Trattoria "Amici Miei" — Restaurant in Milan

We we’re staying just across from this restaurant and after a long day visiting Lake Como we just wanted to stay local to the hotel. I wish we hadn’t bothered. The service was dire from entering the place. We didn’t have a reservation but the joint was bereft of customers apart from us. We were sat at a table in the open doorway, it was cold and raining outside, so kept coats on. As the waiter sucked through his teeth when we said we had no reservation I expected hoards of hungry customers to suddenly appear, given it was almost 8pm. No, just a trio of Spanish guys who also had no reservation but were shown to a table inside the restaurant.we ordered drinks and food, my wife a risotto, me a tortellini dish. No drinks appeared at our table, the food came, it looked okay but my wife asked me to try the risotto as she didn’t think it tasted right. She was right, it was rank. A taste akin to wet cardboard, and very gloopy. I ate most of my food, my wife left hers. When I asked for the check, the waiter seemed miffed we weren’t ordering more.

We’ve travelled all over Italy and the food has been amazing. Wish we’d eaten our last dinner in the country from the burger joint...

The 4-star rating is because I was a bit shocked when the bill came. The waiter asked us "Do you want the cotoletta with potatoes or with salad?", and never said that the SIDE DISH HAD TO BE PAID SEPARATELY. To my surprise, there was an added amount of 5 EUR to our bill for this side. I found this quite shady, and also seemed a scam because 1) side dish is ALWAYS included with cotolette anywhere and 2) the waiter asked the question in quite a shady way to hide this. You even pay 2.50 EUR for coperto and 3.50 for a water, so expect your final bill to be much higher than expected.

Anyway, the food was good, and the waiters were super friendly too. They let us sit down even though we had no reservation and the place was packed. Without the unethical surcharges, the price is quite good for Milan (16 EUR for the risotto, 21 EUR for the cotoletta). Also unlimited bread and cheese...

The poor hospitality spoiled most of good impression. Because the food is tasty. If you want to take a culinary challenge, order Milanese cutlet. It's huge, a pizza-sized. However, I didn't feel welcome there at all. So dear staff, remember that the fact I visit you alone doesn't mean you can make me feel inferior. I was the first guest after the opening and you had at least four double tables. You assigned me the one in a narror corridor and said others are occupied. No, they weren't. And even if they were you should have asked me how much time I was planning to spend. You could guess I just dropped to have something and go because I was alone. The table was horrible and when I was leaving all other tables were still vacant. Shame on you. Trattoria is not just food, it's the atmosphere, too. And you...