Riviera Restaurant & Bar 🇮🇹🥂 CUCINA ITALIANA — Restaurant in Berlin

Being Berliners, eating out most nights, and preparing for a move to Charlottenburg... we've been visiting the local 4.5+ restaurants. So of course Riviera was on the list. What an exerience.

Within less than a minute of being seated, we had the most lovely bread, olives, olive oil and balsmic vinegar served. Our starters were all that we hoped for and the mains a delight. Real meals, exquisite food, delightfully prepared, excellent proportions with vegetable servings matching our meats. We were delighted, and sated.

Just so good. Wonderful we thought! We have found our new weekly Italian restauarant.

And then the bill arrives and we realise, the waiter has screwed us. We are clearly foreigners. We pretend we can't speak German to see how a guest in their restaurant will be treated and we were treated to a bait and switch. The 30 euro Primotivo we explicitily ordered has been switched with a 63.50 one. A tourist trap. The waiter claims he thought we, would of course want the better, most expensive option. Nonsense. We POINTED to the wine we wanted. It was a dishonest, shortsighted act which we allowed to play out for our own amusement.

I laughed at the waiter. I told him we were not born yesterday, we check our bill always and understand a bait and switch scam when we see it. I even gave him a cash tip of 20 Euros, mostly so I could come home and write this review to let the rest of the staff know.. we made this tip for you. Not him. Regardless he ripped us off, we wanted the rest of our experience, the lovely service, the great food, to be rewarded with a good tip. But I'm guessing our waiter didn't even share it. Right? That 20Euros went right into his pocket.

Anyway. Bravo. You managed to overcharge us by 30 euros. It has cost you thousands in lost sales. We would eat from the garbage than return to your restaurant.

Brazenly dishonest.

Not...

NEVER AGAIN!!!!!! Definitely not coming back!!! We were there to celebrate Valentines Day this year (2025). We arrived there and greeted with a very unfriendly waiter. He asked our order and stayed so unfriendly.My husband asked the waiter nicely if they have this „Daily Menu“ option.The waiter answered like if we are stupid and stared so disagreeable. As I ordered my main course,since I am not Italian,I could not pronounce it property.And again he gave me this look,af is he was saying,you’re not pronouncing correctly. We ordered mix seafood as appetizer.The price in the website was (is)not updated and what’s inside this dish were just small octopus and ONE schrimp!!!!!!! If you see and check other Fotos with this same dish(Mix Fried Seafood)you can see that there are small fishes(sardine?!?).Unfortunately I didn’t take Foto of it because I was still offended by the attitude of the waiter. For our main course my husband ordered SALTIMBOCCA ALLA ROMANA and I ordered TAGLIATELLE CON SALMONE. My dish was ok,but not really that amazing on the other hand,my husband had to return his food cause it was so salty.My husband get a new one. I know we deal different problems everyday but remember „it doesn’t kill you if you will be a little bit nicer“ especially to the people who you get your money to feed yourself and your family.

I think its definitely NOT worthy to spend your time and...

Unfortunately, our experience here was far from pleasant. While the service was friendly and the location undeniably beautiful, those were the only redeeming aspects of our visit.

The food was of poor quality—drenched in oil, lacking freshness and finesse. The focaccia was burnt, dry, and far from the soft, airy texture one would expect. The presentation of the dishes was unappetizing, with no attention to visual appeal—clearly, the kitchen believes the eyes don’t eat first.

Prices are steep and absolutely unjustified given the standard of the food and overall experience. We specifically requested a dish without any spiciness and were assured this would be no problem. Yet, it arrived spicy. We returned it, and a replacement dish was brought out—this time, with a piece of broken plate (a shard of glass or ceramic!) in the food.

When we informed the staff, the response was shockingly casual: “That can happen.” No real apology. No sense of urgency. No genuine attempt to make things right.

At that point, we had lost all interest in continuing the meal or accepting any form of compensation. We left and went to Petrocelli instead—an experience worlds apart in quality and professionalism.

Inexcusable on every level. I would strongly advise others to...