La vigna pazza — Restaurant in Cividale del Friuli

The worst experience I have ever had in any restaurant.

We placed a very simple order for 4 people and immediately had to repeat it 2 or 3 times to our waiter because he kept writing it down wrong.

A few minutes later our waiter returns saying that 1 of the 2 dishes we ordered isn't available and asked us what we'd like instead.

We change the order and again, we had to repeat that twice because at one point our waiter even wanted to change all 4 of our orders into the same dish which we never asked for.

At that point we were thinking of cancelling our orders and leaving. Not only was the ordering process horrible, we haven't even received our drinks yet, the cutlery was dirty and we were also very cold and had to wear our jackets to try and warm up. But since we had a hungry toddler with us, we decided to stay.

Our food arrives and it was our initial order (apparently they figured out they actually have that dish available), but still they managed to make a mistake.

On top of that, the portions were quite small and our food was cold. Both the gnocchi and the pasta were cold with only the sauce heated up and poured over.

Not once did anyone apologize to us for all the confusion, our waiter even seemed annoyed at us even though he was the one who kept making mistakes.

Safe to say, we will not be returning here again.

*EDITED

Since the owner of the restaurant always finds some reason to blame the client for any bad experience they had in the restaurant (you can see that with any other bad review anyone has posted by reading their replies), let me reply to them here.

The language was not the problem. Even though we are not Italians, we all spoke in Italian when ordering and even though our Italian isn't perfect, it is absolutely good enough to order 2 dishes, a salad and some drinks.

I have traveled a lot around the world, also to places where I barely spoke the language or at least worse than I speak Italian, and never had problems like these.

We came to the restaurant soon after the restaurant opens, and even though we didn't have a reservation, the restaurant was still pretty empty at the time. If you didn't want us to come or if you don't accept people without reservation, say that right away and not use that as some unreasonable excuse as if to why your service is bad.

The comments that you don't even want to reply to - I'm guessing it's because it's true? Looking at other people's reviews I saw at least 2 others who also had dirty cutlery or glasses. Someone else also complained about the cold in the room and others also noted that their food was cold and evidently pre-cooked. It is not like I am making up things that aren't true.

And finally, I have also worked in a restaurant. One that was significantly larger and probably had 50 more dishes on the menu. And never did I or anyone else working in the restaurant acted like this towards a client.

If we made a mistake, we apologized to the client and oftentimes compensated them in some way by maybe giving them a discount on their total bill or give them something for free on top.

And we absolutely didn't argue online with clients who had a bad experience, coming up with excuses for why there was actually nothing wrong and making it seem as though the client is exaggerating or lying.

Your comment about how you are a small and unpretentious restaurant apparently means people should be satisfied with a bad service and food that wasn't good?

It is not like we came there and expected Michelin star restaurant experience. We just expected that when placing a simple order, we wouldn't be wondering whether or not the waiter is making fun of us or if we are being discriminated against, just because we...

Mi spiace se devo scrivere questa recensione, però è inaccettabile che ancora con le problematiche attuali che riguardano la plastica, quando si chiede dell'acqua ci venga portata l'acqua nelle bottigliette monouso. A sei anni dal "punto di non ritorno" e dopo l'abolizione dell'Unione Europea delle plastiche monouso (dove soltanto l'Italia e la Polonia non hanno aderito) credo sia fondamentale che ognuno si impegni a non contribuire a questo problema ingestibile. Quindi per favore, è bellissimo quando l'acqua viene servita in bottiglie di vetro riciclabili o in caraffe di vetro, fa stare bene.

Risposta al proprietario: Capisco il suo punto di vista, anch'io lo pensavo qualche anno fa, ma le consiglierei di informarsi sull'argomento. Prima di tutto neanche il 20% della plastica viene riciclata quindi stia sicuro che anche la plastica riciclata inquina i mari.

Come secondo punto, riciclare i materiali consuma risorse, quindi certo che è bene riciclare, ma SOLO quando non si ha un'alternativa. Bisogna fare il possibile per non usare la plastica perché il riciclaggio è anche una trappola che ci induce ad usare più plastica di prima con la coscienza "pulita", perché tanto la "ricicliamo" (neanche il 20%), infatti dopo la tendenza del riciclaggio è stata creata ancora più plastica di prima, che ha ancora peggiorato la situazione.

Poi se l'UE ha abolito l'uso delle plastiche monouso (quindi anche le bottigliette) per raggiungere l'obiettivo ambientale per il 2030 ci sarà un motivo. Inoltre, visto che facciamo parte dell'UE, dovremmo anche seguire un modello di economia circolare che dice: RIDUCI, RIUSA e soltanto poi RICILA, il riciclare è l'ultima opzione, non la prima.

Che poi, credo sia una scelta banale quella di sostituire le bottiglie di plastica con quelle in vetro o con delle caraffe di vetro, di cosa stiamo parlando, è il minimo indispensabile. Da tempo non vedevo più bottigliette di plastica servite nei locali/bar ecc, se gli altri ce l'hanno fatta, ce la potete fare anche voi (così vi preparate alla transizione dalle mono plastiche quando arriva anche in Italia). Ci sono poi moltissimi aspetti per i quali non siete granché sostenibili, ma ho voluto sottolineare soltanto la plastica perché questo non si può proprio vedere. Grazie...

Cold food, cold staff and cold place. They say ignorance is bliss and this saying really comes to life when you visit this place and read about other peoples experience here and staff responses.

At some point we started wondering if they are making fun out of us or not. When you arrive to any empty restaurant with only one table stetted in the first hour of opening you sure don't expect half of menu to be gone and service...