Il Salumaio di Montenapoleone - since 1957 — Restaurant in Milan

I booked Il Salumaio months in advance for my mother’s birthday after dining here on a few prior occasions and generally having a satisfactory experience; unfortunately, what should have been a special night this time around turned into one of the most disappointing dining experiences I’ve ever had in Milan.

Our server could not have cared less that we were there. We were barely greeted, plates were literally thrown down on the table without a word, and then he vanished for most of the meal. My sister ended up refilling our glasses from the bottle we purchased because our server was nowhere to be found. For a restaurant on Via Montenapoleone, this level of service is shocking.

Despite the reservation noting a birthday, there was zero acknowledgment - no “happy birthday,” no gesture, nothing. In fact, we were so turned off that we wrapped up our primi and bottle of wine, walked out, and went to another restaurant to salvage the evening.

What makes this worse is that I’ve sent many friends, colleagues, and clients from LA to NYC that you would think a restaurant like this would value. After this experience, I wouldn’t refer anyone again.

When I went to find a manager (who was quite polite upon our arrival) to share feedback, there was - unsurprisingly - no one in sight. So I’m leaving this review instead: if you value good service and even basic courtesy on a special occasion (or any occasion) look elsewhere. Milan is full of wonderful restaurants this is not...

The food was nice and the location and atmosphere was really wonderful. It is a very beautiful courtyard to sit in. However the service was incredibly atrocious. From the moment we sat down, our menus were thrown on to the table without saying anything. The waiter never even made eye contact with us and was looking at other tables while we ordered. We had to ask for things multiple times and we waited more than 40 minutes for our dessert. He was dismissive to us and actively rude. We asked for the bill 3 times and eventually, when a different waiter he asked how we were, we said we were waiting for the bill. At that point our waiter started very obviously speaking about us in Italian in front of us. He was clearly not saying nice things. I could understand all of this if we were rude customers, however my mum and I are the type of people to apologise to a lamp post when we bump into it. There is no world in which we would ever be rude to a waiter even if they were rude to us. It almost ruined our meal how badly we were treated. It was a real shame considering how excited my mum was for this evening together. In my opinion as well, the food was really only ok. There is so much excellent food in Milan, this was just not the best of it. It seemed only tourists staying in the nearby hotels...

Lets give this restaurant 4/5 stars because Their location is amazing The restaurant seems to have had glory days The waiter was fantastic. There are 10 chefs with tocs on their heads They work hard. And because 1 star would affect their rating

The owner should let the direction of this place to a new blood younger director. The place is just tired, the menu is not only outdated but the execution could be improoved by any roocky chef from a well respected restaurant. Artichoques could not be chewed, the pasta was dry, industrial, flavorless, the salmon tartar was “ fad” a french word for tasteless. Not even with balsamic vinegar and evoo and salt the tartar could be fixed. Why would they serve cold terrible bread? That is so easy to do!!!! My brother recomended I come here and we came very excited. The experience was aaa because of the waiter. The wine was good ( not their fault). The rest, a disaster. Again, I am not giving them 1 star because of the reasons listed, but this place does not deserve ( food wise) more than 2 stars ( being generous). The restaurant business is a hard one, but this people have 90% pf what ot takes to do things right. Pleaseeeeeee, hore a professional chef with schooling, and please, have a general manager direct...