Vamolino — Restaurant in Bologna

I made an advance reservation for 19:00, and then traveled 1 hr across the city with high expectations based on recent reviews. I then checked my watch, 18:58, abt 90 seconds to my reservation. All appeared open, so I walked in and informed the young man waiting of my imminent reservation. No, I was told very firmly, no it is too early. I politely reminded him that my reservation was in about 1 minute. No, too early, come back later, maybe 5min, okay? Of course I went down the street to a more welcoming establishment.

[Edit] The reply below from management is entirely false. All lights were on. The door was not shuttered, all indications were that it was open and ready. One table had 3 or 4 ppl seated. How absurd to distort what occurred and thus add insult to injury. I was not told 4mi. But vaguely "maybe 5" suggesting more. It was raining and there was nowhere to go wait aside from a narrow dark sidewalk.

Sorry dear manager, but I travel for business year round and dine out most nights either with clients, friends or solo. This is far from typical treatment. Do you truly have customers you send out to the rain when they are 1 minute early wait around indefinitely in the hopes of an eventual polite welcome?

I imagine this has happened to many others and I'm the first bold enough to call you out for it. I never like to infer that any bias against who I am as a person is occurring, but this reply is now making me wonder. Perhaps you will take this as a learning experience, acknowledge your policy is out of step with a standard reception, and aim to improve...

Incredibly overpriced, inconsistent menu (btw, no reference on the whole food list to the 20’s theme), slow, slack and confused service, worse than average food… A lethal combination. Drastic adjustments are needed both in the kitchen and the front of house. Not worth a stop for a drink as you’d sadly realise that your glass is filled up by a ginormous ice cube and you’d struggle to find some room left for alcohol. Never again. ** Edit after the restaurant reply:

1. we spent well over 1:15 hours and I am surprised that you even noticed this as you were too busy to even realise that we have been waiting 30 minutes for the dessert;
2. it was impossible to recall anyone’s attention, we tried very hard to report delays and inconsistencies a few times but the waiters were obviously too busy to see us; it was frustrating!
3. the servings were ridiculously small and we ate them all because they were edible and at 8 pm we were reasonably hungry, which clearly makes sense;
4. a tagliata is by definition cut, it’s common knowledge that it should be thick and juicy, mine was thin, overcooked and whole;
5. I should have mentioned that the only worth dish in the menu was a very yummy mascarpone although there was barely a trace of hazelnut taste in the biscuit.
6. the alcohol in the drink was barely there… more reviews report the same problem, or are we all lunatics? Haha. I am a normally generous reviewer and I have no reason to deliberately diminish the value of a meal experience, so if you can’t accept a bad review without replying with a sour comment, bad on...

i expected a lot more from this meal but it was just fine. the service was incredibly kind but quite inattentive and took a long time to take our order and bill.

the tortellini to start were very nice albeit slightly dry on the inside, but great flavour and i loved the broth, it’s liquid gold :)

the duck breast was good but not as juicy as i would’ve liked it, perhaps overcooked. the texture was more like a duck liver. but the taste was strong. some of the potatoes were very over-fried, making them rock-solid. not super pleasant :/

the tartare was good, the egg yolk was a nice addition but it didn’t taste much. not sure if hazelnuts are the best combination with mustard, capers, and raw meat but it was okay. wish it has something more like onion or something with more sweetness or tang, because the capers were not so prominent. i am happy with the meat though and the portion size was great!

the grilled vegetables were very tasty, especially the zucchini!

for dessert, i would NOT recommend the blueberry semifreddo. it had no flavour and was basically a brick of ice with no creaminess. the jam was okay and the white chocolate is white chocolate so of course i’m gonna like it, but it was overall a tasteless dish. i don’t see the point in it.

the chocolate cake was fine, a bit on the dry side but still a good cocoa flavour.

the best was certainly the panacotta, perfectly sweet and jiggly.

in its entirety it was a nice dinner but none of the flavours really appealed to me and the semifreddo unfortunately left a...