Lunch at Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori

Late lunch at Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori where once I used to eat regularly.

The food was good, the service terrible.

A long wait, I went to the cake counter and ordered.

soup Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori #Alton pic.twitter.com/93sju7Qqzn

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) June 16, 2018

lunch Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori #Alton #lunch #Italian pic.twitter.com/ODHDRq9EWO

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) June 16, 2018

Soup and main course delivered together. Main course I sent back, with orders not to bring back but to cook fresh. No butter for the bread.

pointless every napkin stuck down Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori #Alton pic.twitter.com/1L8AN6tWFe

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) June 16, 2018

Baffled why each serviette stuck down.

Tea is tea pigs, another small business taken in by marketing.

Winchester Coffee Roasters Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori #Alton #coffee pic.twitter.com/yUljed4I1K

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) June 16, 2018

Coffee has changed, now supplied by Winchester Coffee Roasters. I have had twice elsewhere, not good.

cappuccino Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori #Alton #coffee #cappuccino pic.twitter.com/omdlWab9Y5

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) June 16, 2018

cappuccino Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori #Alton #cappuccino pic.twitter.com/O8zKuH4Vgm

— Keith Parkins (@keithpp) June 16, 2018

I ordered a cappuccino. Then went and told them not to dump chocolate on top, as I would only have sent it back. They would have otherwise served with chocolate and not asked.

Served too hot, not good. But then from previous experience with Winchester Coffee Roasters, I was not expecting anything better.

Bottega dei Sapori need to improve their tea, their coffee and their service.

The world has moved on, will no longer get away with poor quality tea and coffee, poor service.

Visit Winchester, see what indie coffee shops Coffee Lab and Flat Whites are serving as tea and coffee, look at their delicious mouth-watering cakes.

These little indie businesses need to get their act together, otherwise they will not exist. The day before, I had a Vietnamese dish in Pho in Guildford and it was excellent.

Lunch at Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori

latte

Excellent lunch at the little Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori. Courgette soup with garlic,  followed by sea bass served with  new potatoes and beans.

The soup not quite piping hot. The sea bass delicious.

Started outside in the garden, then had to rush indoors when it rained.

On last visit, the service was awful, today exemplary. Why the service was so bad on the last visit, I do not know, as not the norm. At a guess, maybe  a new girl who had only started and did not know what she was doing.

Lunch at Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori

roasted red pepper soup with goats cheese

tortillini

garden

Excellent roasted red pepper soup, followed by tortellini in the Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori. Service was appalling. Why, I do not know, as they were not busy and service is not usually a problem.

A pleasant afternoon, I sat out in the garden. No Smoking, which is excellent, as too many places allow smoking in gardens. Last year there was a rambling rose along the wall. Sadly no more. The garden though has been spoilt by umbrellas. Not even necessary as shade cast by a beech tree.

I waited and waited. No one came. Only one table occupied inside, one outside (two counting my table).

After waiting sometime, I went to the front of the shop and ordered.

I waited some more. Eventually my soup came. No utensils. I asked the girl. Instead of going and getting she went to two other tables to take their orders. I went to help myself, she handed me a fork and spoon. Not sure what the fork was for.

Bread with the soup, but no butter. When the girl came back, I asked for butter. She went off and got butter, but no knife.

My soup finished, she came and asked was I ready for my next course.

Learning they did not close until 5-30, I decided to get what I needed in Alton, then either go to Mog’s Deli, or pop back.

Mog’s Deli, where I would have liked to have tried their coffee, had closed. It only opened last year.

Back to Bottega dei Sapori, where I had a pot of tea and a tart. It was with reluctance I had tea, as teapigs, and teapigs is not quality tea.

I wish they would get better tea. They pride themselves on sourcing quality ingredients, then serve teapigs, not only serve but have on sale. Teapigs is not quality tea. Marketing hype does not make quality tea.

Lunch in Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori

mushroom tortellini

Excellent mushroom tortellini in the Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori.

I would have had tea, but it is teapigs which is not quality tea, a totally owned subsidiary of Tetley.

I do wish they would change to quality tea. Absolutely no excuse teapigs.

Lunch at Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori

Bottega dei Sapori

Excellent pumpkin tortellini at Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori.

Followed by cioccolato creme brulee and tea.

I am no great fan of Italian cakes.

Tea, tea pigs, rubbish tea from Tetley.

For a restaurant that prides itself on sourcing quality, they really must do better than tea pigs.

Coffee is single sourced from Monte Sion Estate in El Salvador.

For quality food, need quality ingredients and a skilled chef to weave his magic.

Why can people not see the same applies to coffee? Yes source quality coffee beans, but also need a good espresso machine and someone skilled in making coffee.

Bottega dei Sapori is in Alton, next door to the building that once housed the bank belonging to the brother of Jane Austen.

Lunch at Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori

mushroom tortellini

teapot

Bottega dei Sapori is a lovely little coffee shop in Alton, serving excellent food, with a lovely walled garden out the back.

Mushroom tortellini ordered. I was lucky, one table in the walled garden.

