Caffè degli Artisti — Restaurant in Cortona

This place is the Faultiest of Faulty Towers. After reading other reviews about the rude waiter we thought someone running a restaurant could not be that bad so decided to give it a go. We stay in Cortona for 3 months every year so know a little of restaurant scene here which overall is wonderful. On entering we were greeted by a sour faced grumpy man who we worked out must have been the owner as no one would employ such a person and surely could not be Italian. The place setting was literally thrown on the table then the man stood over us insisting on an order without a second to open a menu. We said we needed a little time but he stood his ground which forced us to make a very quick decision. Food and wine arrived abruptly. We ate as quick as possible to get out of the place but we were still eating as he took rubbish out and loaded chairs around us onto tables all at just after 8pm. The food was very average and the service was shocking. Me think " Man that cannot smile should not open...

The barman working when I went in was a complete jerk. Before going I translated how to ask about being seated and did my best. I am very conscious of not being that rude traveler who just walks in and starts barking in English to someone while visiting their country. When I asked for a menu he said in the nastiest tone possible that I could only have a spritz and pizza. I obviously left because he was awful and that wasn't what I was after. It's really not that hard to be kind, even if I did commit some kind of traveler's faux pas that I'm not aware of. When I worked in the service industry for many years I always went out of my way to be kind to travelers, it's a shame for whoever owns this establishment that this person is driving business away by being a poor excuse...

If you don’t speak functional Italian, don’t go there. When we walked in there was only one table seated (4). We were two and sat patiently, then a group of four sat and he immediately gave them menus and placemats (We still didn’t have ours). We watched him grumble about that group as he walked away because they asked things in English. He also did this to the first group that had already started receiving service. We finally got our menus but nothing else. AND we were trying speak limited Italian. Then a young man walked in and asked politely if the server spoke English so he could ask questions. He was rebuffed and left and as the server passed us he was more grumbly and saying people should speak Italian (not knowing we understood). We stood...