Al Gondoliere — Restaurant in Malcesine

Tucked away in a side street of malcesine is this absolute gem of a restaurant. Up a gentle flight of stairs you arrive to the restaurant and are greeted by one of the servers who are all super polite, friendly and welcoming. The owner is also involved and helping out too which is nice to see. Olives to start with bread for dipping in olive oil which was the best we've had so far, the olives are lovely but a little spicy and peppery, definitely to our taste! First course of muscles arrived piping hot, smelling amazing and tasting absolutely fabulous accompanied by grilled bread and the sauce they came in, simply amazing. Prawns with ratatouille vegetables and porcini mushroom pasta we chose and neither of them disappointed, the prawns were already shelled except heads and tails purely for presentation. Beer was served draught and lovely light, chilled to perfection and tasty too. The red wine recommended by the owner to pair with prawns went down exceptionally. Tiramisu desert was the best we've had in malcesine to date! Limoncino Al Gondoliere was so smooth it's dangerous to know there's alcohol in there as you could so easily drink plentiful amounts too, they also sell it which we had to have a couple of bottles also!

Praise to all of the staff who were all super friendly, attentive and so so welcoming as well as the kitchen staff and chefs who produced lovely food for both of us.

Highly recommended to all visiting the area not...

Overrated restaurant with just ok food

We walked-in on a Saturday night. The lady (I assume the owner/manager) who greeted was super friendly, but sadly we then never see her afterwards at our table.

Our server was an older man who was alright. The other two young servers were not particularly friendly. They did not smile, stayed silent when the food was served, and did not even say “prego” after we thanked them. When we wanted to place an order, our server was nowhere to be seen, and the younger servers refused to take our orders and asked us to wait. We waited for quite some time until our server came back. It is the first time that we experienced this level of service in Italy.

Olives were nice but bread was just ok.

The beef cheek looked really beautiful. The mashed potatoes had great texture and taste. The sauce was ok. However the beef cheek was not great and a bit too chewy to eat.

The spaghetti was a bit too bland for my taste. The spaghetti’s texture was not particularly good (you can see from the photo). The prawns didn’t taste fresh as they were a bit way too soft. Sad to say we could not finish this dish.

And after paying when we left the restaurant no one greeted us or say anything to us....

Had dinner here with my family this evening. My tagliatelle dish was so small, completely bland and tasteless. I did tell them when they asked if it was good, they didn't seem interested. Extras were added to the bill that we weren't aware of. Owners had a bad attitude when asked about the extortionate bill and the extras. Do not recommend this restaurant at all. We spent €100 euros here and left totally unsatisfied....😠 Update after reply from the owner. What a terrible attitude you have. We don't complain as a rule and have had wonderful service before now, just not at your restaurant. Our complaint was about your awful bland and tasteless food which you totally ignored and still charged us for. I can see now by your response why we were treated this way. Your shocking greed just adds to an awful experience. So glad we told several people looking at your menus as we left not to dine here. They soon walked away...... Worst restaurant...