Hard Rock Cafe in Milan is one of their newest locations, the restaurant opened in early July 2022 and is one of five locations in Italy.
It's located on Via Dante with Castello Sforzesco just down the street and tram/metro services very close by, you're in central Milan here.
I visited not long after they had first opened, so there were a fair number of teething issues which will need to be addressed, starting with the positives, the place looked and felt great, with good music with a mixture of international and Italian artists (Including Eurovision winners Måneskin), and cool merch.
Gluten-Free options were labelled on the menu, however, I was also presented with the allergen folder, I do think awareness of allergens could be improved, as staff members were being overly cautious and disputing both the allergen folder and menu.
My original meal was served with no sides at all, I was told they contained gluten, I was especially angry having waited a while for my food, and having not been advised when ordering that I would be unable to have the fries, coleslaw and beans. I had to advise the staff, that this is my usual order at HRC around the world, and I was able to have them, presenting proof with evidence of the menu and allergen folder, I had to ask multiple times and was eventually presented with the sides. It was so difficult to get the food that I had ordered.
I wasn't too impressed with my food either, the chicken wasn't overly great, as with any HRC/themed restaurant it was a little pricey too, but again you're paying a premium when dining in central Milan, a benefit of choosing here is they don't charge the coperto which pretty much every other place nearby does.
The fries and coleslaw were fine, but nothing too special.
My guest ordered the salmon, she did mention while the salmon was nice, she didn't like the fact it was served with cauliflower, and felt they didn't go together very well, compared to the green beans seasoned with garlic that they serve in Cafe's elsewhere (such as back home in the UK)
Despite being on the TIM network during my time in Italy, which had fantastic coverage while I was in Milan, with the fastest 5G speeds I have ever experienced, I was unable to get a mobile signal inside here, and I was also told that their WiFi hadn't been set up yet which was annoying.
For my drink, I ordered a Long Island Ice Tea, I ordered this with a collectable glass, I was originally told they did not have any of the collectable glasses in stock, and I would have to order a "Hurricane" in order to get the Hurricane glass, I, therefore, asked them if it would be possible to get the same drink, but with different glass. They had to check, but I later found out it was OK.
I did enjoy my drink but again, they had forgotten the cola mixer, the drink was all alcohol and what they had used to sweeten it, so it was very strong. After making the staff members aware, they did try to make it right, they offered to waive the fee for the collectable glass, so I ended up paying for the drink and getting the collectable glass at no additional cost. Another minor but pretty costly mistake... as in the end they're using more alcohol and making the drink unnecessarily strong. Strangely, as a condition of accepting the discount, I was told that they would need to keep hold of my receipt, I was asked to take a photo of my receipt, pay and they would escort me to the store to get my collectable glass to take home, again I didn't have a problem with this but it just seemed.... rather odd?
I was unable to use my Hard Rock Cafe loyalty either, I was told that due to a change in the system they were unable to accept rewards codes, and I would have to go to head office.
3* - This place has potential, the staff are friendly and spoke great English, but a lack of staff training and multiple teething issues really does make this Hard Rock Cafe a work in progress. I would return here and give them another try on a future trip to Milan, the strangely large number of staff working here were friendly but could do with better training to avoid the multiple issues I had during my experience. read more