Falo Bistrot - Roma — Restaurant in Rome

We went to sit down at this place by accident, as we didn’t check the location properly and it was one of the worst mistakes we made in Italy. We just wanted some breakfast, so we ordered a jam croissant, three small pastries and a sandwich, together with a cappuccino and a fresh orange juice. The coffee was machine served in a cup that looked like it had not been cleaned properly, and the “fresh” juice was warm as if it hadn’t seen the fridge in a while. After a far too long wait (more than half an hour) for some pastries and croissant that we saw through the vitrine were ready-made, we got our food at separate times. The croissant was pretty nice but obviously not fresh. As for the “pastries”, we got three extremely dry and old cookies that were not the ones we ordered at all, only for the waitress to tell us just than that they were out of the ones we ordered. They had not asked us if we wanted these instead or not, and they didn’t want to switch them back originally, until I firmly insisted I couldn’t eat them because of a hazelnut allergy. She came back with only the hazelnut pastry changed, but the two other, extremely dry cookies, were the same ones as before, the ones we did not order nor like. Only ten minutes later the sandwich arrived, and the bread was old and hard, the cheese tasted as if it had been open in a fridge for too long, and the lettuce had brown spots and definitely wasn’t fresh. When we tried to speak to the waitress about some complains the English was too limited to properly tell her what we meant, and when I once more tried to kindly explain to the person who made the bread and took the cookies (“pastries”) out of the vitrine why we weren’t fully satisfied by the quality of the food due to the freshness, she got annoyed and continuously called out “nonono, it’s all fresh, it’s all fresh! it’s good food it’s all fresh” while getting the plastic wrapped salad out of the fridge to show me. I asked if they could reduce the price a little for the pastries we did not order, and the sandwich that was not at all fresh, but they refused to compromise even though we had already explained our problem with what we got before we started eating. The bill was higher than we expected and we payed 15€ for dry cookies, a dirty cup of cappuccino and an unfresh sandwich and juice. We were left extremely unsatisfied and flabbergasted by the bad quality and service of the kitchen. About the service of the waitress we can’t complain, she tried her very best to help us in broken English, and as the only one in the entire restaurant apologized multiple times for the food and how we were treated by the kitchen. Ofcourse we can’t expect of her to go against her manager about this, so we thanked her a lot for her service and trying. Her kindess and excitement towards clients was the only good thing about this restaurant. (Lastly, if you we’re thinking of using the restroom here, expect an extremely small cabin that does not...

How to describe the manic episode that occurred here...

Well, their fixed price menu caught our eye. Pizza or pasta, a glass of wine or water, a fruit cup, coffee listed at 10 euros. What a steal! We approached the waitress for a table, and she frantically gestured at us that she needed a smoke break and then seated us in the direct sunlight. After 15 minutes of her running in and out of the restaurant serving other customers, most of whom were waiting to pay their bill, she finally took her smoke break and 10 minutes later returned to take our order. By that time I had gone from cherry red to lobster, and we asked to move indoors. She obliged, and sat us at a table that was still occupied by the previous meal that had been served there. I

t took another 10 minutes for our order to be taken, and which point we learned that there was only one kind of pizza or one kind of pasta that was offered on the fixed menu. Perfectly fine. We received our glass of wine and awaited for what we thought was one pizza and one pasta. After 30 minutes we had received one pasta split between us, or potentially two pastas of very modest portion? Having already finished our wine, we asked for a bottle of water. That took us an immense amount of time to receive, and it proved to be quite wee.

We eventually asked about the fruit cup and 15 minutes later, received a martini glass of unwashed green grapes. Desperate to settle, three of us in the cafe rushed the counter to pay at the same time. We couldn't help but laugh at the situation.

As my travel companion used the WC, the waitress screams out, "Café?!" And I say, "who me?", as I am very clearly headed out the door. In my confusion I said, "Sure," thinking she would pull the espresso shot right then and there as she was standing next to the machine. Instead she went into the kitchen and 6 minutes later, we left without having seen her again.

I'm sure working in a cafe in Rome is insane. I have so much compassion for her and those in the service industry. But, frankly, I was served 1/2 a dinner and a show and all I...

Positives: The main dish I was served was tasty. The panini they served was also good, the vegetables in it tasted fresh and the bread was soft, with a crunch on the outside. The food quality vs. price ratio was where it should be and we were charged a fair price. Good location and food for the price. Their Aperol Spritz was also good.

Negatives: I found a small piece of plastic packaging in my food. But considering the price of the meal, I had no problems with that, so I just removed it without complaining. What I didn't like about this place was the service. Their waitress was overly friendly in a weird way, and a bit intrusive in her approach. Every time she served food to us or someone else, she made a long "Oooooooou!!!" sound without saying anything else, and it seemed to make other guests feel uncomfortable. Other than that, we got the food we came for, but i would rather visit this place again when she isn't there. THE TOILET. The toilet for women had no lock on the door and no toilet seat! The light was motion-activated and was going out every 20 seconds, which made the toilet very hard to use. This point of the review is just for the information for anyone reading it. The toilet facility did not influence my rating of the place.

Despite the negatives, I could recommend this place for a quick bite, because the food was good, considering the price. Just remember not to use...