Ask Italian in York

Can’t fault the service and the stunning building but this is really average Italian food, beef ragu had hardly any beef in and was a small portion too I felt for the price. Pizzas looked bland compared to what you can get elsewhere in York where a bit more care goes into the dough and topping. Cappuccino was £6.00 which is really expensive and was in a very small cup.

Apparently you can’t order PLAIN PASTA for a toddler in ask ITALIAN. also we turned up slightly early and couldn’t go in for a drink before even though there was 20 free tables. My mums pasta came and it was as dry as a bone. Can’t fault the staff they were great. Not their fault. Just a few ridiculous moments

Hermoso escenario para una gran celebración de cumpleaños familiar. Las grandes reservas de mesa a menudo son difíciles de hacer bien, pero la comida y el servicio eran fantásticos. A pesar de ser un restaurante de cadena realmente se sintió como una ocasión especial. Nuestra camarera era fantástico, así como todo el personal que se ocupa de nuestras peticiones especiales y confusión sobre la cuenta (nuestra culpa) con gracia. Gritar al personal de la cocina como cada plato era delicioso.

Ordené Lesagnia como regalo para mi esposa y yo. Era caro, ya que ambos somos pensionistas, pero se veía bien en el menú Sin embargo, vino en un plato caliente pequeño con 3 hojas de pasta mal quemadas superpuestas Para complacer a nuestra familia, lo raspamos del plato. Junto con una bebida esto nos costó £ 45 Nunca he tenido una estafa como esta en toda mi vida, arruinó nuestro día.

La ubicación de este Ask es impresionante. La comida y el servicio también eran muy buenos y recomendaría ir aquí sobre los otros restaurantes de la cadena italiana.

This was our first experience of Ask Italian, and we had a lovely meal. There are a number of vegetarian and vegan options, including vegan wine. The food was good, especially the calzone - which was surprisingly light. There was a slight misunderstanding about vegetarians and chicken, but this was quickly resolved. The staff were lovely, and mostly, efficient.

Good service; good price; but their pizza was impossibly bland. We ate it because it was in front of us but wouldn't order it again

Visited for my sons birthday. My husband has a severe pineapple allergy. On arrival, the host who checked us in was fully aware of the allergy and offered us the allergens folder to read through. All my husbands meals came with a sticker on the plate highlighting they had been checked and were delivered by his own "personal" waitress (the manager). We had a lovely meal, the food was plentiful and delicious. We would definitely go back.

Not only is this a listed beautiful building but also spacious with excellent food and service all with tasty Italian flavours of quality food

Arrived at our time. Had to queue to get in. Room was lovely high ceilings and a very open space. Order drinks and food fine. Our starter arrived a few minutes later but not our drinks. My prawns had no taste. My husband starter was cold in the middle! Main course was pizza that was ok. Drinks finally arrived.Drinks finally arrived with our main meal. Overall we will not be returning!!!

This place was lovely and cool after a very hot day, the extremely very high ceiling made a busy room cool. Service was very good with a great menu choice after a massive debate and changing my mind 3 times I ended up with garlic bread and Sea Bass. Drinks was lovely and cold no complaints about anything 10/10 and reasonably priced. Wish I had found this place earlier in the week because I would have returned! Just good atmosphere and surroundings. Recommended.

First impressions the building was looking tired and lacked atmosphere. The food was so bland and tasteless. We had king prawns to start which were dry and over cooked. The pizza and lasagna tasted like there were made from Heinz bolognaise from a tin and over powering barbecue taste. The menu was over priced for the quality of the food. Out of the party of six people three have woke up with sickness and diarrhoea so I would avoid this place at all costs. Only good point was the person who looked after us at the table was very friendly.

Lovely setting but it was not warm and as the evening wore on it became dim where we were sitting. Service rather slow because of the slowness of the remote pad the waitress was using. My lasagne had a very runny sauce but nice pasta, and the pizza had a very sparse topping. Salad very good as were the desserts and coffee.

A nice atmosphere and staff really friendly and helpful. It’s a beautiful big building easy to get to in York and plenty of room for diners. The only issue I had was that the food was lukewarm at best. I had the garlic prawns to start, they were tasteless and almost cold. Caesar salad very nice but without the anchovy croutons it’s literally just chicken, lettuce and dressing.

Our waitress Emily was fantastic. Food was very good Lovely building Would give 5 stars. Excellent restaurant. The staff are brilliant

My papadelle was cold I needed to return it to microwave it ..very disappointed .. the zucchini chips were cold too .. ( I normally give good reviews ( but I felt that this was a careless’tourist exploit. Although the waitresses were kind the food was shocking ! My cocktail had no alcohol in it , I am very sensitive to alcohol and had no reaction or could not taste any at all !!

