Aromi — Restaurant in Prague

The meal started out wonderful. We arrived 10 mins earlier than our booking and was shown to our table immediately. After ordering a glass of wine for my wife, the complimentary bread selection (crusty, soft, delicious) was served. We were given a few minutes to peruse the menu, and then the daily fish selection was brought out, professionally introduced to us by our waiter. We decided on 3 items: the artichoke starter, the spaghetti carbonara, and a salt-crusted seabass, this was 10 minutes after we were seated. The small-bite appetizers were tasty, especially the gazpacho "espresso", and the artichoke was beautifully cooked and presented. This was served within 20 mins of us ordering, excellent pace and service. After our artichoke, we were served a cold minty lemon sorbet to reset our taste buds, and it was refreshing, cold and tangy, both of us were excitedly anticipating our main course. So far, we were having a great dinner with great pacing and service, me and the wife was having a great time, but then we were kept waiting for our carbonara and fish for almost 45 minutes(!). It was jarring, as when we were seated, the restaurant was not busy, we were perhaps the 4th or 5th table. Nothing was communicated to us, and when we inquired after 30 minutes, we were given "we are waiting for the pasta to be al dente to be served with the fish, it should only be 5-6 more minutes". Our waiter was apologetic and very professional, but also forgot my order of Coke Zero, so I had to remind another waiter. 10 minutes after our inquiry, our mains still weren't served, so we informed our server that after 5 more minutes without our food, we would like to pay and leave. Fortunately, 2 minutes passed and our food finally arrived. Both the pasta and salt-crusted sea bass were served, and while the sea bass obviously came out of the oven perhaps seconds before, the pasta was not. The carbonara plate, informed to us by another waiter, were "extremely hot" supposedly, but it was almost room temperature, as in I was touching it with my finger and barely felt any warmth. Our warmed plates used for our seabass was hotter than this carbonara, and coincidently, the pasta was also the low point of the meal. Maybe if we had the chance to try it freshly made out of the pan, it would have been tastier, but as presented to us, it was not hot, the sauce is not clinging to the spaghetti and the seafood flavors was very lacking, despite having sea urchin, bottarga, salmon caviar in it. Thankfully, the seabass was beautifully cooked and tasted excellent with a squeeze of lemon and some salt & pepper. We decided not to have any dessert and asked for the bill, I was doubled charged for the Coke Zero, which was very quickly solved as our waiter were fast and efficient when he had food to serve or when we required his service. As the restaurant had some problem with their terminals for card payment at that time, we paid in cash and left. We had high expectations walking into Aromi and were very disappointed leaving the restaurant. The waiters were fast and efficient, and any drinks order were quickly served. However, the foods were not being served in any timely matter, not only for us, but for the dining room as a whole, as being kept waiting that long gave us plenty of time to do people watching. Our fish was served the same time as the table sat 10 minutes after us, who also ordered the same salt-crusted fish, for example.

Aromi has excellent food, great atmosphere, beautifully decorated dining room, but bizarre pacing of service which soured...

Most disappointing restaurant in Prague!!! You won't believe! Michelin Guide Mistake! I've eaten at 40+ Michelin restaurants from Guide to Bib to 3 stars all across the world!

This is the worst one in my opinion!

Expectation: Michelin Guide Reality: Avoid at all costs!

The good:

Bartender was friendly, made a good Amaretto Sour.

Pistachio dessert was good.

The bad:

The wild sea bass was terrible, undercooked and not caramelized (malliard reaction), portion definitely very light for 120 grams waiter quoted. Just soft and lacked flavor.

Service was terrible. 4 waiters and no one communicating. One takes drinks then another server comes up and asks if we want drinks. Chaos.

No menu for drinks, dessert. Forgot about us after clearing our main course, so after I waited 10 minutes and finally was able to grab a server's attention.

When we got there only 2 other tables, yet it still took 15 minutes to get our order in.

No one asked us how our dishes were or checked really. Just take order and bring back. We were served after a group of 8 that came in after us (maybe this is why fish was partly cold?).

Table next to us was swearing constantly, definitely ruined the mood and I'm surprised wait staff or manager didn't address as it was not subtle.

The ugly:

When I made the reservation I mentioned it was to celebrate an engagement. No mention no congratulations. Just empty. No magic here.

I bought a bottle of sparkling water. I had to refill my own glass despite waiting for actual service. If I waited for service I'd still be sitting there.

The waiter, despite terrible service, tried to PRESSURE me into tipping. Didn't ask if I wanted to put tip just handed me the machine with 10% added and strongly said service is not included while pointing at the receipt.

Luckily I checked and had him remove it. To which he threw a mini tantrum "no service fee?!" and glared at me as I walked out.

I was grateful to pay and never come back to this restaurant where hospitality is dead. A tip is earned not given, and management would be good to do some quality assurance and improvement. I'd start with having one server per table (we had 4 people involved and there was zero communication between them). The next thing I would do is make sure fish is weighed and cooked properly.

Instead of giving 1 star I gave 2, for the pistachio dessert and amaretto sour, but I can guarantee that I will never come back, and if anyone asks I will recommend one of the other many great restaurants in Prague. Ones where there is actual hospitality, great food, and service.

If you want cold food, terrible service with 4 waiters, forget your celebration, and to be treated like an ATM, I strongly recommend Aromi. If you are a human and prefer to be treated as such, I recommend just about any other...

Please don’t eat here. The staff are arrogant/rude, slow and don’t speak Italian or English very well (despite being an “authentic” Italian restaurant). Even if you speak Czech, I would give it a miss. This was the worst service I have ever received in Europe, let alone Prague. The food was also very average and expensive.

We arrived at 7.30, after waiting to be greeted for 10 mins. We finally received menus at 7.45 and ordered at 7.50. After waiting for 55 minutes, we didn’t receive our entree (caprese - they had a type of buffalo mozzarella we wanted to try). We enquired about this to TWO various wait staff and both said they would find out. They then proceeded to not tell anyone else, or the kitchen, and serve other tables. When we asked the restaurant manager at 8.55 ( over 1 hour later) he said he would find out about it. 2 minutes later, we received both mains. The waiter said they forgot about the salad but could bring it after the meal. No apology, no offer to give the salad for free given we had waited an hour. We said don’t worry about it. We didn’t want an entree after our meal.

We ordered two pastas - one frutta di mare (rigatoni) and the other was spaghetti with lobster. The pasta was cold and extremely al dente (read: uncooked). Portions were very small. I wanted to send the food back but my partner said it wasn’t worth it after the wait. My family is Italian and I have lived in Italy before and was expecting an extremely, high quality meal. The only good thing I have to say about the meal is that it was presented nicely.

There was also a table of 5 men who we were receiving all the attention from waitstaff throughout the night. This table was really loud and had no regard for other customers. It was clear that the staff only cared about them. We literally had to call out to staff to get their attention to get a menu, order food or drinks.

Most irritatingly, the restaurant was half empty and there was 5 serving staff on plus the restaurant manager. There was no reason for such poor service.

Overall it was horrible service and below average food at a massive price tag.

Try Mlynec- we ate there the night before. Similar prices, AMAZING food and excellent service. Don’t waste your...