Antica Osteria Cera — Restaurant in Campagna Lupia

Did 1 star last week and here we were trying a 2 star restaurant, and the experience was fantastic. Definitely there were subtle differences between the two restaurants.

FOOD: We're ordered the lunch special (3 dishes) and two dishes from the ala carte menu. Of course, before the meal, they prepared welcome dishes to jump start our taste buds. Every bite sized snacks were fantastic and then the warm homemade bread showed up. It was fun sampling these dishes. The main course was fantastic. Lunch menu had an appetizer (seafood sampler), pasta, and the main (grilled sea bass). Tasted great and pleasantly presented. We also ordered seafood pasta and raw fish stew from the menu. I was wondering how you could have raw stew, but they pour the stew/sauce over the fish. Great idea and tasted great. We liked the sauce so much that we scrapped the bowl with the bread. And then the meal ended with their desert samples. Not too sweet and a perfect way to finish the meal. SERVICE: Fantastic. They were quick with the meal and explained each dish. very friendly and definitely two star worthy. Little over two hours and never felt slow or rushed. LOCATION: Easy to find. On the main street and plenty of parking. Also, inside is big and tables are well spaced out. PRICE: It's two star. So, not cheap but it's for the meal and the experience. I thought it was worth the price. Meal and drinks (one glass of wine and coffee) were about €170. MISC: not an expert but I noticed that the service and the presentation were slightly more noticeable (to me) than a one star restaurant. I definitely recommend this two star restaurant and you are looking for a two star...

We celebrated birthday here and spent around 1.4k€ for the whole dinner (240€ per person + drinks).

Food was really great, big thanks to all chiefs working there, but service is really bad for this kind of restaurant:

1. they do not understand English well
2. they are making stupid mistakes
3. they are literally standing behind your back while you eating and checking 10 times in a minute if you cleaned your plate like they want to go home as early as possible (???)
4. they didn’t offered any wine to our dinner, we had to ask for it (??? unacceptable for this type of restaurant)
5. we announced several times that we are celebrating birthday here but NO ONE even congratulated like they don’t care at all. I mean in other places you’ll get a free piece of cake but here nobody even said like "oh, congratulations, happy birthday!”, that is so unfriendly

Again - the food was delicious, but service is just terrible. If you’re a foreigner and going to spend 240€+ pp for dinner you’d better go somewhere else, you are not welcome here.

P.S.: And nobody answers to reviews...

I had a medical emergency & both called & emailed a day before. They still charged me the full 700e for NYE dinner for 2. Plus they only confirmed my reservation 24 hours before I contacted them to cancel. Which means they hadn’t even hard confirmed my spot before then, so it’s not like it prevented them from selling another spot. If they were truly sold out, they could have easily resold my 2 spots. If they were not sold out, they’re just being greedy trying to charge me full price when I didn’t attend. I told them I’m fine with a REASONABLE CANCELLATION FEE of maybe $200. But charging me $800 for getting...