TL;DR Good food, mediocre service, scammy practice / Ottimo cibo, servizio mediocre, prezzi disonesti

Full review: the food here is good, really good.

We came here because the place was recommended by our AirBnB host. We are a half Italian, half American family, so we have experience with service both in Italy and in the US. We love good food, and this seemed to be both a convenient and authentic place - not a tourist trap, or so we hoped.

We sat down, and we had to wait over 30 minutes. We had to ask if we could please order, since we were hungry - and only then someone finally came to take our order.

We were four: two of us ordered the famed "menu pizza" - a selection of local appetizers and one pizza to be shared by two people, for 12 euro per person (but at least two people must order the same). The other two of us ordered a la carte, one pasta dish and one mixed grilled meat. We made sure that we did NOT order appetizers, since we heard that the portions were generous. We also got a bottle of water and a bottle of red wine - an excellent red. The waiter agreed, took our orders, and left.

The dinner started well: the appetizers were generous, to the point that we were so full by just tasting them all that we asked if our orders of pasta or grilled meat could be canceled. They said no, but that we could cancel the pizza provided that we still paid for the full "pizza menu". Thinking that it was going to be $24 for the generous appetizers, we agreed - the pizza would have been too much, and the price was right. After a long while, the rest of the food arrived: past and meat. We still ate some and enjoyed it, and ordered Amaro Peppe to finish our meal. All was good. We even complimented this place for having good and honest prices as we reached the cashier. She asked for my card and I handed it over without looking at he bill - and yes, that was my mistake, but this place felt good. We even left a generous tip, a practice that is not common in Italy.

All considered, we expected a reasonable bill - however, the restaurant charged us not just for all we ordered, but an additional 32 euro for two more orders of appetizers that we specifically said we did not want.

When we asked to rectify this overcharge - particularly since we specified that we did not want four order of appetizers, and since we even said to leave the charge of the "menu pizza" even without ordering the pizza - they said no, and laughed at us. So, here I am writing this review, my experience of Matera and its food a bit ruined by dishonest restaurants. We ended up paying a lot for things we did not want.

This "misunderstanding", as they call it, could have been avoided by simply taking the non-existent appetizer orders off the bill. Instead, the cashier insisted that we ordered everything and refused to issue a refund.

Conclusion: there is a lot of good food in Matera, stay away from this place and go find another restaurant. You'll enjoy the meal more and you'll actually pay the right price - perhaps more, but it will be what you actually ordered.

We surely won't be back.