La Gritta — Restaurant in Lu Palau/Palau

Outrageously inappropriate treatment and a target of rage from the restaurant manager/owner.

I have been to this place for dinner other times, and I have returned mainly because the view is magnificent. In the past, I have been with my partner, who is Italian, and the treatment towards us by some of the staff members has been friendly. The woman who allocates the tables (presumably someone height in the hierarchical scale, manager? owner?) has always been somehow neutral in her treatment of us; however, on my last visit, I was with a non-Italian female friend, who I wanted to treat for her last day of stay in Sardinia I was very badly treated. I booked the table a few days in advance; upon arrival, we were given a table with a partial view, and when (kindly) asked if we could have it changed, the woman who allocated us the table had a robust rage-driven response that was shockingly inappropriate; she suggested that I had no reasons to ask for another table and that I should be satisfied and thankful for the table that she had given us. I told her that her reactions were disproportional and unacceptable, that it was wrong of her to project her anger on clients, and that she should stop talking to me in that tone. Still, she insisted on arguing and said something about not caring about “the idea that clients are always right” and that it was absolutely fine to “discuss” and carried on telling me why I had no reason to ask for another table. I believe that because I’m a woman and not Italian, I was targeted; I find it very difficult to imagine that she would have behaved in the same patronising/condescending and angry way if I had been with my male Italian partner or if I was Italian myself. Again, I had been there before with my partner, and although she wasn’t particularly friendly, she didn’t mistreat us.

This is a discrete and summarised description of the situation, but the overall situation was quite surreal; the woman only stopped her aggressive argument trying to make her point because someone called her away and asked her to stop. This situation, in my view and experience, is an ill example of someone exercising their power, and I suspect it has a lot to do with racial prejudice and misogyny. The restaurant should take this matter seriously, so it stops from happening and prevents other customers from going through such an impactful experience...

TL;DR: One of the best restaurants in Italy and the best restaurant in northern Sardinia from my experience of going all over Italy at all the best restaurants. Highly recommended the pasta and the zabaione and the chocolate tart, but everything thing excellent. 10/10 experience highly recommend detour.

This restaurant is just wow!!!! This was the last restaurant, of my 10 day tour of northern Sardinia, and it was the BEST by far. I went to the best restaurants i could find recommended by the Michelin and other culinary guides. This restaurant a MUST. The design of the restaurant is unique creative and impeccable. There is a a beautiful grass terrace with a romantic view of the beautiful Sardinian landscape. All the food was excellent but the pasta was especially excellent. I have traveled through out all of Italy as it is one of my favourite destination and from all of the tens of excellent restaurants i have been in Italy the pasta was one of the best i had. The past being the backbone of italian cuisine and take tremendous mastery to perfect especially like at a level like the one I ate here. It was so good is ordered 2 pastas originally and went for a third as i could not resist the excellency. The desert was also out of this world, its one thing to have excellent food but also excellent desert. I thought I was in Avignon or Lyon at a top class pastry shop. The zabaione was one of the best deserts i ever had, it was a perfect mix between smoothnesses sweetness and fruitiness. I also was honoured to taste their chocolate which had one of the best chocolate i had. It brought tears to my eyes having recollections of when I was making my first chocolate cake at home. I was blown away and chocolate being my favourite dessert I am very picky, it was a very, very pleasant surprise. I was also honoured to meet the chef such a wholesome person, full of passion and puts all his love in the food he makes, the same can be said for the rest of the staff which were all extremely kind...

The restaurant has spectacular views from the garden and a very elegant, cosy interior. The dishes we could try were of very high quality and presented very well. However, the portions are minute and the service was very disappointing: a general sense of arrogance was evident in the way we were welcomed (they had made a mistake with our booking, yet we were made to feel it was our misunderstanding) and when I asked what primi would be gluten free I was abruptly told none. In the words of the lady who took the orders (the manager/owner?), there was a wide choice of other dishes. I had asked whether there were gluten- free options when booking and at no time I was told no primo would be available. The lady who took the orders seemed to be almost irritated by my question. Prices are very high: €32 for a fish soup without croutons for us, and the unjustifiable price of €6 for a 75ml bottle of water. Desserts are an average of €15, very small but certainly delicious. On top there is coperto at €5 per person, which in our case consisted of a few gf triangolini that cost under €3 a bag in the supermarket. There was an attempt to make up for the poor provision by giving me two extra flavours of sorbet to try and some torrone, which was presented as a special extra 'to be forgiven'. In reality every table was receiving it.

I certainly will not be back and would recommend this restaurant for anyone...