Luigi in Southend-on-Sea

Unfortunately not the right place we had been expecting on our family trip, the welcoming wasn’t the worst but it was quite overwhelming to find the tables so cluttered together in such a small place… After our order got taken we had to wait roughly 15-20 minutes for our first two mains to get to us. The portions of food despite being assigned as “medium” on the menu were overall small (the scampi and the calamari mains particularly). After another 10 minutes and a bit of confusion from a waiter we all got the food. The scampi was ridiculously small so we got told that another portion was going to be brought to us- nothing was mentioned of it being an addition on the bill; thus would after not get paid as a “on the house” dish, although we were told that it would’ve simply been considered as the regular portion and not an “extra”. Confusion aside and the uncomfortable moments I therefore do not recommend this place…

The interior is OK. Staff not rude, more perfunctory and dismissive. Food utterly basic. Unsalted fish, lame oven chips. Tartar sauce 20p a sachet if you have the audacity to ask for it. Mushy peas? Nah. Side salad with other dishes? Nah. "Cash only" we're told then told we can pay by card if we must. Understand they have signal issues but also, not my problem 🤷‍♀️ thoroughly underwhelming and not remotely cheap

AWFUL!The food itself was below average nothing to write home about but the reason for my review is the staff! The older lady who I’m assuming is the owner was so rude gave us a menu as we was walking past so she clearly needed the customers but once we agreed to order she said we had to stand outside to order it rolled her eyes at everything we said then acted like it was an inconvenience that we wanted to pay card. When given the food they didn’t tell us which fish was what size or who’s order was who’s so we had to guess. Such a shame as they clearly needed the customers :(

Staff members mostly were rude, unpleasant and experience was generally poor. Only the young man serving was lovely, however I have to say I was disappointed with every other aspect. Food was below par.

It is a lovely cafe/restaurant. It looks like it is newly renovated. The walls have fresh blue paint and nice decoration. Although the tables close to each other, you feel it is very spacious.You have much more choice of food here as compared to chippies around it. The reason we went with this particular cafe was that they did grilled fish. The grilled trout was lovely. Unfortunately, Southend pier has this problem that it is filled with fish and chips shops and you can't get anything healthy. We were delighted to find grilled fish and different type of paninis to be honest.The only problem with the place is that they are slow and a bit disorganised between themselves. You have got the wait more than you would normally.The staff that we came across was lovely, all 4 of them that we got to interact was nice.I would go there again but I probably ask what they have before entering.

£5 for 4 rings of calamari ???? 😳They stole our money.Just came to this place as it was the only one on the street which served beers. Made a grave error.Please don’t eat here!!

I would not recommend this cafe. I don't think I have ever been in any eatery where the staff were so rude. A very rude woman tried to make us order food we did not want after we were told we could order drinks only.Atmosphere was terrible. Tables were cramped. Waitress was pleasant and friendly. All other staff were in desperate need of customer service training. I would not grace this cafe with my presence again under any circumstances.

Decent food at affordable prices. Prawn cocktail £5.50, steak and chips £12.50, fish and chips varies depending on the size (£6-£10) but my friend said it was lovely. Nicely presented dishes, good prices and exceptional service from luigi and his team. Ill definitely go back.

Food was decent cafe food but I would not recommend this cafe.Firstly the staff were not quite ready to handle the amount of customers they had managed to get business for. It was a busy Bank Holiday with the sun out so the cafe was very busy. I found that the turn around time for the tables were not as fast as they could have been. We ended up sitting at a table with another group's half eaten meal in front of us before needing to specifically ask for the table to be cleaned up.Service at the cafe was slow too. Another table complained they had been waiting over an hour for their food with 4 adults and 3 kids. We were a group of 4 adults and we had been waiting almost 1 hr too for food. Not exactly a quick bite.As for the price of the food, it is in a very good location to the main attractions of Southend so its not exactly cheap. 1 decently big cooked breakfast, 2 coffees (separate from breakfast as not included with food) and a milkshake cost £14.50. For the price compared to the food quality and service, it's just not worth the price.I have been to many cafes that can still handle the same if not more customers in a timely manner albeit not as good location for a cheaper price (even in London) and manage to pull off a better job than this cafe did.

The Italian ice cream is excellent, with generous portions and reasonably priced. Stop here for ice-cream rather than any of the horrible Mr whippy joints along the beach.