Ristorante Piazza Palmieri — Restaurant in Monopoli

I’m not one to complain. My fiancé ordered a medium steak with wine sauce, baked potato, and I ordered medium-well steak with green pepper sauce and grilled vegetables for us to share (I was trying to cut back on my carbs after 8-9 days in Italy). They mixed the steaks up, her’s was well done (probably was my “medium-well” steak with the wrong sauce) and my steak was cooked medium. Not one to complain (usually) I started to eat my steak. Our waiter was occupied so we stopped our food-runner and requested another steak for her. It came out rare, basically seared, cold, bloody. By this time I was finished, I ate a little less than half the veggies and a small amount of her potato. We told our waiter to cook it more, and reheat the potato and veggies (she likes to mix her food and eat it all together). The potato and veggies came back a little while later, cold, then her steak came out essentially unchanged: rare. She was frustrated and upset because she was hungry, it was the third time she had gotten a steak that was very over or very under-cooked, and I was finished eating. My steak was good, and yes I am apparently an oddity liking medium well steak, it was slightly undercooked to my liking but still good. But she was frustrated. I explained the situation to our waiter and hoping they would have the curtesy to try to remedy the situation I said “she’s not happy” at which point he completely walked away with no further discussion. She wanted to leave at this point, after waiting forever they brought us the bill and took the steak off of the bill. I wanted them to remove the potato and vegetables from the bill because while I ate some, she didn’t get to enjoy them and felt her meal was ruined. Our waiter was no where to be found and a waitress came to take my credit card, I started to explain the situation and my request calmly, she immediately started arguing since we had been served the dishes. She then disappeared to the kitchen and spoke with a man in the kitchen and I don’t recall what he said to me but no one was addressing us, but he apparently said something to me voicing some disagreement with my request and at this point I had enough and lost my temper and demanded “if you don’t remove them I will write a $&/77y review.” He then tore the bill in half and no one said anything to us and we left.

Now, my point in writing this review is not to give this restaurant a bad name. I enjoyed my steak, I suspect they have good food. But, if you mess up a steak once, get it right the second time. And you don’t treat your customers that way. You don’t walk away from the customer when you say you aren’t happy, you try your best to remedy the situation. Speak to the customer, don’t ignore them. Iron sharpens iron, but if you can’t take the heat then get out of the kitchen. Mistakes happen, but whether the customer is right or wrong, the customer is still the customer, and we were treated...

A Sad Decline — No Longer the Elegant Experience It Once Was

We’ve been coming to Monopoli for over 10 years, and Piazza Palmieri used to be one of our absolute favorite restaurants. We’ve dined here so many times, I’ve lost count. It was once a refined, elegant spot — a place where people dressed nicely, the atmosphere was classy, and the food and service felt truly special.

But sadly, that’s no longer the case.

When we visited in January 2025, the seafood quality was already disappointing. The service was still good, so we gave it another chance, thinking it might have been a one-time slip.

Unfortunately, we came back in August 2025, and things had only gotten worse. We ordered sashimi, and it was honestly inedible — we barely touched it. The fish had a strange texture and taste that made us push the plate away.

I considered ordering meat, but when I asked whether it was local (since Puglia has fantastic local meats), I was surprised to hear that they import meat from Germany or Poland. In a region like this, that choice is baffling. Needless to say, I skipped the meat.

We ended up ordering just the sashimi, a pasta for my daughter, and some wine. We paid €120, but we didn’t enjoy anything and left unsatisfied and still hungry.

To make things worse, the place was overpacked, and the service was slow. It felt chaotic and rushed — far from the relaxed, elegant dining experience we remembered. It seems like they’re prioritizing quantity over quality now.

Piazza Palmieri has lost the finesse and charm it once had. Sadly, after years of loyalty, I think this was...

I hardly ever write reviews but our experience here meant that I had to! We were wandering around Monopoli on a Sunday evening in May trying to find somewhere that was open. As luck had it, we found this gem. When we sat down we were asked if we wanted the waiters to speak to us in English or in Italian (we chose Italian because I am trying to speak as much as I can whilst I am out here). We went for the chef’s dish of the day (gnocchi with branzino and tomatoes) and the cod ravioli. We were also recommended a delicious Verdeca wine that we thoroughly enjoyed. When we ordered we said that we would like to share both the dishes so they kindly divided them out for us. We agreed that the food was the best we have eaten during our holiday. Moreover, when we asked to take a bottle of water away with us they explained that we can’t take glass bottles away. When we paid for the bill at the end one of our lovely waiters turned up with a plastic bottle of water that they had gone and got for us from a place nearby! Overall the service was fantastic, the food incredible and we would go back in...