Casa e Bottega — Restaurant in Positano

I will start off by saying the food is delicious. My girlfriend and I stopped in yesterday and today so this review is based off of both of those visits.

Yesterday when we walked in, there was some confusion going on by customers wanting to pay and others wanting to be seated. We sat down at a table that was empty for 5 minutes only to be quickly told by a staff member that it was for the next customers who were waiting, but we'd be seated shortly. We were told to go sit next to the take out bar. When we were waiting we had two people come up and try to pay their bill as they were waiting for so long. The lady told them no, just as their waitress came up to take payment. We figured someone must have called in sick since they were so mismanaged and running around. By the time we got seated it was after the breakfast menu was over, so we decided to just get drinks and to come back the following day for breakfast. Within about 10 minutes a lady came over, quite abrupt and asked what we wanted and seemed annoyed we only wanted drinks. We ordered a cappuccino and a smoothie. The cappuccino was delicious and her smoothie was extremely tasty. The prices even for Positano were quite high, especially for the serving size you get. As we were having our drinks two other couples were getting frustrated on wanting to pay, one even had to ask for get bill a second time. We have come accustomed to Italian culture and having to ask for your bill, and wait some time beefie you leave your seat. It was a decent amount of time before anyone even came over to see if we wanted anything, when they did we asked for our bill and 10 minutes later it came. Like I mentioned at the beginning, I assumed they were short staffed.

Today we arrived around 10am so we could try out their breakfast, as we have heard many great things about it. We knew that we had to ask to be seated and immediately went to the counter. We sat on the corner right by the entrance. The decor is really nice but as we got looking around our seat was covered in ants. We had to brush them off, that was even some crawling up the wall. Ants seem to be everywhere in Italy so we thought nothing of it. The waitress came and we ordered the acai bowl, an orange citrus juice, pancakes and still water. After we ordered and had our drinks two other tables say near us and ordered. As we waited we noticed that both had got their food and we were still waiting. We checked the time and we had been there for close to 45 minutes. My girlfriend went to find out waitress and ask what was going on, only to get an excuse that something must be broken in the kitchen, my girlfriend explained that each table that ordered after had something that we ordered so there must've been something else. My girlfriend sat down and said she was looking into it. 5-10 minutes later our food arrived with an explanation that there was a mix up and a quick "sorry" as she turned and walked away. The food was really good, as expected. The prices like I mentioned before were very high, especially for locally grown produce. The food was good, the service was terrible, and we don't plan on going back. For the rest of our 5 day stay here we will find another...

Absolutely horrible experience. I never leave reviews but unfortunately had to leave due to a loss of appetite from the terrible service. I was so taken aback by the experience entering that I had to go and check the reviews immediately after sitting down to check if we were at the right place. Unfortunately, after reading the negative reviews, it seems others have had similar experiences and I wasn’t even able to eat the very bland food. The owner herself should genuinely be ashamed of the lack of hospitality shown.

Upon entering I asked for a table for two and was first told by the owner to read through the menu and make sure we even wanted the food they offered. I later noticed this was not something that was suggested to others coming in, which I thought was odd. Then I asked to sit at a table near the door and window where you can see the stunning view of the water. I was then told “no, you can sit in the back” and the waitress pointed to a corner table in the very back near the kitchen. Once seated we heard nothing but obnoxious clanking of dishes by the staff non-stop and my husband and I were unable to even hear each other across the table.

At this point I was processing if it was worth staying as I felt annoyed, but we decided to stay. We weren’t ready to order when the waitress first came over and when we asked for more time she threw her hands up and rolled her eyes. Then she came back to throw a bag of bread over my husbands shoulder onto the table. We then waited for 5 minutes trying to get the attention of any wait staff for oil and vinegar for the bread. When we finally got someone to bring over the oil & vinegar they slammed it down and zipped away even though I was asking for a dish to put the oil and vinegar on. My husband eventually got up to follow someone and ask for a dish which was nearly my last straw.

Once the food came it was quite bland but regardless I knew I had to leave and say something to the manager/owner about the treatment. I was unable to speak to the owner (despite being “greeted” by her previously and she was sitting in the corner in plain view). I expressed my grievances with our waitress and she was ultimately confused. I then grabbed my things to leave as my husband said he would pay.

However, I sat outside on a bench waiting for him and both he and our waitress came out. She refused to let us pay for the food and continued to apologize but couldn’t seem to grasp how it was the service (not the food) that we had issues with. She then asked us to wait to speak to the owner, however, we could see the staff inside having a pow-wow and the owner shaking her head and refusing to come outside. Ultimately we left because I saw no reason for me to continue to explain myself despite the fact that we watched others be treated much differently with grace and hospitality.

I was so excited to try this place out but it was some of the worst treatment I’ve experienced at any restaurant anywhere in the world. I will mention that I am black and my husband is white and I’m unsure if they’re not fond of people of color, but based on other one star reviews, it may...

The food here is overrated. The dishes taste mediocre and not fresh but are expensive and much below the quality you can expect to find in the average restaurant in Positano. The ravioli was very quaint and non-traditional, with some fermented meat and the raviolis themselves tasted old or de-frozen; the fried octopus was served on a bed of pickled vegetables when fresh vegetables and fresh meat rather than preserved flavors would have been much appreciated. They ruined the burrata imo by allowing it to get quite hot on top of rice when in fact the freshness and tastiness is best served at room temp or cold, plus the flavors of tomatoey weird bland rice with burrata made absolutely no sense. The octopus was a tasty fried dish but pretty basic stuff, fried food is tasty and unhealthy and easy to make like fair food. At least some fresh veggies instead of bad fermented ones would have made sense for the flavors. We ordered a blueberry juice that tasted nothing like blueberries and was served hot, not even room temperature or cold; it tasted like a random blend of hot nectar from different berries and was not pleasant to drink (plus it was 8 euros for a small glass, haha). The bread was super dry, potentially old and not served with oil or vinegar, just in a paper bag, which is unusual for a restaurant in Positano. This place is all hyped up because they're super focused on appearances and getting more followers on Instagram (they even brag about their following number being 20k on some pedestal in the restaurant, pretty tasteless) but I urge them to focus more on the food and creating a basic dish that tastes as good as as the level of restaurants competing in the area. The white...