Monte Cassino - Scottish Borders

Three of us had dinner here on the last night of a short stay in Melrose. No complaints about service or surroundings but the food and drink left much to be desired. Starter of a shared focaccia italiana which wasn’t. It was a thin pizza topped with sprinkled dried rosemary. Our pizzas were undercooked and the bases were very doughy. This appears to be a common problem in many Italian restaurants. Our house wine (an Italian merlot) was thin and insipid. Food and drink are very expensive for what is offered. Very disappointing. Competition required !

Great service, this 2 star review is based on the food, the servers were very friendly and helpful, also the wine was very good, albiet pricey, £9 for large glass of red and £10 for white. Before our mains we ordered a garlic bread, this came as three slices of frozen garlic bread which you can get from your local supermarket, which cost £4... and was burnt. Insult to injury was the few leaves that was under the bread, with nothing added, just leaves... For our mains we ordered the fettuccine passticcio and the penne mama carlema. The fettuccine pasticcio was drowned in an sauce that had no flavour and was very watery, the spicy sausage was the thin slices of packet chorizo you can get from your local supermarket and no cream was added to the sauce. The penne mama carmela had little flavour also and was was very dry... we both asked for a lot more parmesan to make the meal taste of anything... Overall very disappointed with our meal, which was also very overpriced for the food that was produced before us. Will not be returning.

Another great night out at Monte Cassino we have our staff night out there every Xmas always fantastic! This was a smaller family do, but pizzas excellent, wine excellent, atmosphere excellent and not too pricey! Have read some negative reviews of this place that would be at least my 10th visit, nary a problem!!!

Is it really that difficult to prepare and present pasta that is beautiful to the eye and delicious on the taste buds??? Based on our experience this evening, Monte Cassino can't have any competition otherwise the place should have been empty. Really disappointing and expensive meal.......there really is no excuse for squirty cream and sickly sweet Nutella on a microwaved and partially concrete waffle for dessert. The House white was quite simply dire......I don't expect high end but Lidl and Aldi have a far superior selection under £5 The scoop of ice cream and flat white coffee. Don't get me started on the plastic tablecloths either

The restaurant is fantastic. We wouldn’t go to melrose without visiting monte cassino. Pizza with Parma ham and rocket was the best I have had. Girls loved the Parma wrapped prawns. Staff and owner so friendly. Best Italian in the borders by far. Thank you