Spend a week in Tuscany and you can get lulled into the false sense of security that any restaurant you pick is going to be amazing, and for the most part they are...except this one.
We sat down on the packed patio to take in a very appealing menu, not dramatically different from other area restaurants, but with some intriguing items like local rabbit and, of course, the standard pizza and pastas.
After a while, a female server came over and asked if we'd like some drinks. We ordered some house white for the grown ups and Fanta and water for the kids. Then we sat, and we sat. About a half hour later, a male server came by to take our drink order again. After another little wait, drinks did indeed appear and we were able to order some food.
At this point, another starved family arrived with it going on about 9:30. After sitting for a while, they asked us if we had been waiting a while for food. Well, actually yes. They then tried to get some bread. They were told the restaurant was out of bread at that point, probably from all the customers attempting to stay nourished while waiting for some sort of protein. We gave them our bread and you would have thought we had shared something magical with the thanks we got.
Eventually, food arrived. The kids pizza and pasta were basic, but okay. The pasta e fagioli soup ended up being an immense clump of pasta so big that no broth from the soup was able to survive. It ended up sort of a mildly-flavored pasta sponge. The local "braised rabbit with pasta" that came after was another pile of pasta with little bits of what tasted like overcooked chicken Italian sausage in it. Just as the soup, it was way too much pasta to accommodate much too little sauce and meat to add any flavor.
After two courses, and two and half hours, we finally escaped and sought out gelato down the street for dessert. We just couldn't invest another hour to see what dessert might have been there.
This place has mostly polite and mostly well-meaning service, but they are understaffed, poorly trained and not able to make up for what was definitely the worse food we've had an an area where even a quick stop for lunch seems to bring fantastic things to eat. Don't waste your time or your Euros. You will be disappointed if you go here. read more