La Gioia — Restaurant in Tirana Municipality

The restaurant is in the beautiful location of Kalajae Tiranes in the very center of Tirana. It‘s known for it’s sea food and receives excellent reviews. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO ENJOY YOUR VISIT IN THIS RESTAURANT BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING: The restaurant owner is an excellent sales man and offers upsell wherever possible . In case you are interested in vine, better ALWAYS ask for the menu, so you have an understanding about the pricing. In order to avoid UNCOMFORTABLE discussion, when the bill arrives, better ALWAYS double check, that the service (in our case the owner) understands clearly, what you ordered and you do not get served and charged any bigger version of the starter. According to the owner, it’s the strategy of the restaurant to serve the dishes spiced up quite moderate or neutral. Means it’s your DUTY as GUEST to ask for further ingredients like salt or garlic to make the dishes tasty when it doesn’t meat your taste expectations. STRANGE! Unfortunately I wasn’t aware of this, when I received my Tagliatelle with seafood or my fried sea food mix as starter. Finally, I strongly recommend to ALWAYS double check the BILL, so you don’t get charged by food, you never received or ordered. In case you take the recommendations above into account , you might have an amazing night out and won’t regret the visit. I personally will NOT VISIT nor recommend this restaurant again as I don’t want to feel TRAPPE by an SALESMAN . Finally I would like to thank Ina for her kind and friendly service. FOLLOW UP after the restaurant answers to my feedback:

1. we asked for the menu of vine but never received it. At first stage we asked for two glasses of vine. We were told you only sell white vine in bottles. I always told you, it was my fault not to insist on receiving the menu. I even gave you credits for being a excellent sales man.I have asked for a vine which doesn’t cost 200€/bottle and your answer was, we are here in Albania, of course not. You charged 40€ for a bottle worth per Google max. 14€. Therefore I recommend always to insist on the vine menu in your restaurant.
2. we ordered small portion of fried sea food mix but got served and charged big portion. As guest you can hardly expect from me to differentiate between 500g & 300g, not knowing the size of your portions. The order was made in Albanian language by an Albanian native. As you can read above, we ordered sea food mix. Trying here to undermine my review by trying to paint the picture we had a language issue or we ate what we didn’t order is highly unserious and even underlines my feelings about your restaurant even more.
3. You charged bread we never received.
4. I told you from the beginning, I will even pay the charged, 7900lek, including all your wrong charged positions. Just gave you feedback!
5. I was not asking for gluten free food, I gave you the feedback, that the Tagliatelle with Seafood and the fried seafood mix was basically tasteless. Do you really asks me to tell the waiter at time of order I expect a meal with any taste?! I trust that’s irony. Even your mayonnaise dip for the mixed seafood was tasteless. As second dip for the fright seafood you serve a sweet & sour asian dip sauce, which can be bought in every supermarket. I’m sorry to go now on such details, but honestly your feedback deserves this now.
6. That you OBSERVE your guest without their knowledge with cameras and even use this for your argumentation here is an ABSOLUTE NO GO. I URGE you to delete all the footage of me and my partner with IMMEDIATE EFFECT! Everyone who joins your restaurant should be aware of this!

FINALLY, the finial bill was 7190lek and I gave 7500. So I would appreciate if you would take my feedback without trying to undermine my integrity and giving the impression you gave a generous price reduction!

Reading other reviews it seems I’m not the only person who leaves your restaurant with mixed feelings. For me your restaurant is a one...

Okay, imagine you walk into Skibidi Central and immediately your brain goes pop in the best worst way. It’s like your neurons are doing the Skibidi dance: involuntary, chaotic, and oddly satisfying.

Ambience / mood: The place vibrates with a kind of electric absurd. Neon lights flicker. Somewhere in the back you hear a muffled “skibidi-doop” echo. You half-expect a toilet with a human head to rise from the floor and start singing. It’s chaotic aesthetic, but in a strangely curated way.

Service / staff: You ask for a menu. The waiter peers at you, mouth twitching. He hands you a laminated card with no logical layout, just symbols, arrows, and “skibidi specials.” You try to order grilled fish; he nods gravely and writes something that looks like a toilet icon + flame. You’re unsure whether you ordered “Grilled Salmon” or “Skibidi Jet Engine.” He disappears into a booth that looks like a video game level and reappears like nothing happened.

Food: When the dish arrives, you’re unsure whether to eat it or worship it. The plating looks like some performance art—fish scored in concentric arcs, a smear of neon sauce, a garnish shaped suspiciously like a toilet. You take a bite. It tastes… okay? Good, even. But mid-chew your brain says, “Why am I eating fish in a dimension that feels like a meme?” It’s weirdly satisfying brain rot. The texture is solid, the seasoning sharp, perhaps a hint of citrus. But the entire act of eating feels like participating in a ritual.

Overall vibe: This is not a restaurant, it’s an existential trap. You leave with your mind scrambled, humming “skibidi” under your breath. You ask yourself: Did I just dine, or was I inducted into a clerisy of memes? You don’t know. But you can’t stop replaying...

The food is awful, the risotto wasnt creamy it was like simple rice, not good at all, in the ravioli with seafood the filling wasnt tasty, the linguini with seafood was okay , in the salad the lettuce was stale, the cheesecake with pistachio wasnt good it was really heavy and overly sweet , the pannacotta was good but we waited 50 minutes for the desserts even though they have them ready and also the bathroom was dirty. I wouldnt go there ever again and its really sad that the food is like that even though its in such a nice spot. Would NOT recommend..

As for the response of the restaurant all i have to say is, first of all no my intent wasnt to spoil your image it was just what my experience in the restaurant was and how i felt about it, everyone has different tastes. The toilet was not clean. We ate the food because we were hungry and didnt want to order and pay for more that we might’ve not even liked again. No we were not happy and grateful we were regretful that we chose that place to dine. Maybe instead of blaming me for trying to spoil the restaurant’s image read the rest of the 1 star reviews that also say the same things and dont go begging for your customers to write 5star reviews like your waiters asked them to and fix the problem.

Also they stole our ombrella there and you gave us a broken one. Thanks for your response but you wont be seeing me there again. This is just my opinion about the food people have different tastes maybe someone...