Pizzeria Casanova — Restaurant in Dusseldorf

A classic case of "how looks can be deceiving". So it's on the crossroads of a busy junction and it's got that vintage yet chic style of an authentic Italian restaurant. Surprisingly there are almost no signs of an average fanfare. That is until the menu arrives. The menu is just a glossy paper with every dish on the Italian menu. Pretty much like the namesake sauce dipped menus of cheap döner shops. It caught me off guard as I was expecting a proper booklet with leather binding. But that was just the beginning. The servers are young and clueless. I thought it might be because they are new to the job but one month later they still approach with a dumbfounded face. In fact, it's the only non Bangladeshi (most are labelled as Indian but the staff is almost entirely Bangladeshi, so now you know) restaurant where I saw the servers cover in a corner and judge the customer in hushed voices. And as if all this was not enough, the owner (a real character, who keeps smiling mischievously at unsuspecting diners) takes the drama up a knot. He would invite his pals and make a fool of his staff when they approach the pals for offering a table. These pals are then taken to the kitchen but end up on a regular table ordering like everyone else. Then he walks around the restaurant, a hint of jiggle in his steps and steps outside to hang from the scaffolding right on the entry gate in a bizarre display of machismo to the petite staff. Oddly enough the waiter girls acknowledge his shenanigans and giggle at his antics. Perhaps he is trying to justify the name of the restaurant. To their merit they serve without a long wait. And finally its the food that exposes this place for what it actually is. The pizzas are thin slice of bread with a hollow crust (how they manage to do it is a mystery). The cheese is spread unevenly, only around the centre. The base sauce is barely there or it might be missing altogether. Now I had a feeling this might happen so, I request explicitly for a proper tomato sauce base (to which I was ridiculed, "obviously!!!"). The toppings are too raw. And to top it all the quality of everything right from the cheese to the dough to the toppings is very sub-standard. Its almost like the pizza they serve in Altstadt at 3 in the night to heavily stoned unsuspecting hungry fellas. And even they have better cheese. Having learnt my lesson I tried pasta on my next visit. Surprisingly the very long list of every permutation of pasta dishes was missing the humble "Spaghetti Arabiatta". The dishes are advertised very well though. Prawns are scampi, ham is shoulder ham and so on. Struggled as usual for a couple of minutes with the waitress to simply point out the index of the dish I wanted and then another couple of minutes to explain that I wanted it spicy. The pasta that arrived confirmed any premonitions I had about this place. The sauce was not thick enough and tasted watery. The much advertised scampi were super small prawns that have no business in a 12 euro dish. Instead of a small basket of breads they had exactly two small rolls of badly cooked dough in the dish itself. If that sounds cheap then imagine my shock when I saw that the dish had half a cherry tomato on a pile of parmesan on the side of the dish. The menu had promptly promised tomato(es). But, all of this pales in comparison to the quality of spaghetti. It was of sub standard quality and so thin you might serve it as vermicelli noodles in a Vietnamese restaurant (but surely not the one across the street, its so horrible that it makes this place look like a Michelin restaurant, but that's a different story...). As expected it was bland and all the effort to get a spicy dish had gone down the drain. Now, after finishing the dish you might think your troubles are over and soon you will be served with a receipt to pay for your order. Wrong! Even in the end this place sticks to its reputation. Nobody bothers. Plain and simple. Even the best effort to get an eye contact with the staff are profusely rebuffed....

Came here for specific Italian dishes while visiting Dusseldorf. We were seated with our order quickly taken...waited for over an hour...no food. Wait staff never checked with us. I finally went to ask about our dinner and was told our order was never placed. Keep in mind this isn't a large restaurant so not sure how we became "invisible" for over an hour. Finally, our food was served which was actually good. As we wait, dinner long finished, the server still has yet to check on us. I guess I have to get up and ask for my check.

So, that said, while the food is very good, customer-facing staff is largely unaware of people in the restaurant. ...

Bei Pizza zur Mitnahme meiner Meinung nach nicht wettbewerbsfähig im Umkreis Düsseldorf.

Diese Pizzeria bietet keinen Liefersevice an, das weckt ein wenig höhere Erwartungen für die man sich gerne hoffnungslos auf den Weg macht. Die Pizza allerdings ist durchschnittlich, dünner Teig, Zutaten übersichtlich, Geschmack von Salami oder Peperoni aber gut. Der Preis. Man darf sich nicht von veralteten Preisen von Lieferando oder veröffentlichten Karten von Casanova täuschen lassen. Die Preisentwicklung der letzten Jahre ist hier massiv fortgeschritten. Eine Pizza Inferno vor 4 Jahren noch bei 8€-8,50 ist heute bei 13,20€. Das ist nicht vertretbar für die übersichtliche Zusammenstellung an Zutaten und das, was dem Kunden zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt übergeben wird. Wir sind hier auch nicht vom Standort an der Königsallee neben louis vuitton. Pizzaman, El Greco und Telepizza liefern hier bspw. eine deutlich bessere Qualität ab und liefern die Pizza direkt nachhause. Vielleicht ist die Pizza teilweise kleiner aber dafür deutlich dicker. Vom Teig kommt es auf dasselbe hinaus. Die Website funktioniert nicht (kein Auftritt nach Außen, keine Informationen direkt vom Inhaber, unprofessionell) Personal sehr freundlich, die Pizza war nicht zum vereinbarten Zeitpunkt fertig, dennoch hat es insgesamt nicht länger als vielleicht 3-4 Minuten gedauert, das ist in Ordnung. Das Ambiente. Wie in jedem Raum den man als Mensch betritt ergibt sich ein erster Eindruck. Für mich war es vom Gefühl wie es einige in den Rezessionen schon angemerkt haben eher ein kalter Flair von Systemgastronomie. Hier gibt es frische italienische Steinofen Pizza? Das Gefühl von Italien? Die Verführung wie bei Casanova? Nein

Insgesamt würde ich hier sowohl nicht mehr bestellen als auch nicht gemeinsam mit anderen...