Giovanni's

Nothing but praise for this restaurant. On a Saturday night when the restaurant was busy, we had three courses, and were in and out in little over an hour. Food was fresh, portion-size just right. If you want a dessert – the amaretto trifle was divine!

Welcoming, friendly atmosphere. Dined as a group of 7 each of us having a different dish. With everything being cooked to order it was great that we were served at roughly same times. Delicious food and can’t wait to go again!

Words cannot describe the spectacular food I had this evening. I spent a while trying to decide what to have, then I stumbled upon the crayfish spaghetti dish. I was not disappointed. It was glorious. I then asked which wine would be best paired with the dish, and again, I was not disappointed in the slightest. My partner also really enjoyed his meal. The whole experience was exquisite. I thoroughly enjoyed myself as the food was beautiful and the staff were so lovely and seemed to be passionate about Italian cooking. 100% recommend!!

Had a lovely lunch! We had the set menu, 2 courses for £14.95 it was really good value. They made us feel really welcome they were so friendly, nothing was too much trouble will definitely recommend and return.

I ideally want to rate them 2.5 out of 5. We went on a Tuesday evening approx 8pm-the restaurant was nearly full so staff were busy- completely fair enough- but once we were seated it took over 15 mins for staff to take our order. But as I said- slow service possibly due to the busy restaurant? We ordered starters- one was white bait, the other was mushrooms with bread- well, what an utter disappointment. Stingy portions and the sauce the mushrooms came with tasted like tinned tomatoes. The “bread” offered was nothing more than 2×2 inches- like really?? I felt there was no love or passion in these dishes at all, and felt flat. Mains- Giovannis pizza and cannelloni- I tasted the pizza- not bad in taste, bit sloppy in the middle but not bad. I would happily switch it for the cannoli I ordered- x3 tubes of pasta with mince- no sides no bread, just three small cannelloni. It didn’t fill me at all. Again, felt loveless. The one thing that I noticed was that the other dishes being brought out looked amazing- the other pasta dishes- they looked incredible and I experienced food envy. Restaurants shouldn’t have to have other dishes better than others with more effort- they should all be the same. This was our last night near Barnstaple and this was unfortunately the most unsatisfying meal we have had so far. An utter disappointment as we heard such good reviews. If you are to visit- please avoid cannoli or lasagna, as you will be disappointed. Also no draught beer on the menu. So buying bottles became a lot more expensive. Overall disappointed. Really sorry Giovanni for this as I do not like to post negative reviews.