Calpurnio - Restaurant & Pizzeria — Restaurant in Gaeta

Unfortunately, Calpurnio is a tourist trap. It seems the owners have forgotten that location alone doesn’t make a good restaurant: home-made food and polite service do. I recommend you take your money elsewhere in Gaeta.

Here are a few aspects which suggested the owners were less interested in providing a great experience/food, and more towards ripping-off their clientèle: water (although we requested it to be tap) served in 70cl bottle and priced at 2 euros. No doubt, bottled water is part of the Italian experience, but communicating with the client about what is available is an important aspect store-bought food, priced like it is home-made. We had the caprese salad and the gnocchi which, in my humble opinion (having professional cooking experience as well as being obsessed with food), seems to be made from ready-made ingredients/sauces/pasta. If you like simple, non home-made dishes, then this will suit you fine - but it should be priced as such. Both of these cost 18 euros. no pizzas were served at lunch, without this being on the menu or on any boards (pizzas being the reason we visited in the first place). Again, this is not a problem if clearly communicated by the waiter a hidden fee of 4 euros for service (that’s 2 euros/ person) only announced at the end. That is a higher service fee than was charged in the centre of Rome at the most famous sites; more than we have ever paid elsewhere. unfriendly service from a middle-aged man (who I assume is the owner), treating clients (or perhaps tourists especially?) like they are a problem rather than welcoming them. Sadly, this only makes the service fee harder to justify.

This is sadly one of the worst eating experiences of my 5 months in Italy & such a pity given the beautiful culture and welcome we have...

WARNING WARNING DO NOT COME HERE You have been warned. We were staying in Formia and decided to visit Gaeta for a day. After two hours of walking we felt like a beer. The price for these two beers was €10, BUT we were charged €14 (€2 pp) for service. We are fully aware that restaurants charge a Service Charge for cutlery, glasses, bread and condiments. However, we did not get any of these, or even a simple bowl of potato crisps. We don’t mind supporting local businesses but when local businesses rip off tourists and charge a service fee for absolutely nothing then we feel we need to make people aware of this and issue a WARNING of not to go to this place. We did go to Christian Bar straight after this, had a beer and cocktail (€13) and were offered olives, potato crisps and peanuts with NO SERVICE charge. After that we had dinner at another restaurant and were only charged €1 service BUT had bread, bottle of wine, olive oil, balsamic, coffee and two plates of pasta. So DO NOT COME TO THIS PLACE. Obviously the manager/owner does not care for tourism dollars so if you don’t want to be ripped off please stay away from this place. You have...

My family and I personally love the food here BUT the tall skinny gentleman with glasses has the worst attitude. On our recent visit we ordered caprese, four cheese pizza, ravioli, and the fried calamari. We literally ATE everything and still hadn't received the calamari. We proceeded to ask for the bill to the gentleman and he obliged but never returned with the bill. So we got up and started walking towards the inside of the restaurant as that's where we pay and he stopped us and told us we still had the calamari to wait for. We explained they took too long AND we were already done with our food! He became upset and started making comments (in Italian of course). The short lady that rung us up was very sweet and even apologized for his behavior. This place could be so much better if HE DIDNT WORK HERE! Fire him because he makes visitors like us not want to visit as much as we...