Giù a Sud | Bistrot nei Sassi — Restaurant in Matera

The atmosphere is super. The view is beautiful. The traffic is a little annoying, but nothing they can impact. Service is okay. The waiter had problems understanding us or the chef didn’t understand the order. We had to plates of chicken, baked potatoes and water. Due to dietary limitations, I could have the chicken only without anything else. So no oil, no vinegar, no rocket leaves, no tomatoes, nothing. Just chicken. Because I can eat potatoes, I ordered potatoes aside. The second dish was the chicken plate - regular. We got served: two bottles of water (ordered one), two regular chicken plates and potatoes. Someone understood that we didn’t want anything on one chicken plate. And the second one regular. Easiest order poorly executed. Potatoes were incredibly bad. Soaked in fat. Potentially good, but again poorly executed. We returned one chicken plate and got it right the second time. The waiter was super kind and helpful. The chef (I assume) wasn’t. After all that we paid the full price. The size of each dish is also not...

The starters were all very good. We had the caciocavallo, melanzane and the polpette. I would recommend sharing the starters as the are all delicious in different ways.

For main I had the beef cheek, which was exquisite. We actually cool beef cheek well in England, but this was better than any I had ever tasted. Not only did it taste beautiful, but the portion was generous, too.

My parents had the the stinco di maile, which they give a 10 out of 10. The meat fell off the bone; delicious.

My partner had the cheese and pepper pasta which she said was her favourite pasta of the holiday.

Other points: The facilities were good. There's a good view of the old town from the outdoor seating area. The waiter, Guiseppe, was accomodating, polite and amichevole. He recommended the polpotte (v nice) and helped my dad refine his Italian.

All in all an excellent experience and a cherry on top of our trip to...

We went for dinner on Tuesday and on Wednesday here. Tuesday experience was amazing, the service was excellent and food was one of the best I've tasted in Italy. Delicious Burratine with a splash of olive oil and tomatoes was to die for and the beef cheek was tender and delicious. However, yesterday when we came back the service was very different experience (a different waitress). The same Buratine didn't have the splash of oil, which was a different taste. The mains we had to wait really long, though at that time the restaurant was less busy than a day before. Finally, the desert took 20-25 min to arrive and only when we asked for the bill. Multiple people were complaining about slow service, which didn't happen a day before. To sum up, if you're lucky you will get amazing meal and service, but do make reservations beforehand as we managed only to get place inside, which was...