Ercoli Trastevere — Restaurant in Rome

We came into Ercoli on a recommendation with two friends. The service initially was great! Our server was attentive and answered all of our wine and food menu questions. We ordered and the first round came out. Then they brought bread and “pizza” that we didn’t order and charged us for it. Not a big deal but left a bad taste. It took 45 -60 minutes for our main courses to come out. They were mediocre. Our server never returned to check on us even though we had empty wine and empty water as well as empty meat and cheese board. We sat there with no food or drink. Finally the food came. Sub par. Then we asked for the check. It was pricier than we anticipated but it is a nice place and they had great music accompaniment so we accepted. Then the server began pressuring us and asking how we were going to tip. I asked if it was traditional to tip in Italy because in my experience it was not. She said “I served you food why would you not tip.” I was defeated and ready to leave so added a tip onto the tab. All in all Atmosphere 10/10, service is 2/10 because bullied into tipping and ignored for an hour, food 6/10 it was not as good as the cheap side street meals and much smaller. If it was fresh pasta you couldn’t tell the difference. Don’t go here. There are so many places that offer excellent experiences...

We had a horrible experience during a lunch on December 26. My husband and I ordered two starters and two pasta dishes from the lunch menu. The starters arrived relatively quickly, while the two main courses never made it. After a 20 minute wait, we asked our waiter to check on the order and while he replied to our request with an air of frustration, he came back to say the dishes were coming out. After 10 more minutes and no main course in sight, we asked again and at that point, he said the kitchen had messed up the order. The manager brought us a small dish with two slices of ham and few pieces of cheese to apologise for the wait and assuring us our dishes would have been out soon. We waited for about 15 minutes more, while everyone around us was served their dishes, including those we had ordered. We never had ours. We decided to get up and leave and the waiter requested we paid the starters and the bottle of water we ordered. We refused and discussed this with the manager, who accepted the service had been appalling. The experience has simply been awful and made worse but the lack of professionalism and kindness of both the waiter and the manager. We would not recommend this place, considering it is also...

Very nice decoration, good design...but That is it... The food was really very average, they should have taken the chance to have a more elaborate menu (given that the prices are about 20 to 30% higher that other restaurants in trastevere). Meat was strangely tasteless, thought i was getting COViD :) Also if you have a menu with caviar starting at 150€ and wine bottles in the hundreds you should also have more professional waiters. Service wasn't bad but some of the waiters were clearly uni students that could barely open a wine bottle... Anyway, this is a common issue in Rome. The owners have clearly made a big effort and investment in the local, but they didn't really go the full length to actually make sure they their restaurant offers good food and excellent service (if you want to place yourself on that range of the market) It was not terribly expensive for what we had, but sadly a bit of a let down as I thought this could have been a nice new concept in Rome. Could someone please tell restaurant owners here to...