Jill B.
Yelp
I wanted to like Dau Cila. The location was lovely, overlooking the water at Riomaggiore on the Cinque Terre coast in Italy. There were white table cloths & candles. The menu looked and sounded pretty tasty. But alas, the service was awful. And to be honest, we shouldn't have been surprised by this fact given the reviews (on Tripadvisor in particular), but we wanted to give it a go as it was also recommended by our hotel and only one fellow Yelper had written about poor service. Ugh.
We arrived early before our reservation time, hoping just to have a drink before dinner, but ended up being semi rushed into ordering given that we were seated already.
I ordered the grilled fish which came with some smoked eggplant and the husband ordered grilled fish which came with some potatoes and olives. Very typical Ligurian cuisine for the part of the Italian Coast we were visiting. Simple, but if done well, delicious. We also shared a plate of grilled vegetables.
The food was passable. I had some bones still in my fillet of white fish, which whilst not ideal, didn't make the meal terminal. I guess what I am saying is that if the service was amazing and the prices a bit more "value for money" I would not have batted an eyelash at the food. But when the other areas lack, particularly the service, well, then you start to pick-a-little more. And yes, we didn't have some do their more "famous" dishes, but you can't have only a couple of standout dishes on your menu. Everything needs to be at a certain standard.
In terms of the service, we didn't really expect a lot as it can generally be quite blunt and inattentive in Italy, but these guys literally abandoned us as soon as our food was placed on the table. The husband had to get up in order to pay the bill eventually and this was after we watched a couple of other poor couples trying to get a table but being ignored whilst standing right in the doorway and staring directly at the MANY staff members that passed them by. Awful. There was severe favouritism being given to a table of locals inside, meaning that all the "tourists" sitting outside were basically ignored. I take great offence to this as the tourists are the people keeping these guys employed and in business. If it was awful service for everyone, that's another story again.
But this? No thanks. I won't be recommending anyone to go here, especially as there are better options in the other towns along the coast which are just a short train ride away...