Visited here yesterday for my mam's birthday after booking online. What a beautiful building. Staff were attentive and helpful. We ordered 2 folded cheese garlic breads to share between 3 people and found one came with extra onions as requested. Needless to say we didn't ask for this . They kindly made another one and allowed us to keep that one. Our pasta dishes were quite filling and tasty. Toilets were clean. Overall, we enjoyed our meal.

We booked two tables, one for our daughter’s birthday and one for us. The Ask staff were brilliant. Kept us up to date with what they were ordering, lots of friends on her table. Very efficient and kind. Erin was brilliant and managed everything so smoothly, with thought yet not pushing anything. Good value for the amount of us. Thank you for dealing with late teens very well!!

The building is absolutely amazing, which creates such a nice atmosphere for our meal, the food was amazing as very the staff, I would definitely come back and recommend to others

We always visit whenever we are in York. The service was not as good as usual but the meal was excellent. We will return but if the service does not improve we will visit one of the many other restaurants in York.

I'm a bit puzzled at the various negative reviews here, perhaps they were having a bad day. We were there on a midweek evening and everything was fine. Service cheerful and prompt. Starter of mixed charcuterie was good though could have been more plentiful but main dishes were fine (lasagne and a delicious and imaginative pasta carobara variant with burrata sindried tomato and prosciutto). Nice glass of bianco salento too - a new one on me. And the toilets were spotless. Clearly ASK have upped their game recently and I would happily return when next in York.

Pretty poor, sauce for starter was so similar to main meal. Chicken should have been marinaded, but was basically just sliced chicken in a very basic tomato sauce with garlic? Service wad OK however but let down by the quality.

Had a lovely meal, served by Charlotte R who was kind and friendly, really efficient. Lovey food as always. Will definitely be back

Never been to ask Italia before and won't be going back in the near future. I ordered lasagna which very poor like something you would buy from a supermarket not at all good in any way. My wife ordered a Risotto dish with prawn's once again tasteless with about 3 prawn's. I would not recommend eating here.

The costumer service was excellent by Ethel . Thank you very much for being perfect and providing such care! A great example of how costumers should be treated!

Visited as a family with a pram. We had booked in advance just prior to the teatime rush and were seated with no issues at all. It wasn't busy which was nice as felt we had lots of room. The building itself is lovely but I agree with a prior review in that it does feel a bit like a canteen, needs a bit of theming to help. I had looked at the menu in advance to decide what I wanted however on the menu provided in the restaurant there was only the meat version. It became apparent this is an error and the version I wanted does infact exist. This always worries me incase I accidentally get given a meat version but there was a sticker on the plate reassuring me it was definitely vegan which was a nice touch. We didn't wait long at all from ordering to receiving the food. The app to order was good as you can remove ingredients etc but it didn't work! Took ages to do our order for it to just reset everytime so ended up ordering eith the server. Who was very nice and helpful. My food was lovely and the kids also enjoyed theirs. My other half felt a bit let down by his feeling the chicken was a bit dry. The accessible toilets weren't bad but no toilet roll available. The female toilets were the worst I've ever come across in a restaurant and that I cludes wetherspoons. Flushes broken, no toilet roll in one. Urine soaked floor covered in mud. Soap barely available. Absolutely vile. Sadly couldn't feed this back in the survey ASK emailed after the visit as this wasn't a question asked and no comments boxes. I would have mentioned this to a member of staff but they were nowhere to be found with the restaurant being busier as we were leaving. Noone checked on our us during our meal or offered any other drinks either. It's a shame as the food itself I thought was delicious and it's rare to find so many veggie options that are a bit different as well.

We have been here a number of times and love the grandeur of the building. Food and service has been good. We came tonight before the theatre and again service was good. We ordered pizza and chips. We only eat chips as a treat and asked for plain mayo which we love when we have chips. I was assured there was no mayo in the house apart from garlic mayo which we weren’t keen on. No mayo in a restaurant?? (Had I had salad, I would also have wanted (non garlic) mayo).

I feel compelled to write a review for this particular Ask Italian, not only as they offer Vegan options, but the building they operate from. It’s absolutely stunning and you feel very special dining in such a beautiful setting. Photos don’t do it justice but I will add some anyway. I had a Vegan lentil dish, hubby had a Vegan pizza and both had the new sticky toffee pudding with Vegan ice cream. Bottle of Vegan Prosecco too, so all in all a very relaxed and romantic evening for my husband and I.

