Ristorante Da Luciano — Restaurant in Passignano sul Trasimeno

Michelin is about details. Unfortunately, this restaurant missed too many of them.

In the first 10 minutes, I did not receive water or even a menu. When water finally arrived, the staff simply opened the bottle and left it on the table – no service, pour it yourself. I also had to ask several times for my wine to be refilled, and despite ordering an expensive bottle, the correct glass was never offered.

I chose the tasting menu, but when the dishes were served, there was no explanation, no presentation, nothing to engage the guest. The hot courses arrived cold.

Basic comforts were also ignored: women left their bags on the floor because no stand was provided. My dog was not offered water. To make things worse, they seated two dogs next to each other; when they predictably quarreled, my request to move was refused, even though the restaurant had free tables. The barking continued throughout the meal.

From the open kitchen came loud laughter and conversations, overpowering the dining room and making it impossible to hear the background music.

The entire tasting lunch stretched painfully into two hours. Instead of enjoying, I found myself simply waiting…and waiting.

I truly wanted to find something positive, but apart from the vongole foam, there was little to hold onto.

Yes, in Italy a certain level of casualness is normal. But Michelin is supposed to be about precision, refinement, and hospitality.

This was not it. Deep...

Well, that was the most unpleasant experience I’ve ever had in a restaurant. Upon sitting down the waitress came over immediately and wanted our order, we ordered two Aperol Spritz, not having had time to decide on food. She then looked me up and down and said “this is not a bar, this is a restaurant. you need to order food.” Somewhat panicked we just ordered pasta. Whether she took issue with what I was wearing - going off her expression - or was simply not having a good day, I couldn’t say. (I was wearing a long skirt and an admittedly short top, it had 37° that day; but her glances and refusal to actually service us were telling) The waitress then proceeded to check in on every table except ours for the rest of the night. Possibly the worst restaurant experience I’ve had. The below average food was immensely expensive...

The food was really delicious, and portion sizes were good but the service was very bad. At lunch the fixed menu at 25 euros for two courses is what you should ask for, all the other dishes are very pricey. We waited forever for the 2nd course, in fact the rather sullen waitress took our order to another table and we ask to check what was going on, and the manager (who took our initial order and was very pleasant) came to apologise and promised us a free sorbet at the end- that however never happened. Getting the bill took forever, again very unpleasant- but I noticed that in the end the coffees were on the house, so that was nice. But all the waiting and the attitude of the waiters our me off and left...