Ristorante Giulietta al Lago - Como — Restaurant in Como

Before I begin, please note that this is a review for the dinner service, in particular for the 20:00 sitting on a Saturday evening, and will have nothing to do with whatever people have experienced with the bar/beach/apéro/lunch/brunch/“here to take a selfie” situation…

In all honesty, by far the worst meal that we had during almost three weeks in Italy, during which we ate in every place all over the country and in restaurants where the total bill was from 10 euros to 120 euros per person, and where, regardless of price point, location and ambiance, we had solid and generally good food. There may have been things that we liked more or less, but none that were just awful. Nor that made me want to write a review.

Let’s get into some facts. location - lovely and pleasant, on the shore of the lake, good music, good views, mountains, water and the moon - all great restaurant decor and overall setting - you are sitting on the flimsiest lawn chairs at lawn tables. They move, they shake, they dig into you in every way possible. This is ok if the food is great, if the food isn’t (more below), you notice very annoying, poorly made element. The bathrooms deserve a special shout out - the toilet seat is there but not attached to the hinges and is just flying around - I had to reattach it just to not seem like a vandal for the next person after me… all this was in the company of yoga pants, which just made a home in the bathroom and were casually hanging out there on the handrails, keeping people company… tranquil and zen like, as yoga pants hanging out in the bathroom of a restaurant at dinner should be. service… it took us 15 minutes and three conversations to get someone to come and take our order. This was in a restaurant that, on a Saturday night was 60-70pct full (not a good sign, but we were seduced by the view), so there was no excuse. And no, they were not understaffed - our waitress had four tables in total (two two tops, a four and a family of 8), including us. When we finally ordered, it took us 3 mins to get the starter and ten to get the drinks… when the drinks arrived, no one poured them, no one placed them on the table - we had to take them from the servers. I was a waitress throughout school in a very simple restaurant, and even there this was an absolute no-no. Also, at no point did anyone ask us how our food was, but given the quality of the food, that’s understandable. the food. If I could give negative stars, I would. First thing is portion size - I love small, but this was micro. We had a beef tartare as a starter - the size? Take your thumb and connect it to your index finger. Yes, that was the portion. The main dishes were normal appetizer size, which is ok because they were so bad. The ravioli tasted and looked like it came from a can. Not an exaggeration. My octopus had to be drowned in salt and pepper just to be edible. To give additional context to this - we sat down at 20:23. We walked out of the restaurant at 21:05. During these 42 minutes, of which we had to wait 15 mins to be served, we had managed to have an appetizer and two main courses, ask for the bill, wait for the credit card machine and go to the bathroom. This leaves us with most likely 20 minutes during which the kitchen would have had to prepare 3 plates of food… of which at least one requires heating. This is not McDonald’s time frames, but not that far.

In summary: bad, very bad for dinner. A general and complete fail, that’s an embarrassment to what Italian food and service - at all price pints is. Run/hide/avoid/look...

If I could, I would rate the service -2000, the lowest unfortunately is only 1 star. I cannot understand why a location so beautiful could be managed in such this awful manner.

Booked and paid in advance the aperitivo for 8 people and once there table was not ready, they set up something quickly with 36 degrees in the garden area with no umbrella…we asked if you could be in another area cause was too hot and they replied “We have 30 covers booked for this area, unfortunately no space available” (The area was about for 100 covers or maybe more). Never mind, we did not want to complain too much cause apparently the floor manager/coordinated found a solution with an area that was guaranteed for us UNTIL THE END OF THE NIGHT (his words). We started the aperitivo in another area, we asked for drinks and for food but the food needs to be paid in advance even if you have a dinner…NEVER MIND. I had the cesear Salad that it was quite good, ravioli not recommended as there is more oil than pasta…NEVER MIND. We took also a bottle of wine, we told the waitress that we were going around to see the view and we would come back for ending our dinner. A friend of us felt no good (not for the restaurant it is fair to specified), we stayed with him in the car for a while, we came back and surprise: our drink PAID AND NOT FINISHED have been put away and table has been given to someone else…we were shocked and speechless. I came, not from the beginning of the discussion cause I was with my sick friend but when my friends were already discussing asking for explanations with the floor manager and another guy. Staff did not apologies and facing the true that they made a huge mistakes, they were speechless too cause they couldn’t answer at our points raised and went away sending a poor girl (speechless too) with the bill to pay without any discount. Absolute disgraceful. Apparently they do not care about what I’m saying cause the reviews are public and are all saying the same things but one thing is sure. DO NOT RECOMMENDED We will...

Horrible experience. HORRIBLE. Where do I even start. We walked in and they were rude, however, we still decided to get beach chairs. We chose the superior chairs which were $35 Euro’s each. They put all 4 of us in one location together. After 30 minutes, they tried kicking us out. The lady who we paid $140 Cash in Euro’s too had the nerve to come up to us and ask us for a copy of the receipt. Insinuating that we just snuck in? SHE LITERALLY is the one that checked us out and we paid her directly. THANKFULLY we did not throw out the receipt. She looked at the receipt and walked away. Didn’t say one word or even explain why she asked for it.

2 minutes later about 4 employees come over to us and say that the 4 seats that THEY GAVE US were reserved and they accidentally gave them to us (which the horrible manager Marco confirmed was a lie). They said we have to move and they will be separating us. We said no. We specifically asked to be seated together. Turns out a family of 4 who came AFTER US, wanted to be seated together and they were trying to accommodate them over us. We told them we do not want to move. They were going to put us in the back where the shade was. At this point everyone is starring and we were embarrassed so we just said we are leaving. After 45 minutes of being there, we left. We told them we want our money back and they REFUSED.

Marco (manager; who wasn’t even there for any of the confrontation with the other rude employees) said that they never told us that the seats were reserved for other people, when that’s EXACTLY what we were told. He was so rude and was shouting over me. Idk why he even works there or is a manager. Disgrace for the place. Would NEVER GO BACK OR RECOMMEND. Don’t even get me started with all the bees and rude employees there. Two of the employees who witnessed the whole interaction who WEREN’T EVEN INVOLVED CAME AND APOLOGIZED PERSONALLY for how we were treated. It...