We were seated rather quickly and the service here is great. The staff are mostly friendly and helpful too, but I was shocked to see a manager talking to his staff in the way he did; clearly upsetting them when it was busy and they seemed stressed already. We found this unprofessional. The food wasn’t perfect. My dish arrived colder than I would like and our drinks took quite a while to arrive, but both meals were very tasty. The building is gorgeous but I don’t think we will be going again.

My husband and I arrived at 15.30 on 29th December, we hadn't booked. We noticed a huge amount of dressed but empty tables. The young man who greeted us informed us as we hadn't booked he couldn't accommodate us due to 'having too much to do before 5pm' He was dressed for front of house, so I assumed he wasn't preparing food. Having previously worked for the company I do have insight into the workings of an ASK restaurant. We found a rather lovely independent place called 'trio' in Whip-Ma Whop-Ma Gate, which we would highly recommend!

Just left the restaurant after taking grandchildren to the pantomime. Firstly, they couldn’t find our booking but eventually seated us. Half an hour later they took our order and said they found our booking. Food came and was very nice. 45 minutes after we had...

We had a lovely experience here, the Assembly rooms are beautiful and is a building of significance (google if you dont know), the high ceilings, beautiful chandeliers and huge marble pillars are stunning. The food and service were as expected of any Ask (with it...

A large group of us had an early dinner here recently, despite having it booked for weeks and sending them menu choices it was disorganised. Part of the group got seated the rest of us had to wait, we were on 2 long cramped tables...

Large high ceiling room makes for a very noisy and echoey places to eat. Not very warm, gives canteen vibes. Pasta was nothing special, a watery tomato sauce with watery seafood, lacking in flavour. Staff are very friendly but rushed off their feet.

The restaurant is very impressive on arrival in a beautiful building. It was extremely busy as expected for the time of year. Waiting staff were lovely and very attentive. Good choice on the menu 6 ladies for lunch ,they missed one of the starters off...

Went there with my family, there were six of us. The food was very average. My wife's pasta sauce had almost no meat in it, my daughter's meat balls were a bit dry and my side order of vegetables were dried out in places, cold...

We always visit whenever we are in York. Service was very good and the meal excellent. Thoroughly recommend.

A lovely meal with amazing service. Nothing was too much trouble ( even though it was a busy graduation day). All accomplished with smiles and a little banter. The actual large room of the restaurant is stunning.

Beautiful setting but could be made so much nicer. Our starters were lovely but the mains were average and disappointing for the price. Waiting staff were very friendly and helpful. Wouldn't visit this particular restaurant again.

Absolutely fantastic meal in beautiful surroundings. The service was incredible, all the waiting staff were so helpful and pleasant to chat with. Definitely go back in the future. Thank you

Ben the manager is abysmal. I have never witnessed a manager speak to the staff the way he does and in earshot of customers. How he has any staff left is beyond me. Who do I report this further to?

The Assembly Rooms building is lovely, central to main York city centre streets and Minster. We dropped in on a Saturday without booking but were seated immediately and ordered on the app which was all really quick and straightforward. Just what we needed as we...

Abysmal! Arrived on time for a 7pm booking, details taken and left to loiter in the lobby with scores of other people waiting to be seated. Asked for an update at 7.15pm, nothing, no apology, no indication of when we would be seated. At 7.30pm...

Very poor quality food and service microwave food signature dish was sloppy beef with pasta warmed up slop.hunters chicken was processed rubbish from freezer if your passing this restaurant keep going

This a a relaxing escape from the hustle & bustle around the minster. My husband had the pizza verdura which was just as he likes it, they even omitted the tomato sauce base for us & just rubbed it with olive oil. My salad with...

Excellent service we booked for a family meal as it was my boys 10th birthday.Big shout out to Harley the young gentleman who served us for the evening he was polite helpful and a credit to Ask.

We went to Ask in York for a late lunch. It was fairly quiet. Have not been for sometime. The waiter was attentive to start with we ordered some wine and water. Took our order. Garlic flatbread with cheese was delicious. Husband had a Calzone...

Very disappointed with ask Italian York, our local one Harrogate has closed 2 years ago, Leeds one also closed, so only wetherby and York still open, we arrived at 11:30 so just opened, wanted to order the butterfly king prawns but been told no prawns!...

