Rosarose - Bistrot Bolognese — Restaurant in Bologna

Terrible first experience of Bologna. I never wrote a restaurant review before but I am happily making an exception for this one, thanks to 2 incredibly rude staff members: a man who seemed to be in charge (or at least made sure that didn't go unnoticed) and a waitress who constantly mumbled very impolite comments about customers. I could clearly hear her describe an American or Canadian man with a pretty offensive Italian swear word. He was only ordering his food. This immediately set the tone: more comments from Mr. and Mrs. Rude followed, also about their own colleague (who was the only friendly waitress there), complaining that she couldn't count etc. Extremely unprofessional. They seem to forget - or just not care - that some of those despised customers make an effort to learn Italian and can understand their vile talk. On top of that, I had to wait more than half an hour for my dessert. They forgot. The tiramisù was a brick consisting of 95% mascarpone by the way. Best moment of all: payment was inside, or so the unfriendly waitress snapped at me, at the cash desk with the man. I got a bill of 59 euros instead of the expected 25. Apparently I got a note with a wrong table number. He then started discussing with me, rudely shouting I should check my table number, of which there is no indication at all on the terrace, only on the - wrong - note. Talking about not being able to count! Unbelievable... One star is even too much for treating people like that. I never experienced this in any of the Italian regions I visited, even in the most touristy...

A Gem in Via Clavature - I loved this place instantly. It's got the street appeal of the smart Bolognese cafe set, and the over the top chandelier business on the interior is just delightful. There was a nun and family at one table, a pony-tailed leather clad biker guy at the next, and a few "bella figura" at the other tables. So Italy!

What draws them all is the food, in this city of food. We came for late lunch. We had Sangiovese and sparkling water to accompany our lunch.

Started with the Mortadella Mousse which was insanely good. Balanced so perfectly and so tasty with the mortadella and ricotta coming to a melt in your mouth texture.

For the main course, we had pasta. I had the traditional Tagliatelle Ragu (Bolognese sauce). The pasta itself was pitch perfect al-dente, and the ragu so rich and deep it was outstanding.

Chris had the Tagliatelli with shrimp, arugula and sun-dried tomatoes. My taste of it revealed a dynamic dish with enough acid to cut, yet not mug the shrimp. Delightful.

With such good fare, we had to stick around and have an espresso and dessert. We shared the ricotta cake with orange marmelade. What a delight! the berries on top with a orange marmelade that had a hint of some sambucca or other astringent spirit that was just the required note to elevate the dish. Fresh berries on top sealed the deal.

We'll definitely go back on a return...

It has been a terrible experience having lunch at this place. Even though the food that my family had was okay, the lasagna that I had was greasy and its pasta was overcooked. I could not have more than three bites of it. Not only the food that I asked for was completely disgusting, but the service was just rude. Because we did not want to be seated in a table next to the street, and asked nicely if we could sit at a table more separate of it, the maître and two other waiters ignored us at times, even when there were not other clients to attend to. We had to call them several times to order, and just for an appetizer (which was a capresse salad, it does not take too much time to make) we had to wait 45 minutes, when a couple that was seated after us had their food at their table in 15 minutes. This did not only happened to us, but to other tourists that asked nicely if they could move to another table because of the sun. The only positive side about this was a waitress, that spoke Spanish (my mother’s tongue) that served us the drinks, and was sorry for the food and for the inconveniences that her work mates had caused us. She offered us a discount and was very polite. But it was a terrible experience and I wouldn’t recommend this...