Osteria Il Gobbetto — Restaurant in Naples

Let me start off by saying my wife is it Italian.

The restaurant was full when I walked up so I had to wait outside in the rain for maybe 10-15 minutes. It was well worth the wait. The moment they noticed me waiting outside I felt like I feel when I'm with my wife's relatives. They gave me and the others waiting outside a "little bit of wine" while we waited. It was a full glass of white wine. I normally prefer red but it was delicious vino. At this point, I knew this would be a great night.

When I finally was seated, it took awhile to come over and talk to me. I did't care. I never was given a menu but I I didn't want one anyway. This was the kind of place where you didn't need one. The guy in charge talked about the menu in broken english after he tried to tell me the menu in italiano. I told him it sounds good, i'll eat it. I was offered gas or no gas water and chose the sparkling. It was a little under carbonated but still tasty. The house wine (no label) was better than other house wines I've had in Naples. I opted for the bottle vice a glass.

The food was delicious. The first course to come out was a mixed vegetable tray. Delicious mushrooms, spinach, eggplant, some other kind of greens. A few other items. It was all very tasty. The mushrooms were spicy but great. Some seamed a little salty but overall great.

The second course was fried sampler. Some fried little fishes (maybe sardines or anchovies), some fried dough and cheese, other fritte deliciousness.

The third course was pasta e fagioli with seafood (mostly mussels but also a large prawn). It was all very yummy.

At this point i'm feeling more than satisfied. They asked me something in Italian. I didn't know what exactly they asked me but then in english they asked me I wanted a "second plate". It seemed to me at this point I was on my fourth or fifth plate. I politely declined and opted for dolci instead. I ordered the cheesecake con fragola. I had seen these little strawberries at other Naples restaurants but hadn't tried them yet. The dessert was good but if it was a little more colder, it would have really popped.

At this point I finished my bottle of wine and gas water while watching the main guy dance with with a customer. I saw a few other patrons, enjoy after dinner drinks but i was more than satisfied.

When I paid the bill it was only 23.50 Euro. I couldn't believe it. I thought the bill would be at least 40-50.

This is definitely a place you will feel like family and leave with a...

First I should say that the food was excellent and the service to start and during the meal was very good. The appetizer sampler they put down was perfect with a good variety of items to eat and sampled Neopolitan cuisine nicely. However the end of the meal is the reason for the two stars and the reason I will never go back and cannot recommend for any Americans to ever go here. It is a disgusting yet common habit across Naples for the waiters to lie to Americans and tell them that tip is not included in the bill. They say this rudely at least four times and only say it to Americans because they know our culture is to tip. However tipping throughout Europe is not standard and when it does occur is for superb service and at that only a few euros. We live in Sicily and have traveled all over Italy and say with truth that Naples is just about the only place that does this. All the places we went in Naples pressured us to tip. Once I looked at the receipt and saw that the service charge was added at those places I just ignored their lies and insistence and didn’t tip. For the other establishments at least I can say they just let it go and weren’t rude and didn’t rush us out. The staff at IL Gobbetto were appalling. While we were talking and enjoying the end of our meal the waiter kept coming back and rudely tapping the metal dish where he expected us to tip extra. He did this multiple times. Then he finally grabbed it and said rudely ‘no tip?’. Immediately he started grabbing placemats from out from under hands and elbows, Reaching over people to grab dishes and all but threw us out. He held the door open while we left but not to be a gentleman…he only did it so he could slam it on us. Incredibly rude and racist behavior because the place was full of Italians who sat forever post meal and were not harassed to tip nor were forced out. I cannot recommend that any Americans eat here even with the good food. Rudeness like this should not be rewarded with patronage. Europeans are probably fine to eat here since they are not targeted or pressured to tip as a lie like they do...

Only for with good nerves. The food was good (not great) BUT don't believe the reviews that say friendly service. It was loud - that bothered me the least. One of the waiters brought us 2 menus for 4 person. We discovered that there is an English translation on the last page (he could have drawn our attention to this), but it is not complete. We would have looked at the unknown dishes on the Internet, but there was no field strength. A wifi came in with the name of the restaurant, but I asked for the password three times in vain: the colleague will come later, we don't have time for it. Finally, they pointed to the password written on the edge of the shelf. It connected with great difficulty, but there was no internet either. Guests tried to pay by card next to us, but that didn't work either. We were not warned that if the connection does not improve in the meantime, we will only be able to pay in cash. Finally the waiter came, took 2 orders, I asked about one of the appetizers, what it was. There is no such thing, the weekly menu is only informative, there are only two of the dozen appetizers. The main dish that I selected, which I also wanted to know what it was, is also not available. He left us with an order half taken. He served a few other tables and when he returned he listed very-very fast how many dishes they have and raved about the variety of food they have. I couldn't interrupt that I wanted some kind of fish. I finally ordered the one whose name I could remember. Two of us wanted to ask for a quarter liter of house wine, there is no such thing, bottle or glass. In the end we got a single glass...