Wisner Neto
Not the best experience,Went in with my partner for nice dinner before our movie session. We had food delivered feom here before and it was amazing so we had some expectations build up.They got my partner's plate completely wrong so it went back, which is fine - it happens. When we got her king prawn and crayfish fresh pasta, it had only 3 praws and 5 small pieces of crayfish. Sauce and pasta were also juts sort of a blob with no real fresh flavours to it. Now looking at photos of this same dish on the reviews here we can tell it was a night and day difference in all aspects.While we were waiting for the correct dish to be made mine just sat on their counter and they yad to re-heat it later too. No one came to the table to check on the food during all the time we were eating, making the overall experience just a disappointment even if it had a nice environment.
December 2023 by Lyndsey Turner
Worst experience ever in ask Italian Basingstoke this evening !On arrival never got the usual lemonade there were 8 colleagues on shift and the chefs so not under staffedOrdered chicken lecca lecca that wasn?t cooked and prawns that were over cooked had to send the chicken backWaited an hour for mains to come out and when they did we witnessed a waitress kick cutlery with her dirty trainers into the cooking area through the doorApart from one waiter the others were rude de motivated and lacked any kind of hospitality skillsWe could not eat our mains due to them being watery and no longer wanting to eat from cutlery that may have seen the end of someone?s trainersWhen speaking to the manager she agreed the particular colleague shouldn?t have kicked cutlery and also agreed there was lack of any service or morale ! Over all terrible experience and won?t ever be going back !
December 2023 by Susan Robinson
We were a party of 9 who pre booked. 6 of the party arrived 10 minutes, early the remaining 3 on time. Drinks orders were taken but 20 minutes later no food order so we had to ask for someone to come and serve us. Just for information the restaurant was not busy with only 1 table of 2. After being in restaurant 1 hour we questioned where our food was as by this time there were 4 more tables who had partially received some of their order. The waitress just put her hands in the air and said ?what do you want me to do? . She then went on to argue that we hadn?t been waiting an hour which was a complete nonsense. We had 2 child menus in the group and when we asked where the starters for the children were, she again argued that we hadn?t ordered them, when this is a set menu where there is no choice for starters. When the children?s desserts arrived it consisted of 1 strawberry cut into 4 and two grapes cut in half (making 4 sections). You wouldn?t even give this to an infant as gone in a couple of bites. Not once was there a true apology. It was only when the food arrived with different waitresses that we received attentive service asking if everything was OK. We were given a bowl of chicken nuggets half way through our meal but still no apology for the bad attitude of the waitress and the delay. All the waitress had to do in the first instance was apologise for the delay and find out how long it would be. One of the excuses was a chef had gone on his break. We pre-booked so no excuse for this. We could understand if a busy restaurant but with 3/4 waiting staff with a handful of tables this is unacceptable.I would not recommend this chain in any circumstances.
December 2023 by Megan Brook
Worst experience in Ask Basingstoke I've ever had.Whilst I appreciate they were understaffed, the service was appalling.Upon arrival, we weren't offered our free taste of the raspberry lemonade, and once we had ordered, it took our drinks 45 minutes to arrive. And that was after chasing up where they were.We watched people who had arrived after us, receive their starters AND their mains before us, all because as a party of 5, we had ordered pizzas.Apparently other customers took priority, because we had ordered 5 pizzas.Upon chasing up where our food was (we didn't order starters) we were told they were in the oven, and would be 8 minutes.Twenty minutes later, our food arrived (with us having watched it sit out on the cold pass for 5 minutes).This was a whole 1hr and 45 minutes after we had sat down!!At this point, the restaurant was empty, and they were prioritising cleaning and payments over food getting cold.Halfway through our meal, I then had to chase up where our sides were.We had intended to spend more money, by ordering desserts, but at this point, we all just wanted to leave and go home.We received no check backs with our food, and even whether we wanted more drinks whilst we waited.And whilst waiting to pay, the table next to us finally got their food...and found a hair in it!!The whole experience was appalling.None of our party will ever be going back, because despite being understaffed, the staff they did have there, didn't seem to care about their customers at all.Worst service ever.Parking: Festival place has 1000s of spaces
December 2023 by loggyboy
Food was good, once it arrived! Sat for over 30mins between finishing each course. Arrived at 115, we didn't get our desserts till 3:30. Staff seemed more interested in talking to each other or using their phones in the kitchen.
