Il Flauto di Pan — Restaurant in Ravello

We came here on a honeymoon, having never been at a Michelin restaurant, looking forward to the experience. We left quite disappointed.

The restaurant is pretty, and views from the villa are spectacular, but once we entered we got ushered into the restaurant through a back alley so we didn't get to see the gardens.

We didn't know what to expect, but the first impression was - air of pretentiousness. Most waiters were smug, but maybe it's what it's supposed to be.

We ordered a 6-course meal for two persons and honestly, it was nothing special.

Appetisers were bread sticks coated with "special" oil, bread, butter and a tiny dish I only remember as being ok. I've had much better in 10x cheaper restaurants.

First meal, that we liked the most was amberjack, which was interesting and delicious, albeit tiny. It tasted like herring which I don't normally like, but it was coated in sweet sauce and melted in my mouth.

Next we got "tender asparagus" flower, but it was very chewy, and tasted... like asparagus. The nice sauce it was coated in couldn't save the meal.

Third meal was risotto. It was ok. The rice was too hard for my liking and oversalted. It wasn't even that interesting and I've had tastier risotto in supermarket restaurants.

Fourth meal was seafood spaghettini, presented in a form of a ball. Interesting, and tasted good, even if too salty. On our trip we ate mostly in Italian food in local restaurants, and I've had seafood pasta 3 times. All of those times it was heavenly. This one was decent, but way worse than any of the ones I had.

Next up was sea bass. The presentation wasn't that interesting, just a tiny piece of fish with some sweet sauce. It tasted good, though not mind blowing.

Veal fillet was tasty but nothing special. It was presented in an interesting way, with greens stacked on top of the tiny bit of fillet.

Last meal was a desert delivered in a half-spiral plate. It looked like a deconstruction of a lemon cake, with different ingredients stacked in different places you then combine in your mouth. Interesting. I've seen this idea before, and that one tasted much better. We had better-tasting deserts in cheaper restaurants.

In total we paid just short of 700 euros. I expected to pay 500. It's extremely overpriced, in my opinion, considering the price-value ratio and the wait times between meals were around 20-40 minutes - very long.

In the end, we even got charged for things we haven't ordered. For instance, we ordered 2 non-alcoholic cocktails for 14 euros each. After finishing them, the waiter asked if wanted a refill, which we DECLINED. The bill said 4 cocktails, so we got charged for them to ask us if we wanted a cocktail, not actually receiving one.

As soon as we sat down at the table, the waiter brought a bottle of champaign to us, showed it and poured 1/3 of the glass each without asking or saying anything. We tasted it, and he asked if we'd like wine or cocktails, and we said we don't want alcoholic drinks. In the end, each of the 1/3 glasses cost 55 euros, or we inadvertently bought the whole bottle for 110 euros we didn't even want or drink for the most part. Maybe it's just my ignorance and I should've done something differently, but it felt borderline scammy.

But what irked me the most was that the waiter asking if we wanted water, to which we replied yes. He went on a tangent of how pretentious their water was and we asked for a bottle. It cost 14 euros. For bottled water. That you can get in a supermarket. Why? They added no extra value... Did they pour it from some pretentious pitcher containing lemons or rosemary or any some nonsense? No. Just regular bottled water, poured in a regular glass.

All in all, I do not recommend this experience. The meals overall taste fine, but much much worse than what you can get in ANY of the surrounding cheaper restaurants. Just choose one of those, save 600 euros, and have a nice evening with similar views, better-tasting meals and unpretentious service with honest pricing. Try Vittoria restaurant in Ravello, just 300 meters...

We were encouraged to try this place while we were in the Amalfi coast. As it was my birthday I figured we should splurge and give it a go.

First the good. The grounds at Villa Cimbrone are stunning. We greatly enjoyed the walk around the area and having a cocktail at the far end near the overlook to the sea. Beautiful as we watched the sun begin to set. Then we made our way to the restaurant. We were early for our reservation so they sat us in the garden bar area. Again beautiful and had a round of wonderful drinks.

It was a full seating so we were placed inside but with a view to the outside. The setting was beautiful and the servers were top notch. As others have said, it’s a semi prix fixe menu, with recommended wine pairings. My wife and daughters are fish/vegetarians so they went with the “sea” oriented options. I had a more traditional land-focused option with pasta and meats.

Upon the first course arriving, and initial tastes, we knew we could be in for a long night. The seafood appetizers were devoid of any seasoning or flavor, and frankly the shrimp app and the pea-squid app were both borderline inedible. They tasted terribly fishy and unsafe to eat. The server noticed and smartly offered to provide an alternative for the pea dish. The replacement was actually extremely good but our guards were up already.

For entrees, the sea bass also had a terrible fishy flavor unbecoming a “fresh” fish dish. Our daughters got the risotto dish and these were ok. My pasta and meat dishes were fine but certainly not exceptional in any way.

We expected small portions and delicate flavors for a kings ransom price. We did not expect to have such poorly flavored and virtually inedible dishes. Michelin-starred? Maybe at one point but not for our evening.

If you have the money and want an experience feel free to give it a go. But I’d sooner spend my money on any of the many good restaurants all along the coast...

This is our third time here , first time since after Covid. The first times we came here there was a live band playing and the atmosphere was extremely busy and everything seemed to jive perfectly and even had a washroom attendant. Seemed like everything was on point, we always had a meal infront of us and there was always new butter/oils with different bread between meals even complimentary wine pours. This time around while the food was extremely good and as good as the first times we were here, seemed much more limited, there was only bread served to us at the start, which is perfectly okay but often left waiting for food or engagement. We were there at 8pm on a Sunday and it was pretty quiet with only a DJ which was a new and different perspective , a lot less staff and no bathroom attendant. The staff didn’t seem to work as well together as they used to, we often saw them rush each other or it was extremely evident when something wasn’t right, we shouldn’t be hearing the gossip or having to feel the stress from behind the scenes. Perhaps we came on an off day but since we have come here after the Michelin star, things seem abit different quality wise in the experience, they did forget our last dessert but my wife was full therefore couldn’t eat another meal so we didn’t bother. They also were cleaning up the side tables and everything while we were finishing up which made us feel more rushed to get out the door but the food was good once again don’t get me wrong and the staff was nice. Not to put anything down but simply an observation, will have to come by again...