Pinocchio's

sorry, but this was the bad relation for price and food.

The service was nice, but not fit in service for wine and serve the food.

The prices are too expensive for this dinner.

In birmingham i have not an apology for a dinner like here.

It was bad frequented - no suprise.

sorry
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hamma
Sunday, December 16, 2007

I love Italian food and over the years have eaten at many Italian restaurants here and abroad. I discovered Pinocchio's 20 years ago and I still rate it as one of the best and offering probably the most authentic Italian food I have eaten outside Italy. The menu is huge and from the kitchen that can be seen from the eating area the food is freshly prepared to order. A nice touch is that if you want a variation on the menu they simply do it. Plenty of starters to choose from, I like fresh apsraragus with olive oil, shaved parmisan and black pepper. I usually have seafood as a main, it is often ' market price' that always indicates to me it was swimming around the previous day and the freshness shows!. Their Dover Sole is to die for, I often have it simply pan fried in butter with a side of Zuccini. The old fashioned sweet 'trolley' always has something tempting, I am always stuck between the oranges in Grand Marnier or good old Tirimisu or the fresh fruit salad if I am considering my waist line. The wine list is equally extensive with some good budget wines right up to classic Barolo and Amarone, all reasonably priced. The atmosphere is always good and the service excellent. Someone said it is the oldest Italian restaurant in Birmingham and I think that speaks for itself. If you visit Brum dont miss it.
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Dave Massey
Sunday, October 28, 2007

I have eaten at a number of Italian restaurants including a number of the most highly regarded in both London and New York. I am pleased to say that pinocchio's offers a level of service and quality of food that is rarely matched. The cost is reasonable and the only reason I can imagine that someone would dislike this restaurant is poor taste in cuisine or a financial interest in a competitive eatery. I have reccomended pinocchio's to a number of friends including a chef and a restaurant owner and each has told of a pleasurable experience of both food and service.
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Benjamin
Sunday, June 03, 2007

I think they named it Pinocchio’s because if they tried to say this was descent Italian food their noses would grow extraordinarily long. A pleasant reception was offered when my girlfriend and myself walked in. We were shown to our seats in a rather "bijou" and honestly claustrophobic dinning area. I'm sure my elbow collided once or twice with a diner sitting to my left whilst eating my meal. The menu is huge, my first impression, if you can excuse the pun, was that this would be a recipe for disaster. Indeed it was. I chose what was described as Zuppa de Pesce, Laura opted for pâté stuffed mushrooms. I had expected a seafood broth, what I got was over cooked and un-fresh shellfish. The mussels still had the limpets on them and obviously hadn't been scrubbed. The "soup" consisted of a can of chopped tomatoes with flakes of parsley in it. It was awful. Laura's mushrooms came out on a plate the size of a HGV steering wheel, and there was only 5 miniscule breaded mushrooms on it! We hoped that the main would be a vast improvement, unfortunately it wasn’t. Laura had a seafood platter, again un-fresh and an extremely fishy taste. I had monkfish in white wine and tomatoes. The monkfish was real lobster bait, cubes of fatty over cooked fish in again a tin of tomatoes. I think the chef had drunk the white wine. The waiter offered the vegetables that accompanied the meal; greasy sautéed potatoes, deep-fried courgette and peas! I must say they weren’t stingy with the helpings; the potatoes covered one half of my plate and the courgettes with the other. The best part of this was that I didn’t have to see the mess called “monkfish” underneath. Let me stress the prices of both these dishes....£17.50 each! When we expressed our discontent, we were asked if we would like another meal, at £17.50 per main I didn't want to take the chance after such disastrous offerings. We paid for the Starters and the over priced bottle of Valpolicella. On the way out the waiter stood by the door to make certain, of this I'm sure, that we paid. I just wish they had asked why we were un-happy!? But the impression I got was that they considered their food unquestionably good and us young and unable to determine what real food is about. I could go on, but I think I’ve said enough. I’m just amazed the other people eating didn’t question why the standard of this "rubbish" was so low and over priced.

I couldn’t recommend enough that people treated this place like a green, two-week-old prawn. Horrendous, over priced and so far removed from Italian cuisine it’s un-true. I just wish I gone to MacDonald’s for a happy meal instead.
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Matthew
Sunday, May 06, 2007