Osteria Il Botteghino — Restaurant in Lucca

If you can't speak Italian - don't bother with this place! For a true insight into the attitude of the owners, read the replies to the other negative reviews!! They do not like criticism! Our experience..., NEGATIVE! We were a group of 14 well behaved middle aged Australians with 2 Italian speaking friends in our group. We took up 2 long tables between us. Our Italian friends both sat at the same table as each other, I was on the other table. My table knew very little Italian but managed as our young waitress had fair English. After our initial order, we attempted to ask for more potatoes to which the response came back, 'you can have any more, we have other people to feed'! WHAT!!? Someone else at our 'all English' speaking table asked 5 times for a plate which never arrived. Our food arrived all over the place, some not as ordered, other orders just didn't turn up. One waiter just plonked the food down on the table and motioned to us to sort it out for our selves! But, at the table with our Italian speaking friends, well...they got everything they asked for. Over the whole experience between the 2 tables, our treatment was nothing but discrimination! As one other reviewer on this page simply said, 'for locals only!' But they're happy to take your money! I know if this review even gets a reply it will be very personal and not pretty. I don't care. I wont be back there ever...

The worst restaurant I’ve ever eaten in. We were 6 adults and a child but 3 did not eat red meat (chicken or fish are fine). There is no menu and we were only offered pasta, steak or roast beef, no vegetables dishes or other alternatives. So 3 shared tomato pasta and 4 shared 2 steaks with salad, and 2 bottles of house wine. The waiter just shrugged when we spotted other guests were eating chicken, beans, spinach, etc. When I complained about this to the owner and that our itemised bill was €27 x 7 (€189) he insulted me calling me a ‘bast*o’. Another guest (an Italian) apologised to me and said he was drunk. Don’t make our mistake and read the other bad reviews. This is repeating behaviour. Avoid...

The food is good and so the prices from the menu, but when it comes to payment they charge you more than normal. For example we were 5 adults, 3 of us speaking very good Italian and we took day menu ( 13€ each) plus 2 bottles of water and 2 coffees, also to add “coperto” (1.5 € each), total 75 €. At the end an old man was asking us 100€, we paid and after we asked why they charged us that much an young man came and said he is sorry for the inconvenience and gave us back 25€. I don’t think this is the first time they are doing this and won’t be the last. Be careful and calculate your food and drinks if you chose to eat there. We won’t...