Louise S.
Yelp
AVOID.............EXTREMELY DISHONEST, DON'T CARE ABOUT TOURIST BUSINESS
We were celebrating a milestone birthday for my dear Mother and of the thousands of restaurants in Rome, we chose Hostaria Da Pietro because it served local food closeby, the reviews were good and it was recommended to us by the our hotel, the First Roma Arte.
What you are about to read will be almost impossible to believe, but it happened and I owe it to the Yelp community to share because I don't want anyone else to pay for such a bewildering experience.
Upon entering the restaurant the manager/owner, looked us up and down before asking if we are Italian and/or spoke Italian. Of the three of us, two of us speak fluent Italian. We were a well-dressed family out together to celebrate a special occasion and although his question seemed a bit discriminatory, we thought once we started speaking to him in Italian that everything would be ok.
Upon being seated, he came over to take our order for drinks and appetizers and told us that the waiter would follow up with us for the rest of the meal. So with the owner-manager, we ordered two glasses of white wine to start and a few appetizers. He rolled his eyes at our choices and told us he would take care of us. Instead of two glasses of white wine, out came a full bottle and three completely different appetizers than those we ordered. When we brought it to the waiters attention, he assured us not to worry, that it was "gratis" that the youngish-manager-owner was "taking care of it".
We then ordered a $30 bottle of Ripasso and placed the order for the rest of the meal with the waiter as instructed. Although we ordered a Ripasso, an Amarone arrived at the table and at this point my husband who's in the business was getting frustrated by these shady games. We once again brought it to the attention of the waiter that we did not order an Amarone and indicated the Ripasso we ordered. Of course a different Ripasso arrived. We were so worn down at this point with both the waiter and the owner just bringing whatever they wanted instead of what we requested that we decided to try to enjoy the night and just go with it.
At one point the manager-owner came back to the room we were seated in and asked out loud for everyone to hear.......where we were from and we said, NY at which point he irreverently replied that NY was too much of a "casino" which in English translates to a madhouse and that "everyone's black, there are too many blacks". I honestly think this guy was on something because no one in a sober state of mind would behave so inappropriately.
When the bill arrived, there was a $300 charge for the wine and a $15 charge for the appetizers. Once again we brought it to the attention of the waiter who was just a puppet for this guy's antics. He apologized, shrugged it off as an "honest mistake" and adjusted the price only for the wine. At this point it was just easier to pay the bill and leave, regretting that we chose this place over Life Ristorante or any other restaurant for that matter.
We have traveled extensively, live and eat out in NYC 3-4x per week which is certainly not considered a gentle town. Needless to say, we have never been put in such an uncomfortable position during a meal. When you go out to dinner, especially on vacation you are there to relax and enjoy not be on-guard and stressed. It was a terrible way to end our last night in Rome. The irony is that they should be more respectful to the American tourists because as I looked around, two local guys behind us were sharing one steak, another local couple two pastas, it was the Americans that were spending the dollars in there and everywhere else in Rome.
The food was decent and inside of the restaurant there were mostly locals sprinkled in with some tourists. I'm guessing they mistakenly figure the locals are more important and on this night it certainly showed.
I promptly wrote our hotel and recommended that they take this restaurant off of their list of recommendations in an effort for them to preserve their 5-star reputation.