Il Bastione — Restaurant in Gallipoli

I chose this restaurant because of its great location and stunning view across the Mediterranean. I thought the food and service couldn't be that bad despite the reviews here. However is was very wrong with that assumption.

We had the tagliatelle with seafood and the pasta with lobster (Pacheri All'Astice).

Both dishes were very small and not enough for an adult. That in itself wouldn't be terrible if we hadn't asked the waiter beforehand if the portion size would be enough.

However the real let down was the half lobster. If was not really half and they did not provide the tools to crack the claws or the feet. So a lot of meat was left within the lobster. That was a real no go for a restaurant in that price range.

Lastly the service was lacking. The waiter was uninvolved and cold. Anyone reading this review, I strongly encourage not to visit this place despite its stunning views.

Side note and not really an issue but symptomatic for the restaurants overarching issue: A kid of the owner(?) started to use a drone mid dinner and flew above the guests. That only lasted for like 5 minutes but it shows the gap between assumed sophistication and it's actual state.

Last but not least: since it has become more common to take down reviews I saved the receipt to proof that we were...

My partner and I decided to go here for aperitivo and watch the sunset, because this place is definitely wonderful for watching the sunset. We quickly got seated and when we asked for aperitivo, we were told that they don’t do that, so we asked for some light snacks in the form of French fries and mixed fried fish and vegetables, which is on the menu. This would of course go together with the glass of white wine we each had ordered. The food came first, it had definitely just been frozen and then heated up, it seemed even kinda store-bought, even though I have never had such horrible store-bought mixed fried fish and vegetables. Half was basically still frozen, the other half was either lukewarm or burning hot and all of it was soggy. The French fries were less soggy, all kinda warm but without any taste. The white wine was also completely undrinkable and the service non existent, so as soon as we had seen the sunset, we left like 60% of the food and 80% of the wine and went to pay just to get out of there, when they then wanted to charge us 45 euro for what we had ordered. We honestly feel robbed. Watch the sunset from upstairs, outside of the restaurant. Besides the beautiful sunset, this was...

Avoid at all cost (pun intended).

This is a classic "tourist trap" of the lowest order. The food is mediocre to plain bad, prepared on a hotel lobby level, priced as a Michelin star restaurant... How low can you get? The fish dish ordered was dry and tasteless and was not eaten - in a decent restaurant the floor manager or a waiter would ask you why it was not eaten, offer a replacement, maybe take it off the bill. In La Bastione they just didn't care. On the other side of the table the seafood pasta was equally bland (but eatable with a pinch of salt). I have noticed that the lady at a next table didn't eat her dish too. No wonders. The starters were OK so I added a second star. The only good thing about this place is the view - if you get to see it, because we were first to come and the staff moved us from front line to the view to the back away from the water in a stupid excuse just to find others seating there as the place filled up! Summing up: mediocre food, the staff wasn't friendly, no one cares of your client experience, overpriced. How bad do you want it? I would...