Disappointing standard of cuisine given compared to other ask Italians in weatherby or the now closed Leeds location 😭 Food looked nothing like customer photos on Tripadvisor and very bland

Lovely place, really big. Very grand inside. We went on a Saturday night, only realy complaint was that it was so dark i had to use a torch on my phone to see the menu. Food came amazingly quick - a bit more than 5...

We went to ASK to use an e-gift card and had a really lovely meal. Wren served us very attentively and Ben assisted very professionally when the technology to pay with the gift card proved challenging. Both Wren and Ben helped make the evening a...

We had a lovely birthday meal at the York Ask Italian. A lovely venue, nice and chilled but Italian feel. And not too posh for us on a sightseeing trip but felt special enough for a birthday family meal. Lots of staff interested with us...

Table for 3 at lunchtime. Servers were obviously students, but were both really pleasant. Two of the party had hoped for lasagne, but they haven’t had lasagne all week. How can a stable meal like this not be available? We were told it was due...

I took my 3 granddaughters aged 5, 8 and 10 years here for a treat. Two of which have a milk allergy. I could not fault the guy who served us, he check the allergy information and even managed to get a normal pizza made...

You read that these sort of large chains use pre prepared boil in the bag dishes. I suspect these might ….. the linguine was really poor lacking any zest or flavour. Unfortunately I also went for the Bruschetta which in Ask definition is under toasted...

It's hard to get a proper sense of the restaurant as it doesn't really fit properly inside the housing of the building which is far too large for the restaurant. It feels both cavernous and empty but at the same time you can't really hear...

Good food exalent staff superb surroundings worth a visit for the decor alone.set in the old York assembly rooms I believe.

Absolutely horrendous. Took 20 minutes for someone to come over. Our next table had ordered desserts and they brought over their bill before they’d had them. Asked to see the manager but after 10 minutes we just left. Awful.

absolutely amazing service, everything was done with a smile. the food was gorgeous, plated up beautifully and was really well worth what we paid for it. the building itself was really pretty and the vibe of the evening was perfect. I found it to be...

Waited to be Seated for 15mins today (16th August 2023) The restaurant was quiet and not busy. Server ignored us to talk at the bar. Left without being seated eventually - really poor service.

The building is absolutely beautiful. My children loved eating in such a grand setting. Service was super fast and the staff were friendly.

The table and chairs were not properly cleaned and sticky. The pizza cutters had food stained on them which were disgusting. The table next to us got wine glasses with lipstick marks… The food was not even average and you can basically taste it’s from...

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING AGAIN - we have been here before and this is turning into our go to restaurant when in York now. The family love it, it’s great for kids and the staff keep them entertained for us while we enjoy a glass of wine....

This restaurant is decorated beautifully on both the inside and outside! The margarita pizza is delicious and they can also cater to large groups.

Amazing Food! This is a stunning restaurant… with amazing architecture in the building! Food was served very friendly staff… ignore the negativity on some of the reviews… they are not warranted!

Really bad experience , the Management or the owner need to see what’s going on with the food as they’re missing the point of a restaurant here , the place is amazing but the food is not the same , ordered online and paid £45...

We're a trio of friends who meet in York once in a while. More often than not, we have an ASK lunch. On Wednesday, it was ravioli for one & pizza for two. Although I'm not vegan, I love the taste of n'dja, so that...

Went to this restaurant for my birthday. It is a wonderful building. Food was very average. But our evening was spoiled by the very load music being played. Italian restaurants have ambience this did not. Sorry won't be coming back.

Our booking got mixed up from a computer error,but Ben the manager was super helpful and quickly sorted us out satisfactorily with an alternative time. The restaurant has great ambience and food service quick. Food was ok. All in all a great night out.

The building lovely and the staff very attentive - unfortunately we found the food very bland and soggy. On the plus side the children’s menu is good and our children loved the dessert options!

This restaurant is set in a spectular room, but because of its size and ceiling height, noise travels so it's a bit like being in a swimming pool and not really for a romantic, intimate evening, probably better for a bigger group. The food was...

I really enjoyed the food and great service from our waitress Gracie!!! I had the margarita pizza and would really recommend

Impressive historic building! Ethel and Alex were lovely and welcoming. The food and drinks were amazing as always!

Love this place mainly due to the room it is in, as it’s awesome. We booked late to have a meal here on a Saturday evening and got in no problems. Received great service from our server, Harley and the food was also perfect thank...

average meal . Our order was wrong and I was brought the wrong pizza , which they replaced but the toppings were not as per the menu description. They had no decaf coffee . we were asked if we wanted table service or use the...

