Trattoria del Tempo Buono — Restaurant in Bologna

I am forcing myself to give 1 star because the food was not bad. To begin with we didn’t have reservation as we were in Bologna for only 24 hours, we were there before 6pm and when asked for a table outside they didn’t even try to accommodate us or show some kind of curtesy. We asked if we could have a drink until another table was available outside but they declined, So we sat inside. They saw none of us spoke Italian however they gave us menu in italian🙄we had to ask for English menu and they told us to scan the QR code. Our roaming was not working, so we had to ask for wifi password and the waiter just entered the password for one of us, we were 3, which ment we had to ask, AGAIN, for the rest otherwise it would take time to choose our food if we waited to do it one by one🤦🏽‍♀️in Italian restaurants usually the olive oil and balsamic come automatically, not today, not even salt and pepper, we had to ask for that as well. The food was ok, nothing special, which makes us wonder how come this restaurant is top rated. At the end the menu for the desserts was given and on the first page what we see is clearly written that they don’t serve cappuccinos. How embarrassing and condescending is this??? Have you ever seen a menu where its written what they do not serve???🧐We personally know that cappuccino is served only for breakfast, not everyone else, however, who visit Italy for the first time know this. Just because locals dont drink cappuccino in the afternoon, that does not mean that everyone else is. This rude statement on the menu is trying basically to teach a lesson/manners to all foreigners that they should not order a cappuccino in the afternoon here. And no we didn’t even order anything else after we saw this, we just wanted to leave. Also, forgot to mention they do not serve Aperol, so please don’t ask them because they might get offended or something🤷🏽‍♀️The staff were behaving as if they were doing us a favor or something....

We're so glad we're able to find a table here. When we first approached, around 8, it didn't seem possible but around 9 some spots had opened up. In hindsight, a reservation would have been more useful. Nevertheless, we were received warmly and placed on a table for two. Water appeared the instant we sat down. The menu is comprehensive and lists where ingredients are sourced from. It also has a few options for each round/category (which is always a plus in my opinion, better to specialize than diversify). Several options are a recipe only found in Tempo Buono, which is a welcome addition if you feel like something special.

Our first surprise was before the orders (more on that later) arrived: the bread. It's actually sourdough, extremely tasty. Right on time, the food arrived. Sirloin and potatoes (one of Buono's specialties), tagliatelle con ragu and seasonal panfried vegetables (tasted like friarelli but could be mistaken). The meat was amazing, with thicker parts rare and thinner parts medium. Thick salt crystals on the vegetables combined terrific with the potatoes. My partner's tagliatelle was extremely well balanced, not relying too much on tomatoes or meat but instead letting all ingredients do their equal parts. Super impressive to still be impressed after five nights in Bologna.

We had set ourselves up for gelato initially but our experiences made us pick dessert. I picked a panacotta, which was not overly sweet and super fresh, my partner chose the typical Bolognese dessert (of which we forgot the name). It had fruitjelly on top, chocolate mousse and chocolate cake down below. It was amazing in every single way.

Some more things that stood out: seriously great service, brought with enthusiasm and care. A phenomenal playlist. Great decoration. Definitely a place we must return to on...

The lasagna we tasted was the best we ever ate!… the explanation about why only 3 stars out of 5 is regarding the service quality. We were a couple (so… 2 peoples; until here, this is pretty easy) and we ordered 2 lasagnas… imagine our surprise when after approx. 20 minutes of waiting, only 1 lasagna came. The chef get surprised 5 minutes after and came back to me to ask if I was waiting for something, which I answered that I was also awaiting a lasagna for myself! I have been told that the lasagna is currently being cooked and should come really soon. The repeated apologies made me understanding that they only cooked 1 lasagna and hence forgot to cook mine. After another 20 minutes, the chef came back to apologies again stating that it was his fault blablabla and basically made me understand that my lasagnas were still not ready as the relaunch order to make my missed lasagna… has been also missed!! I finally cancelled my lasagna as we already shared the only one that came to our table to avoid eating cold awaiting the second one that finally never came. To conclude, the food was really amazing but due to the service incapacity to properly fulfill an order, this restaurant date kinda turned into a nightmare. They offered shots of limoncello to soften the mistakes but they anyway billed 2 service charges even only one dish has...