December 2023 by Emily Mccombe
Unfortunately the service recently has been awful. I find it really sad to say this because I love the food at Ask usually and I return time and time again despite the service for the food. It has been bad service for a while but this time it was too much. We arrived and as we were seated we were told they were a bit busy (despite 4 members of staff visible on the floor and only 12 tables of customers) and please be patient. Which we were, however waiting over half an hour without even having a drinks order taken or being acknowledged by a member of staff is taking the mick a little bit. We saw 2 other tables in our area (which was crammed virtually shoulder to shoulder despite loads of space elsewhere in the restaurant) sat for as long as us also without drinks and 2 tables who entered after us got served before us. 1 table that had no drinks gave up and walked out, and I have to say I have never walked out of a restaurant but in this case we had no choice. I hate complaining but I do feel like it needed to be said. This is not acceptable.
October 2023 by Coinneach Hurford
The food was really good, The Calamari was really light on the batter and great taste. I then had king prawn and crayfish tagliatelle which was also very nice. Also had a pudding, the small platter of 3 options to share, I would say the brownie is extremely small, however the tiramisu and salted caramel Panna cotta was lovely. The service was good enough and the atmosphere was okay, wasn?t blown away per say but the quality of the food helped.Vegetarian options: good options for vegetarians and even vegans, a good even split about 50/50Parking: Parking would be within the festival place car park. 2-3 hours will cost you £4. 3-4 hours will be £4.50 .Kid-friendliness: They have a starter, main course and dessert for £7.50 which does seem pretty decent value considering there is 3 courses.Wheelchair accessibility: The entrance is ground level with seating plan on the ground level, there is an upstairs level also which they could accommodate to other guests if you would need the seating downstairs
September 2023 by matthew blackman
fantastic restaurant, fantastic chain great food optionsreally tasty and very good professional
August 2023 by Matthew Wiacek
Really good food and very friendly staff.Really liked the free sample of still lemonade when we were shown to our table. Enough so that I ordered a proper glass.Gluten free options for pizza and pasta and the normal veggie offerings.I opted for the beef brisket pappardelle which was very good.The toilets could have been better. Looked a little old and tired, but functional.
August 2023 by Jamie
Went here for my birthday meal last night (12/08/23) and ordered beef brisket pasta. When it arrived it was literally swimming in water, had no sauce and no taste whatsoever so I immediately sent it back and ordered a different pasta dish. This also came out swimming in water with no flavour and the mozzarella was actually frozen! I complained to the "manager" (looked like a boy on work experience) who had the audacity to argue with me and told me the pasta was meant to be watery and tasteless, he then said that if I didn't like it I should have added salt and pepper!! I couldn't believe his response and a waitress was stood behind him actually laughing at his response after saying she felt the dish "didn't look right at all". Absolute joke of a restaurant that can't admit that their chefs are churning out water flavoured soup rather than pasta dishes. Will never return.
August 2023 by Ads Anderson
Normally love going here, but it was super disappointing on our last visit. Service was dire, food was below par too. It's never been the same since Lockdown, but it was never this bad! Will seriously need to consider if we go back!
August 2023 by Rhea
Lovely staff but service was just too slow. We ended up waiting for an hour for our food. Not very good quality food unfortunately.
July 2023 by Adam Anderson
Normally love going here, but it was super disappointing on our last visit. Service was dire, food was below par too. It's never been the same since Lockdown, but it was never this bad! Will seriously need to consider if we go back!
July 2023 by Nesha Fabrique
My friend and I ordered the same meal but on separate phones. The kitchen thought it was a mistake, didn't think to ask and only made one.The team member then proceeded to make it seem like that was our fault by explaining that "I should've have known to order on one phone"...They then offered us a free dessert but took 30 mins to clear out plates and give us new menu!
