Ciara C.
Yelp
For a family meal, Milano ticks a lot of boxes. A decent kids' menu, freshly prepared tasty food, a decent variety and friendly, accommodating staff.
And if your preference is for pizza that doesn't leave you feeling that you may never move again, Milano is your place, with its thin-bases and fresh dough.
The pasta can be a little hit and miss across restaurants, with the arrabiatta sauce here decidedly lacking in chilli, which really is its only function. But the pasta itself is decent, and the lasagne is a staple you can depend upon. The olives are very nice too.
We - a party of 12 - got slightly caught in crossfire when the restaurant was hit by an unexpected customers surge, soon after 5000 starving people were released from an event in the nearby RDS, which clearly Milanos hadn't bargained for. First off, our booked table had been inadvertently given away to another party of 12, so we weren't off to the best start. And before too long, a general sense of panic was palpable, with too few chefs doing the equivalent of an intense a workout trying to get food served up, and increasingly hassled-looking staff doing their very best to manage it all. As happens in these circumstances, it's hard to keep everyone happy, and the kids in our party were the main collateral damage as their order got lost. For the row of adults sitting with their backs to that table, this wasn't too much of a problem. For those of us in view of the kids' pale, protesting faces, however, it became something of a stress point.
In fairness to Milano, though - and for my money in a customer-centred response not at all in keeping with the general approach in Dublin, where in the worst of circumstances you'd do well to get your chips removed from the bill - they entirely recognised the problems, and were more than generous in how they dealt with it. And more than that you can't ask for, because all restaurants have their tricky days, and for a customer the stress of being on the receiving end of that is only compounded when the restaurant fails to take responsibility. Based on how our experience was handled - because ultimately to food was A-ok and the wine was flowing - I wouldn't hesitate to give Milano Haddington Road another chance.