Trattoria Il Focolare — Restaurant in Barano d'Ischia

We have very mixed feelings about our experience here tonight. It started off well with the lovely atmosphere, good service and great food. Things turned immediately after we finished our mains. Ordering dessert turned out to be impossible. We asked for a dessert menu when our table was cleared, but it never came. Twenty minutes later we asked a staff member walking past and ended up ordering with them. After another half an hour, the dessert still hadn’t arrived so we decided to get up and pay. I was told to sit down and wait and that someone would come with the bill shortly. After ten minutes we decided we would call the taxi as we had now been at the restaurant for three hours. As soon as I got the driver on the phone a staff member came to me and told me not to worry about the taxi and that there was a surprise for us. At this point I understood that the surprise was some sort of tour of the kitchen as we kept seeing other people go back there throughout the night. We didn’t want to do the tour as we were ready to leave and when we told her this, she rudely said “oh well, you lose the surprise then” and abruptly walked off. We didn’t know that we were expected to wait till after the tour for dessert, nothing was communicated. At no point were we rude to the staff in return, we were just so confused and it became a really awkward situation . We never did get dessert and when we eventually paid the bill, the way we were treated by the woman who took our payment was also very rude. 194 euros for two people with no dessert and not so much as a “thank you” or interest in how our evening was. It was really disappointing and we left feeling dismissed, confused...

Bizarre, chaotic, tired, over priced, and utterly disappointing. This place seems to rely on its reputation since it was featured in a TV programme but the reality is a strange farce of a restaurant which made us feel like we were on the tourist conveyor belt being processed through their idea of what we must want, rather than being allowed to choose. This was confirmed at the end of the night when we were dragged off with great excitement by the waitress into a dank cave with about five other tables to be shown the supposedly amazing but actually quite unremarkable cave where they used to keep wine before refrigeration. I’m sure it was fun for kids but really not necessary for us, although it did at least explained the damp smell in the restaurant.

The staff were all very pleasant and the food was all edible but none of it was worthy of an Italian restaurant. We were given some stodgy, tasteless antipasti on the house. The antipasti we ordered, courgette rotilini and aubergine parmigiana were disappointing mush. The pasta primi was ok and the rabbit was tasty but tough and rather overpriced for what it was (they catch them for free in the garden after all)! The highlight was a lemon tarte, also on the house, which despite rather rustic presentation was actually very good. Overall, if you plan to head here simply to follow the Stanley Tucci trail, my advice would be to...

Thoroughly disappointed in this tourist trap. To start with the menu, the entire menu was translated into English (as it’s a restaurant designed for tourists), aside from the actual food options as they said it can’t be translated.. this makes no sense and I feel like it was done on purpose so that they can push specific dishes on you. We asked for WiFi (as there is no data at the restaurant) so that we could translate the menu on our own but they would not allow us to have access to it so it’s not possible to translate. Then for the food, for a restaurant that prides themself on local cuisine, it felt designed for a basic American palette where they don’t know anything about authentic Italian cooking. All the dishes were overloaded with cheese, cream or deep fried. Considering the quality of the ingredients and what was presented, it is exorbitantly expensive for what you get. I am thoroughly confused by any positive review of the food here and for service, it felt a bit cheeky in how they treated us. Many other places to get dinner in Ischia with a better experience as...