Al Cancelletto — Restaurant in Amalfi

Unfortunately I have to leave a negative review for this restaurant

I'll start off by saying that my food was decent, the carbonara was authentic, creamy & there was a generous amount of guanciale; the portion size was okay too

We were here as part of a tour group to Amalfi booked through GetYourGuide We were recommended this restaurant by our guide & decided we'd give it a go, he told us that it was decently priced & that the food was good so we decided we'd try it We can only assume that this was some sort of deal between the establishment & the tour guide, and that he receives commission for every person he convinces to dine there

The drinks menu did not have prices, but we ordered a beer each anyway, only to find out that we were charged €12 per beer 😱 I understand that the prices everywhere in Amalfi are likely inflated, but it seems like a sneaky practice by the restaurant to avoid people being discouraged from ordering drinks; it was a bit of a shock when the bill came

This leads me onto my next gripe... The service here was pretty abysmal, the restaurant wasn't busy at all with there only being a few other customers in there... yet our food took a long time to be brought out. We asked for the bill & probably waited atleast 15-20mins for it as well, which was annoying because we only had a limited amount of time to explore Amalfi The staff were also unfriendly & didn't smile or seem hospitable towards us at all, a different experience from most of the other restaurants we had tried in Italy, where the staff were friendly & welcoming

My friend found a bug in his beer which we weren't very impresed about, but we politely mentioned it to the staff who did bring him a replacement

Despite my food being decent, my friends' meals were laughably small in terms of portion size & they left the restaurant still hungry even though they had finished their food 😡 They paid €20-30 each for meals that were literally the size of a starter My friend's girlfriend also ordered a pizza & was disappointed; she said that it was a basic pizza comparable to one you'd buy frozen in a supermarket to cook at home

All in all, our overall experience was negative, & we'd all recommend looking elsewhere if you are looking for a place to eat...

If you had to go to one resturant in Amalfi, this is it.

The atmosphere is cute, warming and hospitable. We came in late March when it was wet and the inside was warm, cosy and inviting.

The staff are friendly, knowledgeable and provide great service. Stefan and Marsha are a great team and the owner, Marsha, hand makes all of the delicious desserts.

Now the food. Just wow. Between the four of us for the meal we had grilled octopus, spaghetti bolognaise, lemon ravioli, spaghetti with prawn, eggplant and I believe lemon, swordfish pasta and the melon with prosciutto (pictured). Every dish was presented beautifully and was so delicious. I think the spaghetti bolognaise was the tastiest I've had in Italy.

Now the desserts. We had the lemon deliciouso and the chocolate mousse and they were incredible. The chocolate mousse tasted like the real chocolate (not fake) and it was light, creamy and silky smooth. Stefano also gave us some biscuits (which were delicious) to dip into the mousse and now I'll never eat mousse the same. Thr lemon delicious cake was light, fluffy and rich of flavour.

For drinks, we have been obsessed with the sparkling wine, lambrusco, however they didn't have it but had a home made red sparkling wine from the place that makes the pasta for the resturant and it was delicious.

I wish we didn't discover this on our last night as with so many menu options, and such a great experience, I...

Hard for me to leave a negative review, but the ravioli was truly one of the worst I’ve tasted whilst traveling in Italy. It was tasteless, similar to how one would boil pasta at home, then put it on a plate with no seasoning.

Caprese salad was also subpar but not too too bad. The whole fish was large and taste relatively better than the ravioli, but again very bland. We probably misheard, but we thought the fish would be grilled. Instead it seemed to be boiled (or steamed), with the lemon potato sauce added on top afterwards.

Overall, we were just very disappointed by the meal, and the place doesn’t measure up to other local restaurants we have tried in the area. Maybe other dishes are better (as indicated by other reviewers), and we just ordered the wrong dishes, but the ravioli didn’t seem to be cooked by a professional chef to be very honest, and I just have higher expectations on pasta whilst in Italy I guess 🤷🏻‍♂️

Service was ok, a bit rushed, but overall courteous.

Would recommend other...