Mari Mannu — Restaurant in Cagliari

My partner and I love seafood. Mari Mannu was recommended by a friend who is a local.

We went on a Wednesday, tried our luck, but the restaurant was completely book out. (This was not a problem, we immediately made a reservation for the following day.)

The following day, we were very excited to try the restaurant, and the food was great! HOWEVER, the service was absolutely POOR!

My partner is coeliac, and we made it very clear to our waitress. In fact, when we asked for the Octopus salad, she had made sure the bread would be separated.

We also ordered 1. Mixed Grilled (Fish, Prawns, Cuttlefish) and 2. The fish of the day (which was Dorada).

As you can see, no where on the menu does it mention "bread", but when the dishes came out, the mixed grilled had a slice of thin bread.

My partner told the waitress that he couldn't have it, because there was bread (BREAD that contains gluten!).

Shockingly the waitress told us: But you didn't tell me you guys were sharing. (Then why were there 2 sharing plates ready for us? - Look at the photo, because we DID!).

I also want to point out, she DID NOT mention anything about bread in any of our fish dishes, had we known, we would have told her to remove it.

If you look at the menu, both Italian and English version, it doesn't mention bread in any of the dishes.

Instead of apologizing, she made it sound like it was our fault.

Her direct words: "You didn't tell me anything!" "How was I supposed to know?"

She then went ahead and told us HOW and WHAT we should eat..."Well, you can have this plate and you can have the other dish with no bread". Excuse me? We wanted to share. She also said that she would take it back to the kitchen...but we had already lost trust. Was she just going to remove the bread without thinking about cross contamination?

Mistakes are unavoidable, and it's totally fine! But please accept it when it's your mistake. (That's all we wanted, an apology that we never received.)

On the website (check screenshot), it mentions that gluten-free options are available, but please train your staff...this kind of attention to...

We visited this restaurant twice during our short trip in Cagliari. Purely spotted this place while strolling through the town and seeing the great menu from their outdoor display which caught our eyes! It did not disappoint us at all and we returned on our last day again before catching the late flight back.

The staff are extremely friendly and helpful, and did not reject us considering we visited 20 mins before the kitchen closes at 2:30pm. They happily let us sit down and we were never rushed. Excellent customer service!

We tried various different dishes on both visits, and they are all fantastic! The seafood counter displaying their daily fresh seafood on ice. Indoor setting tea is air conditioned.

On our 2nd visit during peak lunch time, there were literally only local clients or Italian tourists which said it all! An historical and authentic seafood restaurant for sure!

Excellent wine lists offering wine, rose and red mainly from various parts of Sardinia! The staff recommended the vermentino and rose wine, they were so delicious and complimented the dishes perfectly!

We couldn't believe how much they charge for such excellent food and wine! This would hardly happen in our home city or it would probably break an arm or leg to have a seafood feast with excellent wine as such! 😂

I highly recommend this seafood restaurant if you ever visit Cagliari! Do go anywhere else! This place is insanely excellent if you fancy some authentic Cagliari local...

Booked this place for dinner and when I called the restaurant they told me they had a table however inside. I accepted as being a hot day I didn’t mind dining inside. When we got to the restaurant I waited a few minutes for someone to notice me eventually I was taken to my table. The table was a small table in the middle of a narrow corridor right in front of the bar pathway and kitchen window. It took the waiter around 5 mins to actually bring us the wine list. We acknowledged the waiters a few times to order and noone came. Eventually we got up and left. I truely felt as if the restaurant squeezed us in just to have another cover and make ...