Antica Hostaria — Restaurant in Cagliari

Worst restaurant experience ever – avoid at all costs!

I’ve never left a bad restaurant review before, but this one deserves it.

1.)From the start, it was off – we got yellowed, torn menus with pages falling out. No quality at all!! We thought about leaving, but stayed because the rating seemed okay and water had already been served.

2.) We ordered house wine, advertised as a half-liter, but received a 375ml bottle.

3.)The appetizer (Malloreddus with Salsiccia) was clearly store-bought pasta with a packaged sauce. The octopus salad was okay—after all, it’s hard to mess up frozen, pre-prepared octopus.

4.) The bread was dry, burnt, and soaked in oil — I didn’t even know it was possible to achieve all three at once, but apparently it is.

5.) Two different waiters tried to clear our table and ask for dessert before we even got the main course. Apparently, having more than one course is unusual here?

6.) Then came the fish: one grilled, one “Sardinian style” from the oven, plus spinach with cheese- served on plastic plates!!. The grilled fish was burnt black and completely dry — every bite tasted of burnt skin because it crumbled over the whole plate. The oven-baked one was even worse: mushy, falling apart, in a thick sauce that smelled off.
The spinach? Just defrosted mush, randomly over-salted or flavorless and pre-grated packed cheese on it. It was so bad we barely ate a few bites, forcing ourselves only because we had to pay. When the waiter saw it, he just asked if it was too much! I told him it didn’t taste good and the fish was too dry. All I got was a “sorry“.

7.) I paid, and as I glanced at the bill, I saw we had been charged for nearly 1 kg of fish for €60 — without sides (which were inedible anyway).
We only had a few bites, and the fish were just regular-sized — no way they weighed 1 kg. The waiter just said, “Look at the fish, it’s big”, pointing at the fish counter behind us.

8.) A few steps away from the restaurant, I noticed the waiter (or maybe he was the manager) had also charged both fish at the higher oven-baked price, even though it was clearly visible on our order that only one was prepared that way. I went back to the restaurant to clarify the issue and to again explain that the food was not good, and that this kind of charge was unacceptable. He apologized — though I’m quite certain he knew exactly what he was doing.

9.) Every time I mentioned the poor quality of the food, he just repeated: “But the fish is fresh, the fish is fresh.”
He didn’t seem to understand that that wasn't the point.
 (Besides, the fish didn’t even look particularly fresh — the skin was already shriveled in places.) He didn't even want to hear what was wrong and didn't take us seriously. Just thinking about the state of the kitchen made me feel sick, and I am sure they also know about the quality.

This was, without question, the worst dinner and evening we’ve had in years — and it ruined our last night of vacation. I’ve never spent so much money for such terrible quality.

Do yourself a favor, read the other bad reviews...

food was better than in a couple of other restaurants in the local area. the vibe was nice, though the unused tables had chairs leaning against the tables making it feel like they were about to close.

Also, in contrast to those other restaurants they do not offer house wine - so we took half a bottle (0.375l) at 12 euros in the other restaurants you would get 0.5l for 6 euros or 1l for 10 euros). Instead they brought in a different bottle and one that was already opened. After discussion it turned out that it was indeed their kind of house wine. dodgy! trying to sell bottles of wine, fill them with house wine and bring in opened bottles hoping people will not notice.

It might have been a one off mistake, I don't know but they did finally bring the bottle we ordered and opened it in front of us.

the staff were all friendly but the...

a few days ago we had the opportunity to eat at this place ... I would like to share my opinion about this place: 1. very nice service, 2. very good food, and that's the end of the positives ... 3. total lack of organization, very bad communication with the waiter ( actually waiters/waitress) after placing the order they got the order wrong twice… they asked what we actually ordered (although they wrote down on a piece of paper) 4. portions, e.g. very small cheeses, 5. coperto in the amount of 7.5 euros (something unbelievable ...) 6. they added 2.5 euros extra for coca cola which we didn't order and didn't get... 7. dark and smelly outside at the tables. to sum up, I do not recommend this bar (imitation restaurant), you will be cheated in it, everyone should form their own opinion but is it worth wasting...