A very pleasant afternoon, sitting under the shade of the beech tree.

After my mushroom tortellini, which was excellent, I had a pine nut and honey tart, plus a pot of tea. The tea though was teapigs, not quality tea.

Bottega dei Sapori pride themselves on the quality of their ingredients, locally sourced from local suppliers, the local butcher, the local greengrocer. Teapigs is an anomaly as it is neither, it is not the indie tea company they pretend to be, it is part of Tetleys.

The rambling rose, which I saw in June (hard to believe it was three month’s since I was last here) has been pruned hard back.

Had I thought of it, I would have raised Guildford Independent’s Day.

Lunch at Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori

steps leading into back garden

tree with spreading branches providing much needed shade

white trailing rose running along the wall

afternoon tea

Bottega dei Sapori is a lovely Italian coffee shop at the top end of Alton. Next door used to be the bank belonging to the brother of Jane Austen.

As it was a hot day, I sat outside in their lovely little walled garden, under the shade of a huge spreading tree. The table I sat at, I looked around, and a lovely white trailing rose was running along the wall.

Delicious lentil and vegetable soup, with which I assume was their own bread, or maybe sourced from a local baker. A winter soup, not a summer soup. Summer soup, pea and mint or watercress.

Tortellini stuffed with I think it said aubergine though it looked and tasted like pumpkin. Not what I had before, which possibly was mushroom.

Followed by a flapjack and a pot of tea.

Bottega dei Sapori source wherever they can locally. And most what they serve, they make themselves.

Integral to the coffee shop, is a little shop, with bread and many other products, including very delightful tea cups and pots.

The coffee is singled sourced. No freddo cappuccino.

The tea, teapigs. Not quality tea, nor is it the little indie company they pretend to be. It is Tetley’s tea.

Lunch and afternoon coffee in Italian coffee shop

Bottega dei Sapori Italian coffee shop

mushroom tortellini

cappuccino and flapjack

Bottega dei Sapori is a lovely little Italian coffee shop cum deli in Alton.

I was not sure if I would find them open, as they take a summer break in August, and last year, I found they were not open the first weekend in September. But luckily, yes, they were open.

I had mushroom tortellini. Excellent as always, but I found a little tough and chewy, not as delicate as it usually is. Maybe they make, and it goes tough during the day. That is how it is from a supermarket. The price has gone up, now over £8.

I popped out to the greengrocer, then back and had a cappuccino and a flapjack. I wish I had had a pot of tea. The tea though is Tea Pigs, not the quality tea they pretend it to be and is owned by Tata, a global corporation.

I let the staff know the ownership of Tea Pigs as they pride themselves on sourcing locally, or from Italy.

Note: Teapigs is not the small indie family business they con people into believing themselves to be. They are 100% owned by global corporation Tata (who also own Tetley).

• Teapigs, Tetley, Tata and telling the absolute truth

The coffee is single sourced aribica from El Salvador.

Lovely tea cups and pots for sale, Italian food, olive oil, bread (though all gone), their own cakes, and Italian seeds.

To browse various cookbooks.

Next door, was once the bank owned by the brother of Jane Austen.

Lunch at Bottega dei Sapori

Italian coffee shop Bottega dei Sapori

mushroom tortellini

There are two places worth eating at in Alton, a small relatively unspoilt market town in Hampshire, the source of the River Wey, O’Connor’s and Bottega dei Sapori.

Bottega dei Sapori is an Italian coffee shop cum restaurant cum Italian shop.

As you walk in your eyes are caught by a display of scrumptious looking cakes. As you walk through, on the left is a small room in which Italian produce is on sale, bread and seeds.

Walk through and you can enter a small garden, where I am pleased to report smoking is not allowed. I have never understood why for those who wish to sit outside in the fresh air they have to suffer from those who seem to think it is their right to pollute the air around them.

I ordered mushroom tortellini. I ordered off the board, which is what I recommend.

The mushroom tortellini was delicious.

I would have tried one of the cakes, but it was late afternoon and I was running short of time to have a walk around Alton. I had already missed the Alton Food Festival. I did though try blackberry crumble or pie which was sitting on the side. It was delicious.

All the ingredients are either fresh sourced locally or sourced from Italy.

Their coffee is single origin Bourbon Arabica from El Salvador with Rainforest Alliance Certification. One of the best Arabica coffees I have ever tried was Zapatista coffee from an autonomous region of Mexico.

I had a chat with the Italian owner. I learnt he was from north of Venice, not far from Bassano del Grappa.

With the exception of Ristorante Alla Corte the food in Bassano del Grappa was over priced and awful, then to add insult to injury when you came to pay the bill you found you were hit with an extortionate cover charge. On one occasion 50%!

It is somewhat ironic that one has to travel to Alton to discover excellent Italian food.

I am at a loss why people eat in disgusting fast food outlets when there are decent restaurants serving excellent freshly prepared dishes.

Next door to the Italian coffee shop (it is really a small restaurant) the site of what used to be the bank that belonged to the brother of Jane Austen.

A Jane Austen trail runs through Alton and nearby Chawton where she lived.