La Bottega Del Peperoncino — Restaurant in Fiumicino

Beware tourists! I haven't ever had a restaurant experience this bad in my life. Went here with my family on our last day in Rome before flying home. Wanted to try another local place, as opposed to our hotel restaurant, and read the good reviews thinking we'd give this place a try. Service was slow despite it being not busy. Our waitress was rude and inattentive, preferring to focus on her friends at another table than our group. We had to ask her multiple times for things like pepper, water, and even the wine. She told us that they were out of hamburger buns AFTER our orders went through, so those of us who ordered sandwiches received theirs on a plate without bread (just the insides). Two of the "sandwiches" were supposed to include buffalo mozzarella, but didn't. When we questioned our waitress about this, she just said - "it's finished". Those of us who ordered pasta were also disappointed, which was shocking given that we were in Italy. It was bland, and not cooked al dente. The potatoes weren't cooked enough either. The wine didn't arrive until well after the food did, despite being ordered first. We ordered a 2017 bottle and received a 2021 bottle for the same price! The meals looked slapped together and unappetizing. My grandmother who is originally from Italy was with us and refused to eat the pasta they served us. The waitress presented us with a bill for a higher than expected price which we contested given the inadequacies of the meal. We spoke to the owner and our waitress, the latter of whom then lied about the lack of bread and mozzarella to our face. She said it was US who requested no bread, and that she simply forgot to bring the mozzarella. Why would three people request a sandwich with no bread??? And she told us their mozzarella was "finished" so she did not just "forget". It was completely dishonest of her. Lying and scamming of tourists is what is done at this establishment. We managed to get the bill discounted slightly but it was still too much to pay for such an awful experience. Maybe locals get better food and treatment, but if you're a tourist group, prepare to get scammed here. Worst experience I've had in all of Italy. Shame...

We ordered two of the day’s specials and neither was particularly good. The cutlet tasted like it was a few days old and I even thought it might be chicken rather than veal. My husband’s roast lamb was tough and greasy. The spinach we ordered seemed to have been cooked from frozen spinach (it was late spring and spinach was in season!). I had to go find some balsamic vinegar to make it palatable. I felt sorry for the sole waiter who was literally running to take care of all the tables, which is why I got up and got the balsamic myself. It was a meal and it did not make us ill, but I won’t be going back. I make better Italian...

I don’t usually review though it is required on this occasion. Arrived at the restaurant hungry and tired after a long flight. I ordered a burger which was literally the meat and bread, absolutely nothing else, no salad, sauce, nothing apart from a sachet of ketchup. Was flavourless and bland. Ate half of it and headed somewhere else for a decent meal. The place is a mess with boxes of supplies on view, a couple of co2 bottles randomly placed in the dining area, just really untidy. The lady serving me was pleasant and no complaints there, though I was the only person in there at 9pm on a Friday evening which is...