I can only describe this experience as an extreme disappointment... I was invited there by a friend and immediately things were going wrong - there were several empty tables and yet we were asked to sit in an overly brightly lit room and had to repeatedly ask to be seated in a more comfortable spot... service continued to be slow and inept throughout the night. The really sad thing about this place was the food. Selections on the small menu looked uninteresting but we were hopeful: pasta pomodoro, toast with tunafish, beef stew... yet somehow they reminded me more of a children's menu than anything adventurous. Arrival of the food did not help get rid of our fears - the tuna was obviously tinned, the pomodoro was serviceable but not with the quality cheese or pasta i would expect, the beef stew was dull and plated sloppily with just a small pile of plain, parboiled rice. Portions were small, hot food came one plate at a time to the table rather than together, the salad starter was very dull. We were all, in turn, struck by just how uninventive the food was, nothing I would even serve at my own house to guests...it honestly reminded me of quick and dirty 20 minute dinners I would throw together on a busy day. Finally, the worst part: the WINE. I asked for a bottle of white, got the only variety they had, and was disappointed to see that it was one of the cheapest, low quality vino verdes on the market - usually 4 euro in a convenience store, and often only 5-6 dollars in the US. At the end of the dinner it was our shock to find that we were charged 18 euros for this embarrassingly bad wine, and needlessly so - we would have been happy to pay 10 euros for a cheap bottle or, better yet, pay 18 for something that had been selected with any kind of care.
-- overall, a huge disappointment. for 70 euros three people ate food we could have cooked ourselves for 15 euros, but probably we would never bothered to make such boring recipes if what we wanted was some real dining. Combined with overpriced booze and bad service, it just cannot be recommended. My advice: invite your friends over and cook them something decent, light a few candles and you'll be doing better than Fortuna's table. read more