Very disappointed. Obviously an established well-reviewed restaurant judging from all the stickers in the window, the tourists, and the well-heeled locals. I would like to give the restaurant the benefit of the doubt because we went in on a rainy day at 1 pm with no reservation. But after waiting an hour for the first course to arrive, let alone any bread or wine, we surmised something was up.
The food was below par for what the restaurant proposes to be. My first course of whipped baccala' was bland, rich, and poorly presented as a pile of white on a white plate with 2 small narrow bruschetti vertically jabbed in the paste. Missing was any contrast of flavor or color, and by halfway thru my stomach was starting to turn from the bland richness. The texture was curiously like plastic or putty, a bit off-putting, and I love baccala'. It took another long expanse of time before our primi piatti arrived, or rather my secondo piatto and my dining companions' primi piatti. Talk about off-timing. Two of us had the chitarrini with saffron sauce, a bland cream sauce with not much to offer. Pasta was over-sauced, it was swimming in the plate. One diner had the grilled pork chop, dry, tough, tasteless, he couldn't finish it and had trouble swallowing it. I tried to help eat it and gave up myself. The salads arrived with the second plates even though we had asked for them afterwards. They were the best part of the meal, simple with an excellent dressing of balsamic and lemon, and salted perfectly.
By the time we left it was 3 pm, which caused us to miss our next grotto visit in another city. We should have figured out something was up, as the table of Scandinavian tourists behind us left before their food arrived....I heard them say they had to leave or they'd miss another appointment. Several groups of local business people arrived, obviously for their regular lunches. They came after us and left before we finished our meal, so they were served first. We are on a 2 month stay in Italy, speak decent Italian, and have eaten all over....this was one of the few times we were made to feel like American tourists who were ignored. Not acceptable. read more
