Osteria Uscio & Bottega — Restaurant in Castellina in Chianti

In a cumulative month of eating my way across Italy, this was officially the worst thing that ever entered my mouth. I am no exaggerating and this is not a hyperbole. The restaurant has no view as some of the pictures seem to advertise. You are sitting beside a busy road frequented by motorcycles and tourists - the latter of which stop often to gawk and take pictures from the road. It also appears to be a stop for your groups: this alone should speak some to the subpar quality of food.

The terrace we were seated beside was infested with an ant hill with no option to move our seats. We were also left baking in the sun.

I accept all the above as features of a tourist trap restaurant in a location where you have minimal access to other restaurant choices. Ants are also part of a side effect of dining outside (though the infestation certainly wasn't).

What really killed the restaurant was the complete disgrace they served as food. It is a very sparse menu to begin with, of only 4 primi (3 pastas and a soup) and 4 secondi. Which would have been just fine if the few dishes served are actually done well. They are not.

The menu is an overkill attempt at being quaint by sticking the two folded sheets inside what appears to be a small book of different dishes and pastas. What it's really doing is advertising all the foods that you CAN'T eat there. The wine list is short but serviceable.

The bread was of an approximate quality as a breadmaker machine and the bread was also the only redeeming feature of the whole meal. Just no higher quality than grocery store bought bread.

The risotto was a garish yellow and served with rocket salad. It incredibly achieved a combination of both congealed and watery. The rice was overcooked yet had evidently been left on a counter somewhere for it was mushy and congealed. Watery excess leaked when one only tries to move around the rice. The rocket leafs lend an incredibly unpleasant bitterness to the whole slop of a dish. None of the cheese, creamy and luxury tastes of a risotto. The only place it deserves to go was the garbage.

Cover charge here is 2 euros a person. The risotto was 10 euros. I highly recommend you take your money about 2 minutes down the hill to the osteria alla piazza for much better food and definitely a much better risotto. This is one big and tasteless tourist trap.

I absolutely wish I could have stayed at home or eaten...

This restaurant has fairly good review scores overall. I'm sure they will stay high if it continues to operate as it has done for those customers. Unfortunately I have to add my review to the negative pile, since the food, the unshaded table, and the proximity to much traffic were not to my liking.

The staff were polite and friendly. I found it curious though: upon arrival near opening time they acted doubtful that they could seat 2 without reservations, unless we wanted the outdoor table that was half in the sun. We agreed, but after sitting found it to be next to the home of many ants who resided around the window sill. Not 10 minutes later and another couple walked in without reservations and they were immediately given nice seats in full shade and far from the ants. This was just after the restaurant had opened and no one else had...

Lovely food.

Apologize for the earlier miscommunication.

I remember now....we were welcomed by a moody male employee who had his arms crossed while talking.

In hospitality that's unusual as crossed arms means you are not open to communication.

We were seated outside as they had big group reservations.

The female employee was a bit more cheerful.

When white people entered the place he appeared more cheerful.

The food was pretty good and the soup was outstanding.

In hospitality the details do matter, people come from far to visit your place, the very least one could do is a simple smile and...