La Locanda dell'Elfo Trattoria Tipica — Restaurant in Bari

Unfriendly management, overpriced mediocre food, not suitable for vegetarians! I ordered the orecchiette with cime di rapa, which I had eaten in other restaurants and which was vegetarian (I previously asked at the other restaurants). This time I didn't ask, since I knew the dish was vegetarian and there was no mention of fish on the menu, as opposed to the other pasta dishes. To my shock I took one bite and discovered fish in my meal! Management then basically blamed me, saying "that's how we make it here in Puglia". But then they should write it on the menu, since apparently the fish is optional. After complaining and saying it was not my fault since it was not written on the menu, they finally did offer to bring me a new dish without fish. The meal tasted like orecchiette with pieces of frozen thawed cime di rapa mixed in, and it was too salty and had no other flavors. Since I had tried the dish at other restaurants, I knew how deliciously aromatic it could be. The other dishes my family ordered were all mediocre too. Salad was ok, but no balsamic vinegar and just average olive oil. The place didn't look very clean and hygenoc either. Furthermore, the manager was not friendly, neither towards clients nor towards his own staff, and at the end he held out the card reader without even showing us the bill. When I asked to see the bill first he was very rude. He also seemed very eager to have us pay and leave and clear the table for new guests. They also seemed to play a "reservation game" where they told people the table was "actually reserved" but only later and they could "exceptionally sit there". This was just to make people think the restaurant was popular. Defintely a tourist trap in the old center to be avoided!

Edit: Wow, rather than apologizing and taking the feedback seriously, the owner just replies "surely I haven't visited the restaurant"? How could I even make up such a story!! And I noticed anybody giving bad reviews he just writes "you didn't visit our restaurant". YES I did, and the post above is all about my bad experience. I can't believe the poor management experience even continues with...

Very poor service, food, and drinks!

We had to wait 10 minutes for a table whilst the server held a finger up at us.

Then sat down at a table outside which was fine with a nice view of the basilica. Unfortunately, it was very windy when we were there and a place mat then a menu hit me in the face - I suppose this cannot be helped though they should have been weighed down!

Took ages to order. We got drinks, then antipasti, then a primi piatti. Alcoholic drinks arrived first - terrible white wine and watered down cocktail. Then half the antipasti arrived (cold octopus with some iceberg lettuce - okay tasting, not the best but not terrible). After much prompting, they remembered the rest of the antipasti and the insalata caprese arrived - this was again iceberg lettuce with one tomato and quite a bit of mozzarella. The mozzarella was good, but took five minutes to get bread and oil to go with it.

During antipasti, which had taken half an hour to bring the salad, the primi piatti arrived. This was cold and of poor quality. I won’t speak for my partner’s meal (orecchiette con ragu - he says it was bland but okay), but my patate, riso, e cozze (potato, rice, mussels) was obviously reheated and contained 2.5 mussels!! It also came cold and even though it had obviously just come from the microwave?!

Additionally - there were two other tables of locals nearby who were served immediately and with off menu items. I agree that regulars should generally get better service, but this was over the top and outrageous how much we were ignored in favour of them!

We have only a few days in Bari as we are travelling around southern Italy and I greatly regret wasting my time and money on...

Worst restaurant experience in Bari during our 7-day stay. I ordered carbonara and received pasta with scrambled eggs instead of a creamy carbonara sauce. When I reported it, the waiter agreed it shouldn’t look like that and called the manager. The manager (in a white shirt) was extremely dismissive and told me this is their recipe and there was no problem at all.

There was no compensation or solution offered. When I went to pay, I told the manager it was sad to pay for something that was not carbonara, and he said I was the only customer who didn’t like it today. I told him the taste was fine, but this was nowhere near authentic carbonara, which is supposed to be creamy – not scrambled eggs.

At the end of the conversation, he told me to “pay and get out of here” using extremely offensive language which google won’t allow me to post. I have never experienced such treatment in any restaurant before. It was a deeply disappointing way to end our stay in Bari.

Tourist trap restaurant. To prove I’m not lying, I have attached photos of the pasta and the receipt. €56 for pasta with scrambled eggs (carbonara), another fine pasta dish, wine,...