N'Ombra de Vin

This used to be my favourite place in Milan, but unfortunately they completely crossed it out with recent experience.

I used to often go there for drinks, and I again made a table reservation initially outside, but then since it rained I kindly asked whether it’d possible to be moved inside and they agreed, not having told me than now ordering two plates per person is mandatory. Moreover, in earlier communication when booking a table outside I was told they DON’T accept reservations for dinners after 9, and since our reservation was later, we went elsewhere to have dinner before. Having arrived, we ordered a few plates to share and wine. Again, nobody told us anything. What a surprise it was when they told us they’d throw us out if we don’t order exactly 2 plates per person. At 10.30 pm, after dinner time, without any previous communication. The waiter just replied “look around, everyone here knows they must eat!” Well I had been to the place many times and I never heard that. Anyways, we sincerely tried to find a solution, offered to order bottles of wine instead or sit outside as I initially intended, but a waiter was extremely rude to us, didn’t wanna be flexible at all or spend any time on sorting this out, the manager didn’t come, and they kicked us out when our food was ready already (very sustainable to rather throw the food out than compromise with guests).

This was a very sad experience for me because I really liked this place and brought my visiting friend there, but they ruined our night, so be careful to look those mythic conditions up if you want to go...

I was visiting Milan this weekend with my friends and my local friend who loves this place recommended me this place to visit. When we arrived to the place, I was very disappointed and couldn’t believe my eyes what was happening.

My Italian friend from Milan told me that this is an aperitivo place, as they serve only jamon and cheese. This is why we decided to have a dinner and drinks beforehand. I was shocked that our waiter refused to take an order from us, because we did not want to order lots of food. He claimed that Fridays are aimed for dinner and that everyone knows this rule - great claim but he couldn’t provide us with any written prove or bring a manager to confirm this information. I would like to add that my friend made an email confirmation about the table reservation and in the email there was nowhere mentioned that this place is a dinner place and that we have to order food. He also claimed that minimum spending per person is 60€ which was also not listed anywhere.

We wanted to order several bottles of wine, which would in total cost more than 2 plates.

The most shocking moment came when the waiter told us that he cancelled our order and that we can leave (as some people from the group did not want to eat) - horrible customer experience and 0 respect. Having worked in gastronomy myself, I couldn’t believe that someone can treat people like this.

Overall, I expected this place to be a highlight of our trip and it turned into the worst...

The food was great and the wine too but the attitude of the one bald server ruined the night for me and my friends. We had a reservation at 21:30 and this man insisted that it was at 21:00 when we clearly had receipts. He bugged us at the entrance that we arrived late. Later in the evening when the venue was closing, we decided to sit while the rest of the people were leaving because the venue was packed and already a line had formed at the exit. This rude man touch me on the shoulder and insisted that we leave immediately. We asked him what was his reason for being so rude and he doubled down on his rudeness by telling me that I am not educated in clearing the table. All this after we had spent more than 200€ at this place. Every other server was very sweet with us except for this frustrated server who in my opinion has no business working in customer service with his poor attitude. What was a wonderful night otherwise was ruined...