Il Grottino — Restaurant in Riomaggiore

Our group of 2 couples and a single were seated promptly for the early lunch crowd. The hostess had some trouble finding a table for five but they managed to accommodate us. First we ordered 4 beer which came out nice and chilled. Then we ordered the seafood pasta and fried mixed seafood (squid, shrimps, and vegetables). The food was not all brought out together but we didn't have to wait too long, just a little long. The food was hot and freshly prepared but the portions were a bit stingy; especially for the price and similar restaurants in the area. The thing that really bothered us though was the attitude of the staff and owner. They acted like we should be honored to be allowed to eat there. The were unable to accommodate any special requests without difficulty; no sauce to dip the fried fish, no red pepper, no plates for sharing. But the rudest part was they refused to separate the bill. They split it 5-ways so some of the people had to pay a lot more than what they ordered and wouldn't give an itemized bill so we could work out the details later. Oh well!

... and then there was...

Worst service, regular and expensive food.

I usually don't write bad reviews on restaurants but this time they deserved it. I askes if they spoke spanish because I was with my mom who is a spanish speaker only and a guy who wasn't wearing a uniforme ( he was in a blue shirt) told me sarcastically "I speak italian or do you speak french?" (Dont know what this means) then laughed and called another server with a burlistic tone, the other server wasnt too nice either. I hate to say this but they seem racist to me, when they realized I spoke english and I confronted him He laugh until I said I will leave a bad review, he started yelling. Really this was the worst experience I ever had, we lined up for more than 25 minutes, then to be treated bad and on top of everything the food is regular and so expensive, it's not worth it. Make yourself a favor and go somewhere else, there are many more restaurants in Riomaggiore and in Cinque Terre who actually value...

Never judge a book by it's cover. My group was pleasantly surprised by this hidden gem. Initially, we had skipped thid place due to it being lightly packed on a saturday night, but had to go back after we were racially profiled in another nearby restaurant. I had the baked sea bream, which for all i care could have been called the sea dream, as it was the most delicious fish i had eaten in my 3 week trip to Italy. My brother in law had a seafood pasta in tomato sauce, which could only have been prepared by the pasta boss. One of the best pasta sauces i had this trip. Service was top notch. Our 3 desserts came out in 3 minutes. My wife had been complaining of how long our dinners were taking. We'd go in at 7, and leave by 10. But in Il Grittino, we were done in 1.5hours. In a vacation packed with many acitivities, we hate our time being hostaged by long dinners just because service was so bad. None of that here. All in all this was a...