I checked Yelp for restaurant reviews close to our hotel, and this place didn't come up. Oh how I wish it had, since so many others eclipsed this one.
What are the criteria for restaurant greatness? In my book they are nice atmosphere, efficient and friendly service that's not robotic, and most of all, outstanding food. Except for the sangria, which was tasty and full of fruit, the meal was awful - the worst we have had so far on our trip.
Cute atmosphere and decent but impersonal service, but the food was gross. We shared a lasagna and a main course-size Mediterranean salad. The salad was only slightly larger than a side salad would be, and at nearly 16 euro, it was outright robbery. The lasagna portion was on the small side, too. It was too salty, the sauce was nothing special, and the pasta was gummy, but what really damned it was the top layer of cheese, which needed a hacksaw to cut it. The speed with which it was all delivered was a testament to pre-made, pre-plated, and reheated.
As soon as the food was delivered, my phone rang and alerted me to a crisis at home that needed immediate intervention. I was trying to talk on the phone and cut that damn lasagna at the same time, and I had a lot more success dealing with the phone call then eating the lasagna. I went outside to make another international call, and came back in to choke down a bit more of that awful stuff. There is no way that I was going to deal with the terrible food at the same time.
But as soon as we finished, or at least as soon as I pushed away my plate, the manager came over to ask how our meal was. And I told her. Nicely and simply informationally. She started arguing with us, telling us that the owners were Italian and that I did not know Italian food and that we ate the food, so she wasn't going to take it off the check. I tried several times to tell her that we weren't asking for anything, that we had no intention of trying to get it removed from our bill, and even explained that I had to deal with the crisis at home and couldn't request something else, which she had said we should have. She continued attacking our "Italian food credentials," repeating over and over that she would do nothing for us, no matter how many times I told her that we weren't asking for anything. She had an agenda and was not going to let us get in the way of it. She just may win the prize for the nastiest and haughtiest manager ever to run a restaurant. If the food itself didn't leave a bad taste in our mouths, the disgusting and unwarranted behavior of this woman finished off the job.
I could say more, but this place isn't worth any more of my time. read more