Villa Ada - Luton

Although the decor is slightly dated, the restaurant's more traditional style adds to the atmosphere. We were a group of 4, out for our work's Christmas meal and we all thoroughly enjoyed our meals. We started with garlic bread to share before moving on to our mains. 3 of us had fillet steak (2 colleagues had the brandy sauce and I chose the peppercorn sauce) and the other had the Arriabiata. The steaks were cooked beautifully with no excess fat and plenty of flavour and apparently, the pasta dish was also very tasty. 3 of us had desserts (my sticky toffee pudding was lovely) which all went down a treat before coffees for 2. All in, with drinks, the meal came in at around £30 per head which was very acceptable. Being out of the town centre somewhat, this restaurant would be easy to overlook but, head off the beaten track and look for this inconspicuous little gem-you won't regret it

Delicious food with excellent staff... Picked this place to try out some Italian food and really loved the food and place. The staff where very friendly and welcoming and the food was delicious. Both quality and the quantity of the food was way above our expectations. Really enjoyed it and will surely go back soon…

Nice food but very quiet. Nice restaurant, delicious food, though not Italian as claimed. The waiter was lovely as was the front of house lady/owner. However, the waitress was rude and disinterested. Fortunately she wasn't serving our table, but was standoffish and seemed liked she wanted to be elsewhere. Quite obviously!Delicious bruschetta and steak and nice evening but very quiet for a Saturday night.

For the main meals we ordered the Veal, Porcini mushroom risotto for two, Mixed seafood spaghetti and two Lasagne 's from the specials board. After a considerable time the waiter came back to the table and apologized that there were no Porcini mushrooms for the Risotto, after a brief discussion it was agreed that they would be replaced with normal mushrooms as a substitute (not ideal but our friends wanted to try the Risotto). The mains arrived and the Veal was enjoyed by one of our friends, the Risotto seemed to be o.k. too. The Seafood spaghetti contained tiny pieces of squid, octopus, a few small prawns and 4/5 mussels in shells. I attempted to eat the squid and octopus which were very chewy,I carried on trying a prawn and mussel which were also chewy. I can only assume that the seafood being so small, was overcooked making it inedible. I did not want to make a scene however paying good money for the food and feeling hungry raised the issue with the waiter. His response was that Octopus and Squid are chewy and this was acceptable. I then added that the rest of the fish was also the same. He then offered me an alternative dish so I asked for the Spaghetti bolognese knowing it would be a reliable dish which you surely can 't go wrong with. My wife and her friend were sitting playing with their plates of Lasagne and hardly ate any. I asked what was wrong to which they replied that it lacked flavour and meat which seemed to have been replaced with a large amount of peas instead. I stated that they should raise the issue with the waiter but they didn 't want to make a fuss and decided to just leave their meals. My Spaghetti bolognese arrived around 10 minutes later with a further apology from the waiter. Unfortunately my Spaghetti Bolognese wasn 't great as it tasted predominately of tomato sauce with no herbs or seasoning of any kind. The waiter came over to do a check back once half of our party had finished and saw the uneaten meal in front of me plus the two hardly eaten Lasagne 's, he asked if everything was o.k. I replied that I didn 't want to make a fuss however the Bolognese was awful and tasted like a cheap tomato sauce with no flavour. I also showed him the Lasagne 's and said that they were flavourless, lacked meat and were full of peas. His response was that the Lasagne had peas in it, then said he would raise our concerns with the Chef. Some minutes later the Chef came storming out of the kitchen and straight up to me and asked if I was Italian or English. I replied 'English ' and was met with a mouthful of loud abuse by the Chef in English and Italian. He would not let me get a word in and stated that I had called his Bolognese cheap tomato sauce and that he had been cooking for years and everyone loved his sauce. He the said a customer on the next table had the Bolognese and he loved it and that he would get the customer over to tell me how good it was. All the time he was still raising his voice at me embarrassing me in front of my friends. I then asked if he was the owner to which he replied no he was the chef. I asked that he lower his voice as I was trying to have a rational conversation with him and I said that he was embarrassing not only my friends and I, but was showing himself up. Nothing deterred the Chef from making a scene and he continued with his abuse, therefore I asked him to go away and leave us. I then stood up and apologised to the whole restaurant for them having to witness such an unbelievable situation, I was gobsmacked. The waiter then came over and cleared our plates and asked if we wanted to see the dessert menu, to which I replied no and asked for our bill. Unfortunately the uneaten meals were not removed from the bill and after three attempts at asking, we finally had them removed with no other form of compensation offered. By now we just wanted to leave so paid the bill and left with a final apology from the front of house team. I got the impression they were reluctant to take the meals off the bill as they would probably encounter a mouthful of abuse from Chef too. We will not return!

The freshly prepared pasta dishes were delicious and had a homely feel that I loved. The service was great and I was pleased to see that they had some sweet beverages on the menu. It was a nice intimate experience and I was grateful that my date chose this restaurant.