La Favorita - Charnwood

Very pleasant restaurant right in the centre of Loughborough. Lovely atmosphere and friendly staff. The food was mainly good, excellent desserts. They have a vast choice on the menu.

We ate here on an evening and left feeling fairly underwhelmed. Let me tell you... We were greeted upon entry with a warm welcome, but the restaurant lacked any real atmosphere or feeling you are in for a treat. The menu was on a QR code which is never great for the menu browsers among us. I like to scour the options before I make my choice, but scrolling through a website to see what to order just put me right off from the start. We then see shortly afterwards, menus given to other customers how odd, maybe we looked like QR code type people! We ordered food, and it was nothing special from start to finish. Cook from frozen calamari which was a little greasy, and olives that were of the cheap variety. Mains that were fairly run of the mill, although the pizza was apparently 'nice ' according to the other half. Pasta sauce that wouldn 't jump out in a crowd and bruschetta that was fine, but not value for money. Drinks wise, half a pint of Peroni was £3.95 which is fairly steep. No wine menu was given again, check the QR code and scroll to see the wine, quite honesty, very annoying having to do so hence we didn 't order wine. Certainly not worth the wait, the cost or our time popping in here. Not a complete disaster however by any means the host was polite if not a little quirky, and the female server was busy, if not somewhat stiff. My recommendation would be to pop some classic Italian tunes on in the background for atmosphere, menus for every table, lose the somewhat stark table dressing and look to offer your customers a true Italian experience. Overall, I 'd give the restaurant a 2.9 out of 5. I am not sure I 'll be rushing back anytime soon.

A real case of not judging a book by its cover, the quality of the food and service received here has made this our no one restaurant! Everything is clearly freshly prepared and very reasonable priced for the quality , food was served in a timely manner. One of the best Italian meals I’ve had out in years

I took my mum for her birthday such a poor experience! No atmosphere, restaurant virtually empty, poor service, poor description of how sea bass would be presented (very poor presentation , shocked to see fish head on plate, (never had fish served like this , advised didn't need any sides (you certainly do need sides, fish so bland , made wrong choice of saute potato, they came looking like slabs of hard potato, (should really have ordered vegetables waiter not interested in my disappointment or complaint, bill of £82 (bottle of cheap wine, two fish, one saute potato, one garlic bread, and one tiramisu!!! presented with no concern for unhappiness! Never again!!

Friendly and lovely host, helpful with dietary requirements. Great menu selection and all our dishes were delicious and hot. Portions were a great size, great value for money. Will define coming back.