Taverna Malanotte — Restaurant in Bellano

I will try to justify my two star rating as simply and clearly as possible - we've travel around the world quite a bit, but never ever we have been served food from the microwave oven. After placing the order, gentleman walked to the back, brought three portions of risotto with him, placed them in the microwave and a few minutes later with a distinctive 'ding!', our food was ready... And yes, the microwave is located just behind the counter, right in the view (but when we entered the place, it didn't cross our mind it can be for real...). Food quality was exactly as you can imagine, so called risotto had hard outer shell, when you broken through it, you had big chunks of risotto rice beaten together, absolutely tasteless. The only upsides were the older couple who was helping to serve us the food as they were super nice (the rest was handled by some younger gentleman) and the glass of wine which we ordered with the meal, which was also very good - only two reasons why rating is not full one star. I can bet place is great for wine tasting, but please avoid it for any dinners, walk few hundred meters and there is a great place on the corner, serving really good (and fresh!) risotto.

[EDIT] In reply to owners comments: sorry if I could not appreciate the special way you are preparing risotto, we have eaten later 200m from your place and we got the "fresh" risotto we have expected. And to be clear, I did not say "the old couple" but "older", as they were in fact oldER than significantly younger (!) gentleman who was taking the order, can't see anything wrong with this description. I am sure you are more than perfect place to taste wine, but if you are advertising 3 dishes outside the place, please add at least info "reheated" or something, so you do not make impression of restaurant that...

I came to the restaurant with my wife with one piece of luggage each. Initially I got an unfriendly reception, they seem to object to the luggage, claiming there is no space to keep the suitcase, although the restaurant was deserted. However, we felt the attitude was hostile and the manner distinctly unfriendly. My girlfriend felt this was due to the fact that we are Asians. We were seated at the table finally and given menus, but after some discussion we chose to leave. The attitude and hostility made us feel unwelcome. We think this is relevant in evaluating the restaurant and the experience it offers guests.

To respond to the restaurant - we initially came before 11.30 and we were asked to come at 12. We agreed and left with our luggage. The problem happened when we came back at 12. The restaurant was not that small, and apart from two other people, it was deserted when we were there. We could have easily kept the two suitcases in a corner, but a big issue was created out of it. And even after we kept the luggage at a place designated by you, the issue seems to keep bothering the lady at the restaurant. At some point, my wife thought the problem was not with the luggage, (which is just an excuse), the problem was with us. I am not accusing you of racism, I just described what my wife felt. What I said is that the reception was cold and unfriendly. Our review makes it perfectly clear that we did not eat here, thus we are unable to...

SCAM! Avoid this place. No idea what are the good reviews about.. the food they serve is terrible. Lasagne was heated (99% chance this was the same frozen lasagne you buy at market for 3€ and in the taverna they charge 13€). Risotto was terrible. A lot of rices and one small fish on top (16€ you see in the picture how sad this food looks- tastes the same too). When the waitress (old lady) asked if we liked the food we said no but when we explained why- she calmly, with a smile, said “I no understand english”. After using international words like tragedy, catastrophic she still kept her smile and pretended to not understand anything. When we went to pay to the counter they charger 4€ extra. After asking what the 4€ for she calmly said “for washing dishes”. By using this logic this owner should pay me because I used my shoes to go to their restaurant. If you want to include extra fees in the bill inform customers about it before. I get it that each year new people come and owners don’t care about if people are coming back but I hope someone will see this and avoid having their mood destroyed by this terrible place.

If you want to get scammed just choose a restaurant with a view to the lake, at least you will be scammed in a nice place and not in this “taverna”. Its good they at least don’t call...