Fresco & Cimmino — Restaurant in Milan

Had an absolutely disgusting experience at this restaurant that I'm still trying to wrap my head around. We are an Asian-American family. We were seated at a table in the middle of the restaurant, but noticed there weren't any plates or utensils while all the other tables were properly set up. We patiently waited, thinking the plates will be brought over once the food is out. Meanwhile, we asked an Italian male server what the wifi password was, to which he said "one moment" curtly and went to the cashier desk to chat with the other servers for five minutes. We had no patience so asked another, non-Italian server and was given the password immediately. About 10 minutes later, a basket of bread was brought to the table - put more accurately, it was thumped on the table without a glance at us. Still no plates. No butter, no olive oil, anything. So I politely asked the first server who sat us down when our plates were coming - he didn't say anything, but nodded his head, and went away. However, to our dismay, he did not even enter the kitchen - he kept chatting to other severs. At this point, I had the suspicion that the way he was acting towards us was no accident - through the many microaggressions we unfortunately encountered as a visible minority, we knew that discrimination was real and pervasive. We just hadn't expected it at a touristy restaurant that was half empty and looked like it desperately needed customers.

After asking another server for plates and having them brought over - again, without a glance at us - I asked to speak to the manager. A tall Italian gentleman looked my way and stuck his chin out towards me as if to say, "what do you want?" without moving. At this point, all the eyes of the servers were on me - including those who had treated us as invisible people the whole time. I found the situation humiliating, but patiently explained to the manager that there is something off about the way the servers were acting, and that it's not acceptable that it took us 20 minutes to get our plates. He didn't seem to understand English all that well, but got the gist of the message - I knew this because he said "well, sorry" in a gruntled way. After this exchange, two olive oil bottles were brought over, but again without a word or a glance from the server.

At this point, we'd had enough. I went to the cash desk and said we'd pay for the two coke drinks that had already come out, but cancel the entire order. Seeing this, the owner of the restaurant came to me and started speaking to me in a very aggressive and loud voice - repeatedly telling me that it's only been 10 minutes since the order went to the kitchen (in any case, not true - but irrelevant). I first told him not to scream at me and to hear me out since I wasn't complaining about the wait time at all, but he would not let me finish. In fact, I couldn't finish one sentence before he walked away. The manager then gave me the bill for 2 coke, 1 beer, and the best part - coperto of 3€. I told him that the beer hadn't even come out, and there is no way I am paying for the awful service. The bill was then reduced to 2 coke, a copy of which I have with me as proof of this extremely unpleasant experience. To add insult to the injury, the manager appeared to swear in Italian under his breath, and again refused to look at me while I corrected the bill.

I don't know which part is most outrageous - but it is hard to explain the deeply unsettling and insulting aspect of feeling invisible and disrespected without a reason. I'm still in a bit of a shock that this happened. In any case, I hope future patrons of this restaurant will be treated with the respect they deserve, regardless of the color of their skin or the language they speak.

亚洲旅客请注意 - 这点饭馆对客人的态度很恶心。不要在这吃饭。

이 식당에서 가족들과 밥을 먹다가 황당하고 무례한 웨이터들의 태도에 질려 이미 나온 음료수 값만 페이하고 먼저 나왔습니다. 매니저부터 웨이터에 이르기까지 동양사람이라 무시하는 듯한 느낌을 지울 수가 없었습니다. 이 식당은...

Myself and two friends came across this restaurant after exploring the Duomo Cathedral. Initially everything was all right, we were seated immediately and the wine and starters also came out in good time. When our pizzas came out, my friend accidentally spilled half of his glass of wine onto his pizza - which had just arrived and he had not taken one slice before this happened. Almost immediately, after witnessing this, the server Isa took away the wine-soaked pizza and I believe explained what happened to the manager, Masimo. Masimo then proceeded to just look and stare over at our table.

We assumed as the server had taken away the pizza, they were remaking another one for my friend as what happened was a complete accident and was most definitely not on purpose. Quite a while after the pizza was taken away and after multiple servers and the management had a conversation in the corner, presumably about us, a different server came over to tell us that they can remake the pizza for us but we would have to pay for both.

Obviously this sounded ridiculous, especially when we did not ask the server to take away the pizza, even though this would be expected in any other respected and professional restaurant. Clearly this place isn’t either. We immediately explained to this new waiter that we did not ask for the pizza to be taken away and that it can be brought back and my friend was happy to eat it (obviously after wiping away the wine as much as possible). The waiter looked at us confusingly but proceeded to go and bring the pizza back. We found it offensive that we were being asked to pay for a second pizza to be remade after a complete accident.

Finally, at the end, we were presented with a bill that included 3,50€ cover charge per person. As we were completely dissatisfied with the service, we were not happy to pay this separate charge, especially when in the menu it stated the charge was for cover, service and bread which at no point was offered. We were told it was because we all got pizza dishes and usually they only give it out bread for pasta dishes. To ask us to pay for bread that we did not receive is outrageous, but to avoid causing a bigger problem and to continue on with our day, we paid the charge and asked for our bread for takeaway.

I am completely disgusted with how we were treated and I would not recommend this place whatsoever. The food wasn’t even that good and the service was bottom barrel. Masimo the manager provided terrible service, Luca the new server wasn’t terrible and was doing what his manager told him to do, and even acknowledged the fact that Massimo is the boss and what he says goes. He also acknowledged that asking someone to pay for a pizza when an accident like this had occurred was not normal and was out of the ordinary, but again what the boss says goes. Isa the server was the only one who had common sense and acted in...

Came here for our last evening meal in Milan. Looked inviting and busy, so you would think that would be a reason to go. Got seated outside quickly, ordered our drinks a wine, cocktail, a sprite and food. My starter came very quickly giving me some concern. It was a mixed starter of mozerella, arancini, potato croquettes and some form of a Mac and cheese ball. Myself and my partner shared this, when we started with the arancini, we both realised it was stone cold in the middle. I flagged down a waiter who said he would return however he did not, so after some time I flagged the manager down who was wearing a blue shirt, I explained it was cold in the middle and so were the others beside the mozerella. Especially having meat inside 2 of them it is important that it is fully cooked and hot inside and out. I said it wasn’t that pleasant and my appetite had gone from it being cold and not pleasant inside. He kept pushing for me to have another, I said I couldn’t as I had been put off by the first. I asked for it to be taken off the bill as it wasn’t cooked. Our mains arrived, my partners first and 2nd course arrived together. My pasta dish wasn’t that pleasant either with some dry beef and no sauce. I also never got my sprite, so I thought it hadn’t been put through on the bill, no one came back to check if everything was ok either. No one came to clear our plates after some time or offer us desserts. We flagged someone down to get the bill. I was shocked to see the sprite and the starter still on the bill, we told the waiter who went to the manager, this manager was incredibly rude and refused to come back to our table and left the waiter to sort the bill out. They took the sprite off but refused to take the starter off, the conversation started well with the language barrier but he became confrontational and couldn’t understand me. He started to raise his voice and cause a scene, I felt I was I pushed in to paying for this meal. Left a very sour taste in our mouths and very upsetting last night in Milan. I have worked in hospitality here at home and I was shocked by the service we received here. I understand how Covid has affected business etc but tourism brings in a lot of business and money to these places....