Hosteria Croce D'Oro — Restaurant in Desenzano del Garda

Charming and authentic osteria with unique and amazingly delicious dishes and fantastic service! We ate Sunday lunch here on our last full day in Desenzano and I only wish we had gone earlier in our stay because we certainly would have returned! We had a delicious antipasto with bresaola, arugula and cheese. We followed this up with some of their local house wine and two amazing slow cooked dishes- one with venison the other with wild boar and both were absolutely amazing (sorry I forgot to take a photo because it looked so delicious!!). And to end we had amazing tiramisu and panna cotta with espresso. I should note that they also had a wide variety of pasta dishes for those who may not want to try wild boar or venison. Lastly I will mention that the very nice lady who served us (who I think was the owner) was amazing! She perfectly timed thr service and made us feel very welcome and not rushed at all. This little gem is absolutely worth the short walk up from...

The food was delicious, but the service was terrible. I pointed at the menu to order a starter, but they brought a different one. I repeated four times that it was wrong and said that if I had to pay for it, they didn’t need to bring it. They brought it anyway. We thought that since it was their mistake, we wouldn’t be charged. In the end, on the bill, they charged for that starter and we ended up paying twice. I then asked to take the food I had paid for, but they told me it had been thrown away even though I saw them store it. Nobody at the restaurant speaks English, even though it’s a tourist city, and when a problem happened, they looked annoyed and treated us badly.

Das Essen war köstlich, aber der Service war schrecklich. Ich habe auf der Speisekarte die Vorspeise gezeigt, die ich wollte, aber sie brachten eine andere. Ich habe viermal wiederholt, dass es falsch war, und gesagt, dass sie es nicht bringen müssen, wenn ich dafür bezahlen muss. Trotzdem haben sie es gebracht. Wir dachten, dass wir es wegen ihres Fehlers nicht bezahlen müssten. Am Ende stand es trotzdem auf der Rechnung, und wir haben doppelt bezahlt. Ich bat dann darum, das Essen mitzunehmen, für das ich bezahlt hatte, aber man sagte mir, es sei weggeworfen worden ich gesehen habe, dass sie es aufbewahrt haben. Niemand im Restaurant spricht Englisch, obwohl es eine Touristenstadt ist, und als es ein Problem gab, reagierten sie genervt und behandelten uns schlecht.

Il cibo era delizioso, ma il servizio è stato pessimo. Ho indicato sul menu l’antipasto che volevo, ma ne hanno portato un altro. Ho ripetuto quattro volte che era sbagliato e ho detto che, se dovevo pagarlo, non c’era bisogno di portarlo. L’hanno portato comunque. Pensavamo che, essendo un loro errore, non l’avremmo dovuto pagare. Alla fine, nel conto, ce l’hanno addebitato e abbiamo pagato due volte. Ho quindi chiesto di portare via il piatto per cui avevo pagato, ma mi hanno detto che era stato buttato — anche se ho visto che l’avevano conservato. Nessuno nel ristorante parla inglese, nonostante sia una città turistica, e quando c’è stato un problema si sono mostrati infastiditi e ci hanno...

Insider tip! The restaurant is set back from the tourist catwalk on a quiet street. There are only 3 tables for two people each to sit outside. The waitresses are extremely friendly. The pasta dishes are homemade. The choice of dishes is very good and every dish was a treat. The limoncello sorbe is a must for dessert, as it is very refreshing on hot days. !Note!: If you want to make a reservation via Google, it will be shown for the evening that there are no more free tables. We then went to the restaurant and made an old-school reservation on the spot. Tables were free for the desired evening, contrary to what Google said. We want to let the ownerin...