Gem's Brew Pub — Restaurant in Lazise

Rated as the lowest Service of 1 as zero is not an option. Having spent a fantastic two weeks holiday in Lazise and having visited GEM'S at least 6 times before, we decided to have our last evening dinner there. We had got to know the staff and had built up a good banter and we knew what to expect. How wrong we were! The Service was atrocious, after being shown to a table we were not given any menus and had to stop a waiter rushing past us and ask for menus. GEM'S was busy but by a long way, not full. We were then ignored and again had to request to place our 4 orders and at the same time we pointed out to the waiter that the small basket of condiments, had in fact been all used and contained the debris of spilt sauce and used sachets. The drinks and a pizza arrived in about 10 minutes, the dippers followed about 10 minutes later, and the 2 GEM'S speciality chicken were nowhere to be seen. My wife had almost finished the pizza before the chicken, along with the GEM'S special sauce, which is insipid and nothing special, arrived. Chicken and fries were good, and after our mediocre meal experience, the view of the sun set was better, we decided to have a second drink and a desert. Again, we had to stop a waiter in his tracks to clear our table and request the desert menu and drinks. 10 minutes, then 20 minutes elapsed, and neither the drinks or a desert menu arrived. Once again, we had to flag down a waiter to enquire and request desert menus. The waiter returned with a single menu, and before you could say anything, he sped off and left us hanging. By this time, we were all totally disillusioned and frankly very annoyed and disappointed. We concluded our desire for desert or anything else, for that matter, had totally diminished. Having again waved around to get a waiter for the bill, this thought quickly left our minds, and I went into the bar armed with our table number to settle up. Even that was another saga of poor service, the bar person was pouring customer gratis lemonchello's, splashing all over the bar counter. We had never in any of our 7 visits been offered a lemoncello! He said in his cocky italano/English accent, "How can I be of service?" I acknowledged to him this is the first offer of Service we had experienced all night, to which he apologised. I explained I wanted to pay the bill and he beckoned a lady colleague to assist me. Again, she was more consumed by the mobile phone call being taken whilst handing over the bill and did not even make eye contact until I didn't take it from her wavering outstretched hand. The bill was paid, and we retired to our hotel for a night cap. A fantastic holiday smeared by our last dinner experience. Good luck, GEM'S in addressing this poor Poor Service, after which you may be able to fill your empty...

I wrote my review of this restaurant in 2022 and they must have found a way to delete it… I was there in July 2022 with a group of friends. First thing: I had checked the menu online before going to the restaurant because there are vegetarians and people with food intolerances in the group, turns out the menu was last updated in 2014. There were only 3 veggie options, so I chose a vegetarian pizza. They clearly can’t handle big groups (8-10 people) because I read the same review from other people: the dishes were coming 2 every 10 mins, they also forgot my pizza and didn’t admit they did, nor apologize. And then my pizza came: clearly made last minute with the dough still cold from the fridge and not worked properly. Veggies thrown randomly on the pizza. I have never eaten such a bad pizza in Italy, ever. I would like to mention we are locals, so it’s just as bad for locals as for tourists. The fact that they requested to delete my review makes it even shadier 😅 unless they have a legitimate reason like a change...

Non sono solito nel scrivere recensioni negative ma in questo caso è dovuta. Abbiamo prenotato in questo ristorante con giorni d’anticipo per cenare insieme con amici, una volta arrivati dopo un’ora di strada (siamo andati a Lazise apposta da lontano) ci hanno accolti fuori dal parcheggio dicendo che “causa internet assente” non potevano servirci… Mandando via tutte le auto che arrivavano. So che sembra una gag degna dei migliori comici all’italiana ma ahimè non lo è. La mia recensione non è in ogni caso riferita all’imprevisto in sé, da fastidio ma può capitare, ciò che mi ha infastidito è stata la totale assenza di professionalità e rispetto. Gli imprevisti possono capitare a chiunque sul lavoro ma è nel modo in cui vengono gestiti che si denota la professionalità, cosa che qui non c’è stata. Avevano il nostro numero di telefono in quanto prenotando viene richiesto, potevano telefonarci anche a ridosso dell’orario e ci saremmo organizzati diversamente. Caso vuole che siamo rimasti nel parcheggio alla ricerca di un’altro ristorante quando, poco dopo, la cameriera ci richiama dicendo che potevano accoglierci. Il problema era stato risolto. Avevamo l’onore di poter cenare. Quindi tanto casino per niente? Era un problema così grave? Se la cassa non funziona si usa il registro dei corrispettivi d’emergenza… se il pos non funziona mi avvisi e pago in contanti. Qualcuno direbbe: “i dettagli della tua incompetenza non mi interessano”. Non c’è stato alcun problem-solving, bensì solo problem. Sorvolato questo impasse, una volta accomodati al tavolo i tempi sono stati un po’ lunghi, ma reduci di un’accoglienza tale ho pensato che almeno il cibo fosse delizioso. Mai alcun pensiero poteva essere più sbagliato. La pizza era disgustosa tanto da far sembrare quella surgelata del discount una vera ghiottoneria. La cotoletta unta bisunta. Non è di certo un ristorante stellato, ma per fare una pizza così ripugnante in Italia ci vuole molto impegno. Era secca incendiata, sembrava una delle ruote della macchina dei flintstones! Giunto il momento di pagare non ci hanno fatto nemmeno un euro di sconto, zero, la persona alla cassa forse la responsabile, non ha accennato nemmeno un minimo di scuse. Se fossi stato io al suo posto mi sarei mostrato costernato e avrei cercato di rimediare offrendo qualcosa, un piccolo gesto. Invece il nulla cosmico, esattamente come ciò che è questo posto. Morale della favola: una brutta esperienza. Io penso che uscire a cena non sia un bisogno vitale bensì un momento di relax e di svago, andare al ristorante deve essere un’esperienza piacevole non un disagio come in questo...