Anyone with young children will know that finding a good family friendly restaurant can sometimes be tricky.
After spending a Saturday afternoon shopping in Chester my family and I wanted to go to eat somewhere in ‘town’ to recharge our batteries and fill our tummies.
Ristorante Sergio in St Werburgh Street has long been a family favourite of ours so I rang earlier in the day to book a table for 5pm. I was told they had a table but they would need it back for 7pm which was fine with us as our 14 year-old daughter had plans for the evening anyway. The days of myself and my husband having Saturday night plans are long gone!
It’s not easy finding a restaurant that suits us as a family with seven-year old Fin and a very fussy 14-year-old Issy but Sergios fits the bill with its casual Italian family atmosphere and varied menu.
We arrived at the restaurant on time and were taken to our table which, in fact, was the same round table in the middle of the restaurant we’d sat at on our last visit.
The waitress came over within a couple of minutes to take our drinks order and our drinks were brought to the table soon after.
Unfortunately my husband’s drink, which was supposed to be blackcurrant cordial (he was the designated driver), came with soda water but this was soon rectified by our very apologetic waitress.
We promptly placed our order and waited for our food as the restaurant started to fill up. We could see our food being prepared as the cooking area is open with the chefs on show to diners, which only adds to the atmosphere.
As we knew the portions were very generous, we decided to just share a garlic pizza bread and bruschetta Napoletana to start with which were both delivered to the table after about 10 minutes of ordering. The garlic pizza bread was huge with plenty for us all to share and the tomato bruschetta was covered in just the right amount of olive oil.
Related: Restaurant review: Barlounge in Chester
Now on to our main courses, I went for the spaghetti carbonara, not very adventurous but a favourite of mine and it did not disappoint. However, as delicious as it was, I didn’t manage to finish it as it as there was just too much.
Issy went for sirloin steak and chips, which was cooked a perfect medium-rare and described as “the best steak ever” - high praise indeed from a very fussy eater.
Although Sergios is a very family friendly restaurant, there isn’t a children’s menu which meant Fin had an enormous margherita pizza. He thoroughly enjoyed it but only managed to finish half of it and was very pleased when the waitress said he could take the other half home in a pizza box.
Sean decided to go for the peppered fillet steak with new potatoes and asked for the sauce to be served separately. Unfortunately when the steak arrived it was covered in peppered sauce which, as tasty as it was, it wasn’t what he wanted but not wanting to ‘make a fuss’ and wait for it to be recooked he didn’t mention it to the waitress until the end of the meal.
For someone who chooses steak every time he eats out, I’d have to say this wasn’t one of his favourites and perhaps food wise this just ‘wasn’t his night’.
We all decided we were far to full to have ‘pudding’ so after our plates were cleared we just asked for the bill. The total price for the four of us was £80.05, we paid our bill and left to fond farewells from all the staff with Fin’s pizza box firmly in his hands.
To sum up our experience I would say “Sergio’s has always been one of our favourite places to eat in the city and we’ll definitely be back. Give it a try!”
Scores on the doors:
Quality of food: 8/10
Service: 7/10
Atmosphere/surroundings: 9/10
Value for money: 8/10
Food hygiene rating: 3/5 (via scoresonthedoors.org.uk, last inspected March, 2014)
Food brag rating* (how good it looks): 4/5
Total: 39/50
*This is when you can take a picture, add a filter in Instagram, and post to your Twitter or Facebook and get all your mates going “oh, my pasta looks good tonight”
What does TripAdvisor say? Ranked number 45 of 472 Places to Eat in Chester. 529 of 890 reviews gave it the highest rating of ‘excellent’. Reviewers comments: “Ah little Italy in Chester”, “Fantastic”, “Best ever marinara risotto!”
Where is it? 22 St Werburgh Street, Chester, CH1 2DY
Chester Chronicle reviewers always pay for their own meal and we don’t tell them in advance that we’re coming to visit.
Have you been to Ristorante Sergio? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below:
