Antica Osteria la Lupa — Restaurant in Rome

We were scammed at this place and then pursued and harassed on the street by the chef.

Here's how it happened. We ordered two pastas and a plate of vegetables. A small plate of vegetables arrived (along with some very stale bread) and we were enjoying them, when the waiter suddenly came over with another small plate of vegetables and started shouting at us--in front of several other diners--that this was the dish we had ordered, and that we should not have eaten the dish he had brought us before. It was obvious to me that he was setting up a scam: how could we possibly have known that the dish of vegetables he had brought us before was the "wrong" one, when the menu did not even identify which vegetables were in it? We had simply ordered the "vegetable of the day." He was clearly planning to scam us by charging us for both dishes.

We finished our meal in awkward, embarrassed silence--nothing ruins one's appetite quite like being berated in public--and when the bill arrived we saw that they had indeed charged us for both vegetable dishes (as well as for the stale bread). Not wanting to fight with the nasty old man, but unwilling to be scammed, we left enough Euros to pay for the items we actually ordered and left the restaurant.

A woman and a small, sweaty chef pursued us down the narrow street next to the restaurant and demanded money for the items we had not ordered. I refused, and the chef began shouting and gesticulating wildly in my face, releasing a mist of foul-smelling spittle and generally behaving like an enraged chihuaha.

I could tell from the blank, passionless expression in his eyes that he wasn't actually angry: this was just a practiced display of indignation that he is probably forced to unleash on every tourist who refuses to be scammed and robbed.

Finally, they threatened to call the police, and I calmly invited them to do so, explaining that I too would like to talk with the police about their attempt to steal from us. At this point, the woman began begging for five Euros, saying, "Please, please, just five Euros and it's okay..."

The little chef went back to the restaurant, claiming that he was going to call the police, as the woman begged for the five Euro "settlement." Finally, my wife asked to just give her the money so we could leave. I gave her $4.20 worth of change from my pocket, and that was that.

Please read the TripAdvisor reviews IN ITALIAN (this is a search option there) if you want to see what Italians and Roman locals think of this sleazy, tourist-scamming restaurant. There are thus far 66 Italian-language reviews of this place on TripAdvisor, and nearly all of them give it "one star."

This is nothing more than a...

I had an awful experience here with my parents. We liked the look of the restaurant, tucked and hidden away from the main road. Very excited for some home cooked authentic food. We ordered a chicken salad, pasta and pizza and were hugely disappointed by the food. The salad was a very plain mix of stale salad leaves, dry pieces of chicken and chunks of mayonnaise, extremely bland, tasteless and offputting. The sauce for the pasta was very bland, no flavour or seasoning, extremely salty. The pizza was dry and crunchy. We couldn't finish our meal the food was so bad.

We told the staff members we did not enjoy the food and wanted money off the bill. The restaurant staff got very aggressive and threatened to call the police. We got to a point where we wanted to leave a restaurant without paying and the owners were extremely aggressive. A horrible ending to our trip in Rome and the most miserable food I had during my 10...

Good part- i want to support such a lovely place which runs by locals. To Tourist - this is very Italian place with no english and super service you used to. BUT it has it is own charm . Details: Food: it is not bad but i expect more souse with pasta . I have felling that pasta is hand made( not all) but in general your cook can do better, sorry. Service: very Italian, no english and your waiter will be older italian gentleman . We travel for experience and to see other culture , ao please respect this. Food: pasta can be better, much better.( veggies sauce) , Tiramisu was good Location: very good! You will sit in the street, but in very calm street, there was only one motorbike during my visit.

Ayway- wish you all the best and hope you will take to consideration...