Little Italy — Restaurant in Milan

There was a problem with the order and the way how it was handled was not great (and also the response of the owner to this review shows they have not understood much about customer satisfaction and the whole situation, even a few days after the incident): first, I wanted to get a dish "Melanzane alla Parmigiana" (a traditional Southern Italian dish with the main ingredients eggplants, parmesan, tomato sauce), which I thought was on the menu. They explained to me that they only have pizza with eggplants and a lasagne with eggplants but that "melanzane alla parmigiana" is not existing in their restaurant, so I decided to order the lasagna with egpplants instead.

However when the food came later, it was definitely NOT the lasagna on the menu with eggplants but a lasagna with lots of MUSHROOMS but NO SINGLE EGGPLANT, so really a completely different dish from what I had ordered. The first waiter insisted it was lasagna with eggplants, and only after speaking with another waiter they seemed to conceed half-heartedly that they had brought the wrong dish. Less than 10 min later I got something allegedly resembling a "Melanzane alla Parmiagiana", where later they told me they had cooked it especially for me (although at the beginning they told me that this dish doesn't even exist at their restaurant). If that was true, the dish would take much more time to cook and it wouldn't come on the plate ALMOST COLD like it did in my case. Apart from that, the taste was also just mediocre with really bad quality eggplants (I have eaten this dish in many restaurants throughout Italy and this was by far the worst tasting version) - only the special bread that they served tasted quite nice, to be fair. Also, my dish had lasagna pasta sheets inside, something that is NOT inside a normal parmigiana, but would be inside an eggplant lasagna.

The bad situation worsended when paying, when I was charged 12 € instead of 9,50 € for the initial eggplant lasagna that I had ordered (26% more than the price on the menu). To clarify regarding the response of the owner to this review: I don't care about 2 € more or less - I would happily pay 5 € more for better food than what I was served, but when you have a PRICE ON THE MENU and it's ANOTHER HIGHER PRICE ON THE BILL , then this is simply CHEATING, no matter if it's 1 € or 2 € or 10 € difference (also, I didn't refuse to pay the dish, I merely wanted to pay the ACTUAL PRICE WRITTEN ON THE MENU and not a price 26% higher). The same happened for the CocaCola price, by the way - I was charged 3 € on the bill but on the menu it said 2,60 € (and again, I wouldn't mind the 40 cent extra and would still have ordered the same drink even for 3 €, but then the price needs to be correct in the menu and NOT higher on the bill afterwards).

After some discussion the guy lowered the price by 1.80 € (still not 2.50 €, which would be the real price difference) and I then accepted, paid and left, as I didn't want to argue anymore. The guy was not very friendly in solving the issue and also in an unfriendly way cut off the discussion at the end and said "ok, bye" (while I tried to be friendly myself, towards the end of the discussion I agree with the owner's response, I was also getting increasingly annoyed for even having to discuss an issue like this). Maybe it was also a problem of language barrier if the guy didn't fully understand everything in English, but the way how the problem was handled - and besides that the mediocre quality of the food that I had in the end - would make me not recommend this place. The response of the owner to this review further confirms this impression, and reveals the attitude towards customers, so I have lowered the review to 1 star from...

For me it's a 4.5/5

Went there for lunch today after some shopping. It's near Porta Venezia metro.

Ordered for the following -

La Zuccosa ( Pizza ) - containing Tomato, courgette parmigiana, stracchino and battered courgette flower ( shown in a separate photo attached, that gives a close up view ) stuffed with mozzarella and ricotta.

It was a good one. Base was brittle and lightly crisp whereas the rest on top of it was amazingly thick, fluffy and generously cheesy with the above mentioned variants.

It wasn't a full pizza but would be like a combination of 2 to 3 big slices of a round pizza . . . But bigger than the general round one.

The smaller one can mostly fill anyone's tummy but I took a large one after giving in to temptation.

Pandistelle ( dessert )- Tiramisu with Pan di stelle biscuits

They served it in a bottle or jar like container where the dessert is in the jar and the cream ( panna ) on the inside of the lid/cover when the jar is opened.

On the panna, cocoa powder is dusted and coffee powder is dusted on the dessert in the jar.

In what seemed like crema pasticcera there were two layers of soft biscuits ( pan di stelle ).

Along with the normal cream ( panna ) it's an amazing end to the meal.

For me this alone was close to 4.5/5

Little Italy ( also the name of this pizza. Shown in the photo that contained lots of rocket leaves and dried tomatoes ) - Tomato, mozzarella , burratina from Andria, rocket leaves, chopped pistachios from Bronte, dried tomatoes.

My friend had ordered for this but since I had to help him as he couldn't have such a big portion alone, so a lucky day is how I would like to put it.

As per the recipe and what I could feel, it was loaded with the aforementioned cheese but not as much as " La Zuccosa ".

However, the winning element was the dried tomatoes which were dense, intense chewy and tangy ( not sour thankfully ). It wasn't juicy ( as it's dried ) but went very well with the pizza making it diversely flavourful.

Hence I had to order additional dried tomatoes ( for which they didn't charge me anything extra ) to have with the remaining portion of " La Zuccosa " for a change.

Cost - 37.50 euros La Zuccosa - 12.50 euros Little italy - 12.50 euros Pandistelle - 5.50 euros Coca Cola - 3 euros Coperto - 4 euros ( 2 euros per person )

Per person - considering a person orders one pizza, coca cola and then dessert, the cost for one person could be around 20 euros.

On the whole, it was a good experience. Would recommend to all.

Definitely again soon!

Thank you for...

In response to the response from the restaurant....

I think I gave a fair representation of the experience at the restaurant and did not respond negatively towards the food, only the service.

The real story was my wife was about half way through her meal when I suspected that there may have been an issue with my order because as I stated he walked away half way through us ordering which I had to address.

I did pay the bill and said that it wasn't the managers fault, however I did not say that these things happen, although I know they do. It was the reaction to what happened that bother me. In the UK this would have been a refund on majority, if not all the food., seems as though I came for a meal with my wife which was not able to be finished. Instead the order was a total of 56 euros and I was asked to pay 50euros. (4euros was a service charge) so in theory I was given 2 euro discount. I think it's pretty clear when 2 people come for a meal, they would expect x2 main courses. Appreciate the response and apology, however, some of what was said was incorrect

Went for a stroll nearby our hotel and looked at reviews, which seemed really good. We ordered two started and two mains. The waiter was wanting to get away really quickly and actually walked away half way through ordering. Both our starters come which were lovely, however half way through starters my wife's main was at the table. I politely asked them to being it back once we had finished starters. It came back about 2 minutes later with my wife just about finished. My wife then started to eat her main which was not as hot as you would like but nevertheless, it was tasty.

My wife had nearly finished and my main was still yet to be delivered. I questioned this with the waiter and it was clear he had not placed the order for me.

As my wife had finished I said that I did not want it anymore and their answer was OK no problem! ... no sorry or anything. If I was in the UK I would have refused to pay for the full meal, however, as we are on unknown territory in terms of laws etc I am finishing my wine currently and will pay for what I had.

I wouldn't say avoid but I am extremely disappointed with our service tonight. Wine was cheap and lovely, the food we had was good. Service...