Al pozzo etrusco di Fabrizio Grilli — Restaurant in Orvieto

So here came time to this review and share our experience... The reviews here is absolute fake and I don't recommend to come here

We chose this restaurant because of the reviews, 4.9 reviews with alsomst 400 reviews, we suppose it should be something unbielivable and this place is must have to visit. But we were strongly dissapointed.

Let's start from the service: When we came waiters told that there is no possibility to have meal, but 1/3 of the tables were free. After the discussion we found out that the problem were in the kitchen. It doesn't have enough capaciti to serve even 2/3 of their restaurant capacity with not instant loading (which is very weird). After some discussion finally waiters told the phrase "Yes, you can take a sit, but be ready to wait, because of the loadage", which is good to receive in the beginning instead of "We are not able to serve you". It was very hard to find out how much do we need to wait and only 2nd waiter did the assumtion of 20 mins which was fine for us. We did a walk for 15-20 mins and came back. Situation didn't change, the same answers came, dispite on the fact noone new came to the restaurant. But we took a sit and waited for 15-20 mins more (it was fine, because we were ready to wait for this outstanding rating). But... Nobody brought us menu, nobody asked for drinks / starters (which they told are ready). Absolutely no service was provided, so we found the menus by ourselves. The waiter which were around ignored our attempt to communicate with her. So yeah, we were not able to order anything and wait as proposed. We felt just people from the street took a sit in the restaurant to restore. I added 2nd star because the waiters were still in a good mood despite on the stress they had (but 3 waiters for 10-12 tables is more than enough).

Food: Food were the level of cantine. Absolutely not the restaurant level. Especially with so high rank. This place were focused only on pasta and we had high expectations for it. But... they don't even make fresh pasta by themselves... They order it somewhere (thanks not from the supermarket). But pasta itself were ok. They way of cooking is okay, absolutely nothing special, the same pasta I bought in several Italien cantines which we visited to try local way of life. Any restaurant with rank 4.0 had the better offer. Deserts: Absolutely bad and nothing similar to their names. They are worse than from the supermarkets by the taste (looked good). For example panna cotta was just vanila pudding (not panna cotta) with not riped strawberries which destroy the taste of the whole desert. Cheesecake... - absolutely disgusting thing. No idea what was inside, but flavours are superartificial and have nothing to what they state and the lower level of the dough was raw...

Rating: Rating is absolute fake, I could believe of rank aound 3.5-3.9, but not 4.9. There are 2 theories of so high rank: They hastle it (bought it or did by themselves) Or There is a high amount of tourist (we noted a lot of tourists from US and UK), which probably tried the Italien pasta just 1st-2nd time and for them it's oustanding pasta. So they left a lot of 5-stars reviews.

But in reality this place is 3.5-3.9, not more. I evaluate food, service and atmosphere how is it in reality (main dish were 3/5, desert 1/5), but global rank is 1 to decrease this fake reviews to the real numbers.

Thank you for your time and I hope this rank will be...

Our family of four had an excellent meal and overall wonderful experience here last night. We sat outside in their very nice outdoor seating area. Above all the service and hospitality here was phenomenal. Responsive, friendly, fun and professional. At the end of the meal we were guided down to see the actual Etruscan well underneath the restaurant. Food was authentic local cuisine and of excellent quality. (I emphasize authentic- have eaten many times all over Italy and I am Italian-- this is true trattoria cooking.) We ordered the cheese board that came with honey and peach preserves made by our waitress' grandmother. All 4 of our pasta dishes were delicious: tagliatelle con sugo di cinghiale, umbrichelli with pistachio sauce, umbrichelli with sausage and pork sauce and mezze maniche carbonara. Their wine selection by the quarto was good. I had a lovely (white) Orvieto Classico and my husband had a very good Montefalco red. Prices were good, especially considering the generous portions. Highly recommend...

People always say “best meal I’ve had in Italy!” and it usually strikes me as a bit inflated, but OMG, I’ve been bopping around Rome and Tuscany for a week and a half and I had my very best meal last night (tortellini chianina, Sangiovese, and tiramisu) at this place. I came back for lunch today once it opened, and I’m here right now, feasting on the most amazing fresh-out-of-the-oven rosemary focaccia and the tagliatelle al tartufo. Incredible. I got here around 12:15 and I was only the second table to arrive for lunch, but by the time I’m leaving around 1:15pm it is full, mostly with Italians (always a good sign). Very kind staff to boot. The wine by the glass is a “tell me when to stop pouring” situation, which indicates their care for their diners’ experience above all.

Heaven is real, and it is...