At 6pm on a cold Sunday evening in March, six of us came in for supper. Unsurprisingly, the restaurant was empty - let's face it - nowhere in Hove at that time is going to be heaving, so we seated ourselves, expecting the waiter's undivided. But she seemed to be in another, busier restaurant, a place where all the tables were full, where people were lining up, craning their necks anxiously to see if - at last - a table was being vacated. Six people take longer to order than two do, and we really didn't mess about, but she drummed her pen on her order pad, quickly repeating everything as soon as we said it, anxious to scurry off and attend to all the other customers.

If you go to their website, you will see how pricey it is. The menu is unimaginative and £12.95 for salmon and vegetables is a bit much - that was my order and it was nothing special. I can't remember what everyone had, but a couple of risottos we pronounced "OK" (well, of course they were really pronounced 'risotto' - stop being facetious!) and nothing was uneatable. But nothing was wonderful either. We got bread, but only when we asked for it. Naturally she was far too busy to check if our meals were OK.

On the website is a picture of a large terrace with many tables and chairs, overlooking a deep blue sea. Since they have only the one address, and Hove is a seaside town, you are obviously meant to think that this is the actual restaurant - it is not. Church Road is several hundred yards from the sea and La Veramente does not mention an outside terrace on the website, or on back of the card we picked up. It lists many attractive features, such as "Warm and friendly atmosphere" "Function Room" "Licensed Bar" and "Reasonably priced set menus" but nothing about an outside terrace.

The website, the price list and the waiter's demeanour indicate that La Veramente has delusions about the kind of restaurant it actually is. It behaves, and charges, like a bustling, popular, sophisticated mecca of gastronomy, overlooking the Med. In reality it's a modest, local restaurant, some distance from the Atlantic, low on customers and high on prices. If it was the only place for miles, I'd say OK, but there are so many other good places on Church Road - so Rejected. DM 2005