Umbertina — Restaurant in Bari

Tried going to Umbertina twice on two different visits to Bari. I sometimes work in the region- my Italian is not good; but enough to call and make a reservation or chat with a host and ask questions / reply. The first time I tried on a work trip with one colleague, I was turned away and told there were no tables, but there were visibly open tables, no line and plenty of servers milling about; so we went next door. That time I had not called ahead to make a reservation. Like mentioned, I can speak enough to make a reservation, make general conversation… so next trip, I was determined to go. When arriving for my next trip I did some local research and asked some locals where I needed to get pizza… funny enough Umbertina came up. Discouraged from my first try I was weary of my chances but I called ahead to make a reservation anyways (of which I was hung up on twice, each time I called). Since no one would take my request on the phone, I decided to just GO and bring my full group of 4 with me and politely mention calling ahead to reserve. A very rude female server with brown curly hair in a pony tail immediately told her colleague at the pizza pass that she wasn’t going to seat us before coming over to me to ask if I had a reservation- I mentioned calling ahead and being hung up on, and that we would really love to dine with them; to which she told me they were full and couldn’t take any more people. We waited a few minutes and saw her take two other families / groups who didn’t seem to have reservations. Safe to say, they don’t want anyone from outside the area enjoying Umbertina- it’s a shame, and their pizza looks good! I’d say avoid the hassle and go someplace that wants your business. Our group went to Da Donato and we’re very pleased. Da Donato had a great family hospitality vibe and we’re happy to sell pizzas to our group… and we were very happy to eat them. Highly suggest...

First of all the pizza is 5 star here. Perfect!!!loved it. (the pizza pasta is extremely thin) And the bad part... 1, they have just asked asap water or wine? We said wine. And we got a bottle which was okay. But on the menu there wasn't any wine, and they didn't had (or gave us) any wine menu. So it was a lucky game. And we lost, ofc. Just as it should be in any bad restaurant where some tourist go in. The wine was almost as expensive as 4 pizza, it was 20 euro!! And as we didn't planned to drink an exp. Wine this evnening,as this whole thing happend and the way it happend... Egh... 2, we had a great dinner the wine was nice (we didn't know at this moment it will be very expensive) and we had a great chat. When we said we didn't want dessert, they just come and give us the bill, even we didn't asked, pointing that we should leave if we don't eat or drink more. ( there was two empty table!) yes we know that if you do not keep drinking than you are a bad guest but you still shouldn't let this behaviour...this is the worst thing could happend with you as a guest. Even if we are only "just some...

We went to the restaurant in the evening at around 21:00 and we were unfortunately very disappointed. Not only did we have to wait 2 hours for our food to arrive, without anyone ever informing us or even apologising but also was the food very underwhelming. We were not the only table that had to wait that long though, after complaining, they told us (without apologising) that they have problems at the moment and that “they are just humans after all”. We ordered one pizza with truffles and ist was a very oily not much like truffles tasting paste on top. The dough in general was very thin and quite burnt. Also keep in mind that additional to the comparable high prices you have to pay 2 euros per person for the service. However, we can recommend the beer (even if it is quite expensive) and the waiter was very helpful to choose the...