Il Grottino Azzurro — Restaurant in Positano

The staff at this restaurant are awful people, bordering on sociopathic.

We got stranded with our luggage at a nearby bus stop at the height of a terrible storm tonight, and so we briefly stepped inside Il Grottino Azzurro to get our bearings and get some food in my fiancée’s stomach, as she was horribly sick from the Sita bus ride from Salerno (she wasn’t the only person on the bus who vomited). We were completely lost and had no phone signal, so I asked the waitress if she might know how to get to our nearby hotel (about 400m away), but she wasn’t able to help. No big deal, I wouldn’t expect her to know the location of every hotel/BnB in Positano. So out of desperation, I told my fiancée to grab a table and order something light to settle her stomach while I went back out into the storm on foot to try to navigate the maze of streets and tunnels down the mountain and hopefully find our hotel. After about 10 minutes of dodging traffic in the dark just to get lost at several dead ends, I ran back up the mountain, only to find my fiancée huddled in a corner out in front of the restaurant, soaking wet and trying to shield our luggage from the driving rain. I asked her what on earth she was doing, and she informed me that the manager and/or owner of the restaurant had kicked her out, stating that she had gotten the floor wet and was “making it unsafe for customers.” This was very confusing, as she’d intended to order food to help with her nausea from the bus ride, but before she could even ask for a menu the staff chased her out of the restaurant, leaving her outside and alone in the rain—because she got their floors wet. Again, there was a massive storm and driving rain outside at that point, so literally everyone in the establishment was wet.

Now we’re lost, halfway up a dark mountain in a terrible rain storm, soaking wet and shivering, dragging our soggy luggage around in the night because the only open restaurant we could find refused to serve us, or even let us sit down inside for 10 minutes to warm up and find our hotel. Fortunately, we were finally rescued by a taxi driver after about 20 minutes of wandering around in the rain, but if not for that kind gentlemen, we would have been in serious trouble—I was beginning to think we’d have to start banging on random doors and begging people for help. I’m struggling to understand the restaurant staff’s decision to put us in such a dangerous situation, for no other reason than to save them the inconvenience of mopping their floors. Il Grottino Azzurro is staffed by absolutely deplorable human beings.

Unfortunately, despite our best attempts to be patient, polite, conscientious tourists, we’ve experienced a lot of similar treatment during our stay in Italy over the past couple of weeks, and we now have an extremely poor perception of Italians as a whole. This is a very beautiful country, and it breaks my heart to say this, but I don’t think we’ll be returning ever again. I can’t comprehend the incredible rudeness and cruel disregard for basic human decency that we’ve encountered here, and Il Grottino Azzurro has really earned their distinction as the awful icing on the awful cake of this...

I have mixed feelings about this restaurant. The reservations through "The Fork" app worked great. The app requires an email and a name at a minimum. A phone number can also be added. When we arrived 2 minutes early for our 800pm reservation of 4 they had our table ready and waiting. For the most part, the service was what troubled me the most. The wait staff though friendly were horribly slow, forgetful, and not in sync with standard table service. Example, got bread but no olive oil was poured or available. I asked for it. Then the appetizers showed up. The bread was eaten plain with the appetizers. We ordered the pumpkin soup with shrimp. It was ok. Tasted like a soup base was used instead of homemade. 2 little shrimp were in a large bowl. The roasted vegetables had a long dark hair in them, not from our heads, the waiter took them back and we were not charged. It happens, so not a big deal. The 1st course arrived then the olive oil and more bread after asking for oil a second time. I had local mussels and spaghetti. The spaghetti was a bit too al dente and not outstanding in flavor. My wife's monk fish and non-gluten pasta was delicious she said. My kids both got the salmon which was also good. I got a second course. Local caught sardines, shrimp, and calamari. I saw the catch this morning at the fisherman's shop in town. Let me say this was by far the best tasting food I had yet in Italy; I've been here a week starting in Milan. The desserts were just ok. The local wine is great. So this is why I'm giving it 3 stars. Some of the food was good and the fried catch of the day was the best I've ever had. This all wrapped up in confusing, but kind service. If I'm ever back in town I might try finding a different restaurant or give them a second chance. 3.5...

I went there with some female friends, and we had a terrible experience. The restaurant's staff was rude and rushing us to leave. Besides, when we went to pay the bill, I overheard the waiter talking to the other staff very sexist and agressive things about us, our bodies, absurd thing like that... He was speaking in Italian supposing we couldn't understand, ma io capisco italiano! And of course, I let them know at the moment. But they just ignored me and kept talking very unrespectiful things... To complete the horrible experience, we had split the bill according to what each of us ordered, but they just ignored that and split in 4 equal parts, and when I complained, they said couldn't do otherwise, something I had never seen before in my life! Il peggior ristorante della costiera amalfitana, non mi sono mai sentito così mancato...