My family and I were at Da Marietto with 2 of our friends for dinner on a weekend.
First of all, I have to admit that this comment comes from a person who does not usually post comments. On this occasion, however, my husband and I feel so compelled to share our bad experience and we are thankful that we have QYPE as a platform for us to do just that.
The pictures posted on this website are of the restaurant before it was renovated. The restaurant now looks more "posh". I am unable to comment if the coziness often associated with an "echter Familienbetrieb" has since been lost after the restaurant's recent facelift, because it was my family's first visit.
I do have to concede that the food is excellent (hence the 1 star), although I did find the prices a bit on the high side. But this is quite beside the point cos I don't mind paying a little more for good food. What I have a bone to pick with is how we were treated as paying customers. The following points sum up the appalling dining experience that left a bad taste in our mouth despite the delicious food:
1. We were there with our young son and had asked for a babychair for him. Repeatedly. The service staff's responses were vague. Whether the restaurant simply does not own a babychair or the service staff deliberately didn't provide one remained obscure. So in the end, my son had to sit on my husband's lap throughout dinner. It didn't seem to occur to the service staff that they had to do something to make our dining experience more comfortable. If they didn't have a babychair, the least they could do was to offer another armchair for my son to sit on. Quite an unusual experience given that Italian restaurants are known for their hospitality towards families with children.
2. As we were finishing up our meal, the owner of the restaurant was ranting at the female staff (most likely his wife according to one of the reviews above) who seated us, that we should not have given this table because it was reserved for some other guests who were at that point, waiting at the entrance of the restaurant. We were ready to ask for the bill anyway and the owner came to the table and asked in a very unfriendly tone what we have ordered. We started listing out what we had and before we could finish, he abruptly scurried off and shouted at his wife to take care of our bill.
A moment later, our bill was presented to us and there were unknown items that were being charged, which included a San Pellegrino that we didn't order, items listed as just Vorspeise (although we didn't have any starters at all) and a pizza we ordered but was not served. So we tried to verify it with the female staff. At this point, the owner was in such a hurry to get rid of us that he came over, threw a 5 Euro bill on the table and said it was for the pizza that didn't arrive and that we should just sign the credit card slip and leave. We were of course taken aback and maintained that we wanted to clarify the bill because it was clearly not our fault that they presented us a bill with ambiguous charges. He scurried off again ranting while the female staff remained to go through the bill with us. A few seconds later, the owner came back and threw another 10 Euros on our table and said "Gehen Sie, gehen Sie, gehen Sie..." (Leave, leave, leave...). (I have to add that there were absolutely no miscommunications because my husband and our friends are german.)
We were speechless! Suffice to say that we have regretted ever visiting this restaurant and we will never step foot in this place again. EVER! read more