Mammamia — Restaurant in Florence

I am not the type of person who writes bad reviews. I prefer to finish my meal, pay my bill, and never come back. However, after a very frustrating lunch, I decided to leave this review.

I was greeted by a grumpy waitress who basically just pointed us to a table and forgot about me for about 40 minutes. I was ready to order in 5, and I was starving. So the waiting was not fun at all.

After ordering my lunch, I patiently waited for another 15 minutes. While I was waiting, I asked one of the waitress if she could give me the wi-fi password. She told me to go inside and check the wall, where they wrote the password, even though the password was simple and short. Not that it matters, and normally would not bother me at all. But things were starting to pile up…

The plate was well presented, but the taste was extremely disappointing. The carbonara tastes like a frozen meal that you would find in a grocery store, or in a cheap American “wannabe Italian” restaurant.

After I was done, all the waitresses disappeared. I was looking for someone to bring me the check, but no one came. I waited patiently for a long time, until I had to get up and look for someone. That’s when I was informed that they don’t bring you the check. You have to go pay on the counter.

Paid. Left. And definitely would not come back (or recommend to anyone).

Well, I lost around one hour and half of my day here, when normally it would take me 30 minutes to sit down, order, eat and leave in any other restaurants that I visited in Italy. All of that for a pasta that wasn’t even good. And I don’t blame the staff for any of these issues (even the grumpy waitress). The restaurant seems to be short staffed (don’t know if it’s because of Covid, or if they are just trying to save money). There were only three or four waitresses for dozens of tables. So I get it, and I tried to be comprehensive. But, in the end, I am the one who lost a big chunk of the few hours I had in Firenze, so it’s hard to...

The food was very good, but the service was so bad that it ruined the experience. We had a reservation, but we were still told to wait in line outside as if we didn’t. When we walked in, we were not given menus even though the two groups of people who had walked in after us had already been served drinks. When we finally managed to ask for menus, every server ignored us and we had to ask again, at which point one young waitress very rudely asked us what language we wanted them in and, knowing two of the people in our table didn’t speak Italian, started muttering about how we should have asked for menus when we walked in—in my opinion, it is not my duty to tell the server what steps they should take while on the job. We had to ask three different servers to take our order—by the time we ordered, we had been sitting inside for forty minutes. Again, the food was very good. We had pasta, pizza, and a calzone, and all three were great. However, when we asked for the bill, nobody brought it. We had to ask for it again and, when they finally brought it and we asked to pay by card, nobody brought the machine. After ten minutes of waiting, we decided to pay straight at the bar. While waiting and checking the bill, I realised that they had charged us for an extra pizza. When telling the manager at the bar, the server who had given us the bill told him she had realised she made the mistake but forgot to correct it. Originally, we thought that the problem was that there were too few servers for too many people, but, because of the waiting, by the time we left there was nobody in the restaurant, yet they still couldn’t do something as simple as bringing the card machine. What could have been a one-hour lunch ended up being almost two hours and a half, which isn’t great when you’re only visiting...

My partner had pizza and I had chicken strips with roast potatoes. The food was okay but not delicious. I wouldn't eat there again. However, the attitude of the waitress was enough to seal the deal on never visiting again even if the food was delicious!!

Also the bread bag that we'd been given was tipped back onto a pile of bread ready for the next customers.... the bread was handled without tongs or gloves... and yet a visit to a supermarket entails the customer covering their hands to handle produce!!! (Double standards)

When we asked for the bill (in Italian) using their wireless card reader it seemed that our cards would not work. We use prepaid cards when on holiday so we knew we had plenty of money in our accounts. The waitress said in a loud voice, you have no money to pay you must come inside. I assured her we had plenty of money to pay. But she insisted on repeating this for all the other patrons to hear. It was incredibly embarrassing. I asked her not to speak to me like that but she just repeated herself. We went into the restaurant where she told a colleague we had no money to pay.....I advised her colleague that their machine did not work and insisted on using a wired card reader. My card worked immediately and our lunch was paid for. The lesson here is not to use the portable machine and not give a rude waitress the opportunity to humiliate you in front of a restaurant full of English speaking patrons.

Waiting staff work really hard in restaurants and cafes etc., I have done the job myself many times, but in all areas of business, customer service is important and the key to positive reviews on sites such as this and more importantly for happy customers to return.

This was an awful experience. I hope the owner of the restaurant reads this and has pause...