Clementina Bistrot & Bar | La cucina, le Storie più Belle — Restaurant in Rome

Tourist Trap – Avoid at All Costs

This place was moderately crowded for breakfast time in this area of Rome, but it was noticeably filled only with foreign tourists.

Upon arrival, we waited five minutes just to ask if we could sit outside. The staff told us to go ahead and wait for a waiter to take our order. Another ten minutes passed before we could place a simple order: a toast, two juices, a ginseng coffee, and a croissant. After an additional fifteen minutes, they served everything except the toast. I was left to choose between drinking my coffee before it arrived or enduring a cold espresso. To make matters worse, one of the juices had an eyelash in it.

The toast never arrived. After ten more minutes, we asked about it, and they handed it to us to go—clearly, they had forgotten about it.

Then came the frustrating payment process. The waitress initially told us we couldn’t pay there, because she was only making pay tables, despite having served us there only ten minutes earlier. The place had fewer than ten customers at the time. When we pointed out we were at a table, she raised her voice, claiming she didn’t know because she serves many clients—despite having assumed, incorrectly, that we weren't seated. After all this, we finally managed to pay. The entire ordeal nearly made us miss our booked visit to the Colosseum.

Food quality was mediocre at best. Service was borderline rude, as if they were doing us a favor. Prices were too high given the subpar food and poor staff attitude. While the price might be typical for the area, the experience was far from acceptable. The ginseng coffee was particularly bad—and overpriced at 2.5 euros.

To top it all off, the table next to us—another pair of tourists—had to wait twenty minutes to pay for their two cappuccinos. They asked four times, only to be dismissed with a brusque “wait, wait” every time.

Beyond all of this, the staff was constantly arguing with each other, showing a complete lack of organization—even though the place was far from overcrowded.

I’ve never had such a poor experience in Rome, especially not in a nice area like Ottaviano. Stay far away...

Who knew the best croissant I had in Europe was going to be in Rome, not Paris?? I dropped by Clementina's coffee / pastry counter early in the morning on my way to meet my tour group for the Vatican. I was just in search of a quick bite and caffeine fix, so my expectations were honestly quite low for a cafe located just a couple blocks away from such a major tourist destination.

Wow...was I wrong! Clementina's croissants were incredible; the dough was beautifully laminated, with the most gorgeous and Instagram-perfect honeycomb structure. They were slightly sweet and savory, with a wonderfully buttery, flaky texture. The outer layer was delightfully crispy and the inside soft, pillowy, and ready to melt in your mouth. The plain croissant was outstanding, but they also had a wonderful multigrain croissant studded with mixed seeds and filled with some type of jam. It sounds weirdly healthy for a croissant, but they did a fantastic job. The other grains and seeds added a lovely nutty flavor to the croissant, and, somehow didn't mess up the lamination of the dough or phenomenal texture and structure of their croissant. The jam was a nice hint of sweetness, and I loved the added bit of crunch from the seeds sprinkled on top.

We brought our croissants with us to our tour group's meeting spot and ended up making everyone else in the group jealous. As we waited for everything to get started, a few other folks were so tempted by how beautiful our croissants were that they had to slip away and pick up a few of their own before we headed into...

The most terrible experience in a restaurant in Europe. Tourist trap. Please read a review before sitting there. Unfortunately i can not give 0 stars. The first day i went there with my wife. We had 2 coffees, tiramisu, sicilian cannoli. Overpriced, the service under average and 10% charge for this kind of service. The second day my wife insisted to have lunch but it alarm the bell as the score was review score was 2.8 but unfortunately i did not review read the reviews. We got 2 pastas and one pizza. The waiter with tatoo on his hand he proposed me to get instead of salmon pasta a mixture of the 3 seafood pastas. Instead of having a normal portion they gave 3 portions which they were 1/3 of normal one even less in a small plates. We had also 2 coffees not any other drinks. I asked the bill 4 times and waiting 30 minutes to get the bill. When the bill came had nothing to do with what we ordered and the waiter claimed that is the right amount and cash machine had problem. I was shocked by the bill 85 euros and i ask to explain me why may be is a mistake. The waiter said the charge of the small portions is the same price with 3 normal portions. They claimed we had to pay for 4 portions of pasta and one pizza. Since the plane was leaving soon i did not have time to argue. This it was not even legalized robbery since they even did not give a receipt. This restaurant is an insult of Rome and Italians. I will contact the authorities hope they will take action. I never imagined in Europe, in 2022 such...