Tenuta La Romana — Hotel in Nizza Monferrato

When we arrived at the Tenuta on a very hot July night we might have been greeted in a friendly way and offered a choice of table. ||We might have chosen from a fine selection of antipasti and after waiting for over 40 minutes had the pleasure of all 4 of us (Italians and English friends) eating these at the same time. ||We might then have chosen from some excellent Primi and Secondi, and after a further delay of almost an hour, had these arrive at the table at the same time, so that again we could eat together. ||*We might have experienced any of these things, we have before, at this stylish and ambitious restaurant/ agriturismo.||||Sadly, we didn't. ||And the reason I'm writing this negative review about what is often a really great place (as others handsomely testify here) is because even after waiting for nearly 2 hours altogether, when our main courses finally came they weren't even what we had ordered. ||A plate of gnocchi and vongole and a completely different order of homemade pasta al scoglio had somehow morphed into gnocchi al scoglio for both of us. |||| And to make things slightly ludicrous the chef had plated these differently, as if to distract from his mistake.||||We all make mistakes. We are truly reasonable people. But after this long wait, and the increasing awkwardness of the hit and miss deliveries of the food, all we could do was eat our hybrid gnocchi dishes, finish and leave. ||Basta.||As he paid the bill, the singularly graceless manager asked my husband what he thought of the food. He tried to tell her that timing had been off, he didn't even get to the hybrid gnocchi. ||||And instead of listening to his not unreasonable response she immediately became cross and aggressive, and told him 'It's a very hot night, it's very difficult for the chef, it's not his fault'.||||If not his, whose?! ||This might have been just as lovely an evening as we've had there before but it wasn't. It was awkward and too long and not what we had ordered. ||I'm sure it will be better another time, I'm just not sure it will be us making the experiment. ||And thank you to the sweet waitress, who really did try to make it all right...

We are a group of approx 50 people, 14 to 59 years of age, who spend 1 week together each summer and has done that for many years. We have been at 3 agriturismos in Italy before and are very able to compare. Tenuta la Romana has been the most "hotel-like" agriturismo with very high standards of rooms, service and breakfast (perfect espressos :-)). All staff was very friendly and welcoming and the hotel was very well managed by Barbara, Donatella and the others. There were no problems during our stay and they were very flexible concerning organizing tables for 56 outside the hotel, cooling off our beeers, organizing testing of e-bikes etc. We visited many sights in the area, including 2 sites for wine tasting which are both highly recommendable (Contratto in Canelli and Scarpa in Nizza Monferrato). Following recommendations from Torkel at Cascinagentile.no, we went to a very good restaurant in Vaglio Serra called Piazza Crova, with everyone in the group. Some of us also had a fantastic ride at e-bikes 50 km around the area. With e-bikes there is no trouble going all the up and downs in the area. We hired bikes from Volmar Viaggi e Vacanze, and the bikes and service was absolutely wonderful. Just contact the reception at Tenuta la Romana and they will have them bring the bikes. Highly recommendable!||||The restaurant, with another owner, but lying next to the hotel, was very good too and we had many very nice meals there, though I would avoid being many people at the 1st floor since the rooms there created a lot of noise, which made it impossible to speak to anyone but the one sitting next to you. The L'Ambaradan pizzeria down the road is...

This was our second time here so we had high hopes. We even brought friends. When we went to the room after dinner our door was wide open. The receptionist forgot to close it when she put in a baby bed. Fortunatelly nothing was stolen. Our room was so hot during the 1st night so we couldnt sleep. When we telled the reception that our AC might be broken they told us that the AC was shut down automatically from 02-06 am. What!!! It is during the night we need it on. Our friends AC was actually broken so they had a sauna room for the whole first evening and night. The sadest thing is that the receptionist new that the AC was broken and still put our friends in that room. We all got new rooms in the morning and we got a promise that they wont shut down the AC this night. We are not picky people but the service and food at the restaurant was unstabile this time. We felt forgotten several times and we didnt even get a candle when the power went out and all got black and no one told us that we wont get our dessert because of the power break. My mussels in tomatosauce was like heaven but my grilled mixed fish for main course was over cooked, dry and boring. A good thing thow was the ”wine lady”. She had a lot of knowledge and she was great. Then last but not least, the breakfast was just ok, nothing more....Almost forgot...the pool was...