Ristorante Tonino - Catering & Banqueting — Restaurant in Cortona

What a catastrophe!! After driving into Cortona this restaurant was next to our Hotel so we decided to book a table after freshening up in our room. Well…that didn’t happen. We asked to book at 2pm so we could freshen up but they said no, 1.30pm was the only time we could book. Plenty of available tables but it had to be 1.30pm. Shall I say other people arrived after us and were allowed a table. So after sitting at the table which they had reserved for us, we were then asked did we make a booking!!! Then they completely ignored us for 25 minutes walking past our table several times to serve other customers and clean up other tables. Then they served the other customers that walked in after us. Finally we were served after asking. Also every other customer received bread and oil (as is common in Italy) but no not us. We had to ask twice and finally we received this 40 minutes after sitting down (and after our entree). Then after our entree we ordered our main meal. This took longer than expected to arrive ( they did apologise for the delay) but it was a different meal to what we had ordered. We were not going to wait for the correct meal to be cooked because it would have taken too long. I did inform them of this incorrect meal but they did not appear to concerned. So by this stage, despite my wife’s suggestion to say nothing, the manager needed to be told. To his credit he did apologise and offered us complementary dessert but by that stage we were the last people in the restaurant. We just needed to get out of there. When we paid for our meal the manager did discount our meal so he should be applauded for understanding our situation, but we would have preferred a more pleasant lunch. Simply...

Ristorante Tonino

Abbiamo scelto Tonino come catering per il nostro matrimonio la cucina e il servizio eccellenti. In generale è stato così: il cibo era ottimo, ben presentato, e ci hanno permesso di scegliere da un’ampissima selezione di stoviglie e tovaglie per la mise en place. Il personale di sala è stato gentile e attento, contribuendo a creare una bella atmosfera.

Tuttavia, ci sono stati alcuni problemi importanti che ci hanno lasciato insoddisfatti.

Avevamo chiesto di integrare il menù tradizionale italiano con alcuni piatti bulgari, dato che la sposa è bulgara. Durante il menù tasting, il ristorante ha fatto un ottimo lavoro nel riprodurre le ricette e ha accettato di prepararle anche per il matrimonio utilizzando ingredienti autentici che abbiamo portato direttamente dalla Bulgaria. Purtroppo, il giorno del matrimonio quasi nessuno di questi prodotti è stato utilizzato. Abbiamo viaggiato in auto fino in Italia proprio per consegnare questi ingredienti, eppure la maggior parte ci è stata restituita intatta. Può succedere per degli affettati preparati sul tavolo a buffet, ma per esempio lo yogurt bulgaro era da utilizzare solamente in delle ricette, e l’abbiamo portato indietro quasi completo; o ci hanno detto di portare molto più di quanto serviva, o non è stato usato. Inoltre, una delle ricette è stata realizzata in modo errato: una come una pasta molto densa è stata servita al posto di una zuppa fredda per la quale abbiamo dato la ricetta.

Un altro problema è stato l’acqua, che era finita verso la fine dell’aperitivo, quando il catering si stava spostando nella sala principale per il pranzo. Alcuni ospiti ci hanno fatto notare che non c’era più acqua , e fra gli ospiti c’era un invitato molto anziano e dei bambini piccoli.

A parte questi problemi, il cibo era ottimo, il servizio impeccabile, e sono stati molto flessibili con le nostre richieste. We chose Tonino as our wedding caterer because of their excellent food and service. In general, they lived up to that: the food was delicious, beautifully presented, and we could chose from a a very substantial selection of cutlery and tableware. The staff were polite and attentive, which helped create a pleasant atmosphere.

However, there were also some important issues that left us disappointed.

We had asked for some additions to the traditional Italian menu with Bulgarian dishes, as the bride is Bulgarian. During the tasting, the restaurant did an excellent job recreating the recipes, and they agreed to prepare them again for the wedding using authentic ingredients that we brought directly from Bulgaria. Unfortunately, on the wedding day, they hardly used any of the products we had supplied. We had even traveled by car to Italy specifically to deliver these ingredients, yet most of them were returned untouched. That might happen for some cold cuts prepared on the buffet table, but for example the Bulgarian joghurt was supposed to be used only in recipes, and we got it back almost full; either they told us to bring much more than needed, or it was not used. One of the dishes was also executed wrong - a very thick paste was served instead of a cold soup that we had provided a recipe for.

Another issue was with the water, that ran out in the end of the aperitivo, while they were switching to the main salon for the lunch. Some guests made us notice that the water was not there anymore, and we had one elderly man and some toddlers between our guests.

Apart from these issues the food was amazing, the service was great and they were flexible with...

Very nice view, very nice service, vary good food and very unpleasant restaurant manager.

I've been in this restaurant last year and liked it a lot due to the wonderful view. So this year, visiting Cortona again, I wanted to come back and knew exactly where I wanted to be seated. During table reservation, I've specified where I wanted us to be seated (right by the fence to have a better view) which was well understood and noted in the reservation book. However when we got to the restaurant, the unpleasant manager refused to let us sit at the table we reserved, claiming it was reserved by someone else a month in advance. He refused to check the note left in the reservation book and made us sit right in front of the table I've booked. Those mystweious clients never came and the table remained empty for the rest of the evening.

Long story short: great place except but...