You have to ASK, "Where's my main course, I finished my starter half an hour ago?" You have to ASK "How did you manage to remove all of the flavour from this pizza?" You have to ASK "Why does this lasagne look like tomato sauce...

Caught in a thunderstorm in York city centre, Ask Italian provided not just shelter but grand and opulent surroundings combined with a team of friendly staff. The selection of tempting Italian desserts was hard to resist, and a combo of three mini sweet treats, consisting...

This is possibly the worst restaurant I have ever been to. Yes the building is lovely but everything else was appalling. The service was nonexistent. The was no server as such, the wrong dish was brought and never changed, dishes and glasses never cleared. A...

Beautiful historic building. It was Relaxing and we felt comfortable. Food was lovely. And staff where polite and friendly.

Incredible building , staff were lovely and welcoming , food and drinks were delicious, absolutely loved the new way to order and pay , my daughter is an incredibly picky eater , she decided on the purple pesto pasta and she loved it , we...

What a classy looking restaurant! It looks like you are eating in a Greek Temple! I ordered a calzone here and it was good. The only complaint was that our server refused to accept a 50 pound note for our meal. I found that this...

Food was mediocre and bland, service poor, cost was average, amiance is sterile, lighting bright. Felt like a tourist trap.

In an exceptional Palladian build that began life as the Assembly Rooms in the 1700s is this grand Italian eatery. Generously, outside of food serving times the rooms are apparently open for viewing. An inviting menu is available. We had the lasagne grande version and...

Speedy service and very good food. Must also mention our server Ethel who was so friendly and welcoming she really added to the whole experience.

So glad we found this restaurant! The setting is something very different and special and we enjoyed our meal very much. Delightful staff who, were unfortunately very busy as they were short staffed but were so friendly. We called in the afternoon to check if...

A great restaurant with a good atmosphere. Always busy. Great customer service especially Ethel and one member of management, who brought the allergen book to help me with my choices. All colleagues are busy helping to serve drinks or food. Lots of choices of food...

The place is so aesthetic thats so lovely to eat and dine with friends. I love the food and the service is so nice. I would like to thank Ethel for the great service. I wouldlike to come back and try the other foods as...

We ordered pizzas and a pasta dish with sides of chips. Pizzas were bland, dry, minimal and pasta was a very small serving in what can be likened to a cereal bowl and again dry. The chips didn't come until we'd finished our mains so...

As others have noted this is a lovely setting. A bit slow to greet and seat us but otherwise service was acceptable. My wife had the pesto pasta and I had the spaghetti. Both were just fine. Staff seemed a bit stretched and have to...

I went with 4 business visitors from Argentina. Is their first experience in York and it was very disappointing. The service was terrible. Our food took more than one hour to be served. The waiters siding clean the table, were not polite and didn’t accept...

We were quickly waited on and I order a chicken rigatoni and my husband had the fettuccini bolognese. Both dishes were very good, but I wish mine had more chicken. I only had two tiny pieces and lots of mushrooms. Our server was excellent!

Canteen environment! The building is very grand but with the ceiling being high its very echoing and had more of a canteen feel with the noise. Service was OK although was prompted to use the app or wait to order. The food was pretty standard....

Very good food. Terrible service. Staff more interested in clearing tables of people who had left before those who were still there

This was a special birthday family treat for my husbands 60th. The service was awful we had to call someone over every time we wanted service. It took 40 minutes to get a drink. The food was OK but not worth the money we paid....

Went for a birthday meal out, after waiting for a age the happy smiling waitress ( not) sauntered up checked to see if had booked, we had, grabbed a couple of menus and took us to the table. We were left to choose our order,...

We went to Ask for an early dinner. We had a lovely meal, staff were attentive and friendly even when the restaurant got busier. The best bit though was the setting of the restaurant in The Assembly Rooms - stunning!

Beautiful building. We were "greatest" with a nod and no words by an Italian looking lady in words were spoken so it was up to us to ask if we could have a table. Food was Ok but they got one of our meals wrong...

Worst meal I've had in a long time. Came as a party of 9 13.04.23 for a colleagues retirement meal. There were too many large parties booked in so we had no personal table service at all, we had to ask for attention. when we...

| £30–40 Beautiful restaurant. Being seated was quick. And simple. Food was good service from Jacob was very good. Overall a Beautiful meal and Beautiful venue. Thank you very much. Only critique was it appeared the venue lacked in staff. Tables were left dirty and...

We visited here a few times before Covid and it was a lovely experience, this time not so good regrettably as it was a birthday event. Service has gone down, seemed like insufficient staff, waiting 15 minutes for a booked table and more for starters,...