Osteria La Contrada — Restaurant in Comunità Alto Garda e Ledro

1 star might be a bit too low, but the higher the aspirations the higher the expectations. This restaurant is aspiring to be fancy, but sadly the aspiration is all there is. Not what you would expect from one in the top3 in the city. The size of the dish was decent, but the food veeery average. Took the version with truffles, but they were pretty tasteless. After I tasted it, nothing in the dish made me want to continue eating, a part from extreme hunger. It was supposed to be our fancy dinner at the end of vacation. When I asked for white dry wine I got offered a new bottle, without an option of choosing from at least 2-3 options, even when asked what else they had. Then more problems started. Got billed 4€ for water, we didn’t order. The covers for two were 8€ total and the card terminal wasn’t accepting contactless payments with my iPhone, which it said on the screen it accepted… so we got stuck… I think that...

Osteria La Contrada hit many greats for us during our recent trip.

First about something they did above and beyond. I left my cap in Osteria La Contrada the day of completing the Lake Garda Half. They posted the cap back to me in England, which I am forever grateful for.

Back to the night in question, however, this was the perfect spot for an evening meal. The atmosphere was lovely – a great courtyard which didn't feel at all touristy. The food was the best we ate in Riva del Garda, and the wine – the wine service here is really very special. We weren't drinking anything fancy by any stretch, but we had matched Riedel wine glasses for it. This place takes its wine very seriously.

This would have been a five star even without the returning of my hat – but the fact they did that too is the icing on the cake. The epitome of...

Truly horible experience, extremely salty spaghetti, no fish in sardine pasta ( they put highly salty anchovy paste instead!!!) and 5 pine nuts on the plate (yes I counted them :) extreamly slow service: had to ask for a check 4 times (it took 35 minuts), I had to shook a manager for it. A young blond waitress didn't speak any European language except Italian, pretended for awhile what she can speak and understand English, put nothing beyond five basic phrases . She didnt take back oversalted dish, keep saying : "it's good, good". Overpriced, bad service and overrated. They think that they are high-end restaurant, but they are a simply bad quality osteria, which serves very little...