At first, the sound of a 24 hour Italian restaurant did not fill us with a great sense of hope. However, opening the door from a chilly, grey, rainy Duisburg evening and being greeted by the homely smell of garlic and pizza, as well as a mixture of traditional German and "ma and pa" Italian decor - we were filled with optimism for our dinner ahead.
Seated by a waiter who clearly viewed customers as an inconvenience, we skeptically went for the house red Lambrusco and house "dry red". Comparing the two, the Lambrusco was more like sugared fermented cordial brewed in a carrot washer, and the "dry red" was soaked in cork and cellar air, so dry it resembled a fine grit sandpaper gently scraping against the roof of your mouth. There was salvation however, abandoning our wine by the glass and going for one of the small but good selections of D.O.C. Italian reds.
With renewed optimism we placed our order with the difficult to engage waiter - 1 cannelloni, 1 lasagne, 1 spaghetti bolognese...
Within 5 suspicious minutes - sizzling overheated plates arrived with very basic Italian dishes with the food cooked to the same temperature as a re-entering space shuttle.
The spag bol was okay - meat, tomato sauce and spaghetti, not a lot else. The lasagne was apparently "good". However our meal was somewhat interrupted by our third diner making grumbling noises about his food not being "quite right"... At that moment, the smell of rotting dairy filled the table as the cannelloni was surgically opened to reveal a decomposed black sludge resembling biological waste. The smell permeated further with the overwhelming stench filling half the restaurant as we tried to find the non existent waiter to remove the toxic source before the spag bol and lasagne reappeared through reverse osmosis from our digesting stomachs...
Finally removing the offending plate and a hastily ordered "safe" replacement (not a cannelloni), suddenly our own meals did not taste quite as nice and we made plans to escape to what seemed suddenly like an appealing outdoor fresh air...
Suggesting to the owner that the replaced meal should be for free, was responded by initial hostility, followed by his agreement that he would do "us" a favor and "he" would pay for the meal of our colleague.
We retreated to the night, vowing to never return, worried that out colleague may not make breakfast the next morning... Thankfully his iron will and stomach lived to join us for the next Yelp review....
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Needless to say - 1 star. If you would like a replacement referral - go to Nuh's Thai across the road, No. 1 rated food outlet in Duisburg and from what we tried - we agree!!!! read more
