6th December 2003 Little Italy has a reputation as one of the worst restaurants in Birmingham (see, for example: http://www.birminghamplus.com/reviews/reviews_add.asp?iid=436&item_name=Little%20Italy ).

I'd given up on it several years ago, when they served me meat cannelloni (which wasn't on the menu) instead of the spinach and ricotta cannelloni which I'd ordered. After working my way through the waiting staff (who weren't interested), the manageress tried to convince me that it was "nuts and mushrooms"! Once I'd persuded her to taste it, she admitted it wasn't and wisked it off to the kitchen. No apology, no discount!

Anyway, I believe it may have changed hands (or management) since then, but I wasn't hoping for a lot.

Good things: The pizza was fine, the staff (apart from the manager) were friendly and the service was good.

Bad things: Our table for 8 turned out to be 2 tables for 4, which we had to move ourselves. Both the menus and the carpets were stained. We had to tell the manager we'd go elsewhere in order to get a standard menu rather than a fixed price "Christmas" menu at \xA322. The manager gave a nearby family table quite a telling off because they'd brought soft drinks as well as wine (I guess he's right in principle, but very wrong in style), plus they were spending over \xA3200 in food so he should at least be polite to them).

Allegedly: The staff don't get the tips (heard this from a number of people who worked there).

Would I go again? Well, if forced I'd go and eat the Pizza. No one in our party tried the pasta so I can't comment on that.