Gabriella - Le Clan des Mamma, Pizzas & Cocktails - Lyon — Restaurant in Lyon

We’ve been in search of a somewhat authentic Italian experience in Lyon for almost a year now. I had high expectations for this place considering the reviews but we were very let down. The food, while not awful, was just ok…nothing we couldn’t make at home on our own for less cost. We ordered the bruschetta sharing plate, gnocchi and veal scallopini. Some of the food came cold, others hot. The bruschetta plate was almost burnt and a tiny portion of only three thin pieces to “share”.

The atmosphere at first feels dim and warm, which is nice however the music was Drake…I don’t know, it just didn’t do it for me.

I will say that there seemed to be a lot of young hipsters getting pizza only and they seemed happy, so maybe this is best suited as a pizza place, but definitely don’t go here if you want to experience authentic Italian food.

Another negative is that even though we came in right when it opened with a reservation, they sat us by the front door with a cold wind coming in and all night all we could smell inside the place was cigarettes possibly coming from a back door inside the restaurant since no one seemed to be smoking much out front.

I’m a bit stumped on the high reviews however I’ve noticed a pattern in Lyon with some restaurants that are sub par being rated well is that they offer an incentive to complete a Google review (like a prize) or they prompt you upon payment at the machine to rate it then and there. I think that people just give out ratings without actually thinking about the experience as a whole or maybe because they feel pressure in the moment.

One positive is that one of the servers...

When I called the restaurant at 7:30 PM to ask if they had a table available for 1 person, the lady on the phone immediately said no.

40 minutes later I wanted to try my luck and to my surprise, the restaurant was half empty. But they were still hesitant to serve me. They said the kitchen will close soon and I had one hour to eat and leave. I said that’s fine and sat down. (They turned down few others who came to dine there, even though they had many seats available)

Nevertheless, the lady waiter was very nice to help me understand the menu (they don’t have an English menu) and give me recommendations. Unfortunate that my experience was not good before I sat down for dinner. Later, it was fine.

Food was okay! Good ambience. Service...

Lovely first experience today at the charmingly decorated Gabriella: First courses were fresh and appetizing (We took the Fritturina Mista). Excellent pizzas, the real thing at long last: thin crust and authentic ingredients! The salad was very fresh and tasty. But the dessert managed to top all of these: a heavenly, silky, tiramisu, which made me think that all others I’d ever tasted were fakes! Perfection! A little mix up with the drinks caused me to drink some of my husband’s alcoholic cocktail instead of my non alcoholic one, but both were delicious and so was the coffee. A big thank you to the chef/s and to the two guys on staff who received us despite being almost...