Faro - Caffè Specialty — Restaurant in Rome

Attenzione turisti, this really cuts me to my core. I had been going to Faro for years now, perhaps four or so -- maybe more -- and it had always been my firm belief that they were at the forefront of the Roman coffee scene. However, I can well and truly say that such notions have surely dissipated. Their coffee is still excellent, genuinely quality stuff, but that is the one and only singular point in their favor, the one star as it were. Everything else works against them. Over these years, as their prices have soared, their soulless remodeling having stripped them of any interior personality to now hawk their own brand, and last -- though not certainly least -- their unmistakable air of arrogance having risen to dizzying heights, the notion of stomaching these egregious insults has broken any goodwill curried over the years. What sort of place has the gall to lie to your face that your drink is on its way after waiting and finishing all of you and your partner's food while they are certainly not busy, only to watch as people seated after you get their drinks, and it still take well past enough time for your drink to arrive without even a hint of contrition from the people working there? It's the arrogance of it all, truly they act and believe that you are there for them, and then they hand down an 11,50 receipt with no itemization for two pastries, a cappuccino, and water. Absolute absurdity. If there is quality to be found, such prices could, potentially, be justifiable -- and again, their coffee is still of great quality. However, make no mistake, the unbelievable disrespect imparted by the staff has left me unwilling to ever go back even if I were the one being paid to do so. What a tragedy, and when Rome is desperately in need of such quality cafes the horrific service of this once promising place has utterly destroyed about half a decade's worth of goodwill. Avoid...

We visited Faro a couple of times during our holiday in Rome. The first time we visited we went for coffee and breakfast on a Sunday. We arrived shortly before they opened, and we could tell this place was popular, as there was already a short queue of people at the door when we arrived and this queue quickly got longer behind us. Therefore, as soon as the place opened it was already very busy, therefore, we expected that there would be a bit of a wait for food, however, we weren’t in a rush, so we were more than happy to wait. I ordered the brioche with yogurt and fruit with a cappuccino and the quality of both the breakfast and the coffee was very good!

The second time we visited Faro, we went for just a coffee in the middle of the afternoon, the place was busy but not crowded and there were numerous empty tables, both inside and outside, however, because we were just going for coffee, we were asked by the staff member to sit at the bar table at the back, which we were quite happy to do so. The issue with sitting at the bar table at the back however, does seem to mean that you do tend to get forgotten about by the staff members as we waited an exceptionally long time to be served to place our order, I even went up to the counter to ask if we could place our order, but got told to wait at the bar table and someone would come over, which they did eventually. Therefore, on second visit the customer service was slightly disappointing but the quality of the coffee was...

Despite a number of websites saying this is a good remote working location - regardless of time constraints suggested by another review-, this is not the case unless you want to work facing a wall hidden in the back of the cafe. Although I was initially told by one staff member I could sit at the table with my laptop and coffee for a half hour, which I was totally fine with and even set a timer so as not to overstay- seconds later a different staff member more forcefully made it clear that I could not use my laptop AT ALL unless I moved to the dark recess hidden away even though there were plenty of open tables outside that could have been offered as alternatives and still free up the inside tables.

It was rather disappointing as I walked a good distance to get there and the coffee was wonderful. I would have happily eaten as well, but didn’t feel inclined after that.

While I understand the desire to want everyone to have a chance to enjoy the coffee and food, there was clearly a better way of dealing with the situation as I imagine a number of remote workers or travelers would appreciate being able to enjoy the coffee, food and ambience while respecting time limits and space… instead, I’ll likely not visit again nor recommend it as it is an effort to get there and plenty of other (admittedly less artisanal) cafes...