Restaurant Piceri Era "Blloku" — Restaurant in Tirana Municipality

EXPERIENCA MË SKANDALOZE 3 JAVE QE JAM TURISTE NE EVROPË

It is my first time coming back to Tirana Albania ( my motherland) since 1995. I brought my American daughter for the first time to show her how wonderful Albania is, and to have her try the food. This place was the most disappointing experience of my whole 3 weeks since we have been here. The waiter we got ( not sure what his name is since here they have no manners and never introduce themselves, nor do they wear name tags) was Mr. “bad attitude”. He never smiled, he was very standoffish, and very impatient while I was translating the menu to my daughter who can’t read Albanian. On top of that, he was extremely unprofessional close to us arguing with one of his colleagues, telling him to “go back to your corner” and getting very territorial.

The other employee was kind and even translated the word for thyme in Albanian for us, that’s why he was close to us and trying to google on his phone. Our grumpy waiter was so childish he even mumbled loud enough: I hope your phone won’t work! Finally, while we were eating 3 plates of appetizers we had ordered, before getting to order the rib eye steaks and pizzas, I ordered a “giardino “ salad. The other employee who took my order respected my request and did not add honey. Before I could even stick the fork in, I asked our waiter if I could have a couple cherry tomatoes on the side and specifically said: I’ll pay you it’s no problem, I offered $10.

He said we don’t add stuff

IT’S 5 CHERRY TOMATOES ON A SMALL PLATE TO ADD TO MY SALAD, I didn’t ask for a whole roasted pig. I told him to ask the manager, he came back and said no again. At that point I’d had enough of the whole miserable attitude and abysmal customer service, so I demanded my bill.

I paid €27 for the appetizers we didn’t even get to eat, and the young man who came back with my change was I am guessing a manager. He pretended a couple seconds to try to find out what the problem was. They should’ve been aware what it was since they were the ones being unprofessional and petty, refusing to add 5 cherry tomatoes. I took the change, walked out, and we found another local restaurant for dinner that was wonderful. I’ll make sure to never ever come back here again and also advise all my family and friends to do the same. Remember, you don’t lose just 1 customer with bad business practices. You lose their whole circle of family and friends. The restaurant is Albanian so they realize how we are: OUR GRUDGE LASTS FOREVER!!! Bye ERA, the worst experience in Europe for us between Turkey, Greece, and...

We were searching on Google to find where to order pizza from, and the name of Pizzeria Era came up. I hadn’t eaten at Era in over 15 years, and back then, their pizzas were really good. We decided to order some pizzas and pick them up ourselves, since our office is very close, and that way we’d get them warm and fresh. We checked both Google and Baboon, and in both cases, the menu of Pizzeria Era showed up. We picked the types we wanted and called Era Bllok to place the order. Once we finished the order, they gave us the total bill over the phone. At first, we didn’t think much of it, since we hadn’t calculated the total ourselves based on the prices on Google or Baboon. Later on, we realized that the total was significantly higher than if we had ordered through Era Delivery or Baboon — which is surprising, as usually it’s the other way around. Still, we went to pick up the pizzas and brought them back to the office. Then came another surprise: the “Era Special Pizza” had completely different ingredients compared to what was listed on the delivery or Baboon menu, and even different from what Pizzeria Era Bllok supposedly offers. When we called to ask about it, we mentioned that not only was the price much higher, but the ingredients were different too??? The explanation we received was that the ingredients vary due to differences in quality, composition, cost, etc. The other surprise was that even though our order was to take away, we were charged for 8% of the total amount for tips for the waiters without serving us. And the cherry on top: in my opinion and taste, the pizza was terrible. I will never order from Pizzeria Era...

A warm friendly welcome when we arrived at 6:30pm on a Monday night.

We were immediately shown to a table for two (inside) which was perfect given it was 38degrees. Menus provided in English (noting it's also online).

And we ordered the most amazing dishes: (1) Homemade cheese, tomato and arugula flatbread. A sensational fresh dish - save some of the bread for the meatball sauce! (2) Cypriot style salad - arugula, grilled haloumi, brown lentils, cherry tomatoes. Fresh and tasty. (3) Stuffed eggplant - delicious! (4) Meatballs with pistachio and yogurt. Absolutely the best dish as it's so yummy (some reviews said it was spicy - it's not - just full of flavor).

Idur and Ana were very attentive and friendly staff.

And they serve the best red wine - arguably one of the best in the world - Kallmeti Prestigj is stunning.

A few other reviews mentioned a 7% tax being applied to the bill. We experienced this and note there is no mention on the menu (the only sour note which hopefully the restaurant corrects soon in the spirit of transparency). Great value for money with fantastic food.

Note: You can also book online for the restaurant but suggest a few days before (www.era.al)

Credit...