I wanted to love Osteria Belgrade. It's a couple of blocks from our AirBNB, It's beautiful. It faces the Arno and even on a hot evening the breeze was refreshing. The on-line menu looked great. I made a pre-notazione in a combination of badly spoken Italian, good Spanish and native English.
But . . . .
When we arrived -- on time -- the host seemed seemed like he had no idea about the reservation. The waitress was super personable and very helpful, but after delivering the wine didn't return to take our order for another 45 minutes. Then we waited and waited for the appetizer, an insalata caprese. What could be easier and quicker to make? So we ate way too much bread, had a second glass of wine. And waited. And waited. The primo -- pasta with an octopus sauce was lovely. The segundo, branzino was perfectly prepared.
Great food. Wine and olive oil from the Belguardo estate. But the Osteria was understaffed and overwhelmed by what should have been a normal dinner service. More kitchen help? More wait staff? An off night?
Last night at least, Belguardo had five-star food, but two-star service. read more