Rustico - Newcastle upon Tyne

Great decor and ambiance lovely staff. It’s such a shame the food is the worst Italian I’ve ever had. All the pasta sauce looks tastes like tomato soup it’s gross and way too much cream very very runny. A ready meal pasta is a zillion times better.

Satisfactory food, but not fantastic. pizzas are nice, soup not great,not really very atmospheric

Weve been going to La Vita regularly for a few months now and I cannot find fault and neither can my wife and thats saying something.On our last visit, we were made to feel very welcome, as usual, and soon seated and a lovely bottle of their (very drinkable) house red to the tableI plumped for the Calamari succulent rings of squid in a semolina batter, along with a garlicky mayonnaise.Mrs Hammer went for the fishcakes and said they were perfect as a starter!For mains, Mrs H went for the Pollo Michele again cooked to perfection with some beautiful lyonnaise potatoes on the side.I had the half and half Pizza Ciccio alongside linguine mare de terra I can honestly say its the best Italian' meal Ive had since I came back from Sorrento in AugustFinally, although full, we HAD to have desertMe, as always, the unmissable Cointreau Brulee, Mrs the caramelized banana!As we waddled out and bade farewell, we were already planning our next meal!The restaurant is always busy and lively and has a very addictive atmosphere that makes you want to stay all night, drinking bottle after bottle of wine!The staff are all very friendly and attentive without being overbearing and see to your every need whatever it might be..I must add that on this occasion, we took advantage (being January of their Living Social offer starters, mains, puds) so one cannot grumble at this at all.Best restaurant in Heaton by a mile, and probably the surrounding area

I have ate at La Vita many times over the past few years including sunday lunch the food is alway lovely the staff are friendly and polite.My husband and i have tried various meals off the menu and found everyone of them to be tasty. We were also there the night thelady had a problem with her card in the chip and pin machine mine and everyone elses went through no bother .

I ate in La Vita last night, in general the food was mediocre at best, i was especially disapointed that we were served margerine in place of butter, the food was cooked reasonably well however the ingredients were sub standard and this showed. To start we had calamares which were over cooked and or had been frozen and therefore were hard and chewy. King prawns which were cooked well but had no heads and had therefore lost alot of flavour. My main gripe with this restaurant is the quality of service, there was a problem with the chip and pin machine at the end of the meal- it was taking too long to process my cards, this would have been ok if not for the attitude of the co-owner (he informed me) who spent mins argueing with me at the table and insisted on taking out his own card and charging himself in order to prove that the machine was working which I felt inferred that there was a problem with my cards rather than the machine. Thankfully the payment went through on the second attempt. I find it unacceptable that as a client i was subjected to this kind of infantile behaviour and embarrasment at the end of my meal, surely it is not difficult to simply say I'm sorry madam there is a problem with the machine and process the payment again. I would think that given the lack of customers that the management would want to try and encourage business and not drive it away.