The best restaurants serving Italian food in New Forest South East

It might look like a cafe on the outside (if you can find it), but there’s a proper restaurant with a proper kitchen on the inside. A small but varied menu, good portions and tasty. The chef was out among the guests, taking orders and asking if all ok. Well placed confidence. We would definitely return.

Honestly incredible!!! The menu had a fantastic range on it and we really enjoyed that you could pick your pasta and sauce to your individual want. I had the tomato sauce with meatballs and the flavours were fantastic. My partner had a mushroom based sauce and it had plenty of flavour and had a great amount of mushrooms. The service was brilliant and the girls were really attentive and made us super comfortable. They made sure there was room for our pram as we gave them advanced warning on the form and they were super smiley. Will 100% be coming back here and have already recommended it to all our friends.

Great food and service. Would recommend.

Lovely restaurant, friendly staff and great atmosphere. Food was amazing. Eaten here a few times over the past year when we visit and never disappointed

Came for a family gathering in the upstairs room and wanted to say how impressed I was with the food and how attentive the staff were. I will definitely be back and if I were local would definitely ask them to cater for future events amazing. Atmosphere was also lovely

Really yummy food and a lovely staff. Nice atmosphere too!

What a lovely little Italian restaurant, only a few minutes walk from our hotel. It is my husband's birthday so it was a lovely treat to eat in such a romantic place. The food was fab. Hot, plentiful portions, served by a young man (sorry didn't get his name), with attention and extremely polite. My husband had the linguine with mixed seafood and I had a vegetarian pasta which was heavenly. Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area

Excellent meal with fab wine. Went on a week night and what a delight. Service wasn’t fast but it was date night so didn’t care!

As a regular customer to Rays Italian, both my wife and myself would like to thank Stacey for another wonderful meal last night. We love all things Italian and this restaurant certainly presses all the right buttons for us... What do we like about Rays Italian? Not just the great food but the staff are always so welcoming and attentive. Best wishes Mark & Jan Laming.

We were here for a large family lunch. We were welcomed and shown to our private dining room, and served with welcome drinks and canapés. We had ordered our meals in advance, and were very much looking forward to it. My cream of mushroom soup was delicious, and hot. Sadly, my main of roast turkey was tepid at best. The roast potatoes were cold and almost inedible. It was such a shame, as we were being treated, which made me think twice about reviewing it. That being said, if we had been dining as a couple, we would have sent it back. I realise it must be difficult when serving 30 people at the same time, and trying to keep it all hot. However, I have to say they our servers were brilliant and very attentive.

First meal out in Ringwood since moving to the area and now wondering whether anyplace could beat this. It was faultless. Gorgeous meal, fabulous wine, great service. Authentic surroundings. I couldn’t fault it. Thoroughly recommend trying this restaurant.

Prezzo as we like it ! Very polite and welcoming staff. In spite of being overworked...only 2 of them to man the seating, the orders , the service etc ... These 2 men were really trying their best for a pretty busy sitting ! Our food arrived quite quickly, hot and delicious. The place itself is a bit ...squashed and dark but the atmosphere was good and jolly !

Attention SCAM! Terrible experience!! Shortly before arriving at the property, they sent me an email saying they had canceled my reservation, I called for clarification and they hung up, leaving me stranded. I highly recommend not booking.

Just about to change management but we've met the new owner. He guarantees lots of seafood. As he says " he's from Sicily so should know how to cook seafood". Looking forward to it.

This is a real little gem! The food is really lovely, tasty and fresh. The restaurant is very welcoming and the service was brilliant. Not over priced which in today’s market is unusual. We would happily come here again