Osteria Da Fortunata - Bologna — Restaurant in Bologna

I'd originally called this establishment a tourist trap and given it a 1-star rating, but have now changed my mind and have taken a softer stance.

I guess I was just angry that the waiter served us our salads and entrees at the same time, were very impatient, and then charged us 4 Euros for "tax" / service.

In America, if you served customers like dogs, your servers would have starved to death. In America, tips are mostly voluntary.

Everything changes. When we visited Bologna five years ago, the servers were paid a living wage, and were more concern about taking care of the customers. Now, it seems that they are disinterested, and this mandatory fee, which started in the south, has become common in all of Italy. It's sad, because I feel that Italy has lost some of its charm.

My remaining accessment below has been modified, but largely remains the same.

Average to poor food, poor service, questionable sanitary practices. Good show with the pasta maker working near the entrance.

The server was very impatient, disinterested, and cold... and brought out our salads and entres all at the same time!

The food was served hot. The presentation, quality, and taste were average to below average. The homemade pasta was cooked too al dente / raw. The meat sauce was good. The veal was dry. The salad was average.

Almost all of the customers were tourists. About 1/4 of them did not finish their pasta dishes as well. The servers pick up soiled paper napkins from dirty tables with thier bare hands, and then serve other customer's food without washing their hands!

Overall, a dissapointing meal.

--Tourist...

We stood in line and reached the start but were still missing 2 others in our group (there were 4 of us in total). Nino the waiter told us to wait back in line until the other 2 people reached - fair enough, we returned and waited patiently until they reached.

However, when all 4 of us were in the line we kept noticing that there were increasing numbers of empty tables, and Nino kept asking pairs of 2 to go to the tables.

Eventually after having waited 30+minutes, another waiter came out to apologise to everyone in the line that the wait was going to be immensely long suddenly as they received a call for a reservation for a huge group at 8pm (it was 740pm by the time we queued, 7pm when we joined.) He said there was nothing they could do and said we could either wait indefinitely or choose another place to eat.

As 2 of our friends were going to catch a 830+ train, they had no choice but to leave and eat something else. So our group size became 2 now, but when we asked Nino, he rudely asked us to queue back at the back of the line (despite the fact that we were right smack at the start of the line with the grp of 4). What sense does that make for us to need to requeue because 2 ppl left our group??

Nino had horrible manners and wasnt welcoming at all and I do not think it is far fetched to think that we are getting differing treatments because we are asian.

Intrigued by the women making the pasta, left hungry and angry after making us wait 40minutes in line. Went to Ragū instead and it was so good, definitely recommend...

TL;DR: eat somewhere else, time is precious and I am certain there are better restaurants in Bologna. This was a last resort as other places I had in my list were either closed or full. Disclaimer: I ate here on New Years Eve, and we were seated outside. Maybe these variables made a difference to the overall experience. We were seated right away outside. Several people had to wait in line. Some were seated to a table out of order. The ladies at the restaurant display window who make the fresh pasta deserve all the credit in the world, they work so hard! Our pasta was not even al dente, it was genuinely undercooked and lacked flavor. My boyfriend ordered the carbonara and it did not taste good, there were only two tiny pieces of meat in it. I ordered the Fettuccini con vaccinara sauce. It also completely lacked flavor. In hindsight When I read reviews of this place, there were others who had similar poor experiences. The table was not set with basics like salt, pepper or parmesan. There were 4 people who were waiting in line who made eye contact with me whilst I was eating; I suppose they noticed that my boyfriend and I were not enjoying our meal. They asked me if it was worth it. I shook my head and said no, they thanked me and left. This place was not as good as people make it sound. My glass of wine was good though. I've had some amazing meals in Italy and pasta is food that feeds my soul. Sadly, I would not recommend this place. But others seemed to like it a lot, so maybe this place is a hit and miss and lacks...