Florian's Cafe — Restaurant in Rome

Editing this because the restaurant replied to my post:

Rome is one of my favorite cities. I’m a customer, I don’t run a business and I have no reason to lie. But I do think it is important to note that rather than ask me about my experience, apologize, or even explain the experience, the restaurant chose to call me a liar, and explain why it’s impossible, for instance that they couldn’t have had a single dirty cup. That’s absurd. It could’ve been a mistake. The restaurant also chose to claim I was taking up 3 tables. For what purpose? I’m one person. Why would I even need 3 tables for tea and juice? As I said this place was terrible, unprofessional and apparently, very rude.

For reference, I ate at two other places in the area on the same day, Rifugio Romano (vegan traditional Italian food) and Casina Della Terme (which is across the street from Florian’s). Both were better. Both treated my as a valuable customer. They both offered basic decent service and general respect. If you’re in the neighborhood chose one of those instead. Florian’s is irresponsible, insulting, and rude. And as a black customer, I have to say I wondered if it was because of my race.

Black folks, make your own decisions, but be aware I do feel I was treated especially bad. You don’t have to believe me, just look at how arrogant and rude the response is.

I can only offer my experience. I’m sorry it was so awful. I truly wanted it to be good (which is, by the way, why I didn’t take pictures of my dirty cup, I didn’t actually expect things to get worse from there).

Original review below. I’m done here, but for the record I may leave this review on yelp and any other website I can. I would have let this go, but now I feel it’s important for customers to know how they may be treated before spending money here.

This place was awful. The servers were rude as soon as I arrived. There were barely any guests and I picked an empty table and was forced to use another one. I asked for tea and juice and was served about 20 minutes later. My teacup was dirty. My teapot was leaking. I was alone so I left my bag on a seat next to me and the server moved the seat without saying a word to me. I asked for a bottle of water and was given a glass of tap water. The sever never checked to ask if I wanted anything else even though there were only two people in the restaurant. When it was time to pay, I said I’d like to pay with a card. The server told me only cash. Since I didn’t have cash I asked if card was possible. The server told me it was impossible, then I noticed he had 5 Credit Card machines. He tried one that didn’t work then tried another that did work, so he lied to me. I said thank you and left and he didn’t say a word. I’ll never spend another cent here....

On the hunt for a good restaurant we saw Crème Brûlée on their menu. That is always a starting point for us —so rare to find it, it always pushes us over the edge.

So… I am sad to report in 5-day stay here in Rome…the restaurant we chose to be the capstone to a great dining experience ended up being the worst of all we tried. Saying a lot for some of the random roadside joints we enjoyed.

First, it took a solid 10 minutes to get a drink to the table. Vodka tonic for the lady. Gin and tonic for myself. Apparently— complicated drinks.

We ordered a Salmon Tartar that was exactly what we expected to set the mood. Waiter seemed a little annoyed we didn’t order everything at the front, but it’s been our experience here in Rome that they bring all the food at once if you give them the whole order. As an appetizer, we expect it first and enjoy chit chat while basking in Ambiance. SO FAR SO GOOD.

The Gin and tonic was refreshing, so I ordered another one. It was quickly forgotten.

For diner we ordered a Greek salad for her and a dish called “Costine del Agnello” for myself. While I clearly didn’t understand all the Italian description, what I didn’t read in the description was “overly deep-fried breaded lamb that’s mostly fat and nearly impossible to eat”.

I am afraid my reminding of my gin order as the waiter sat down the dish, that it distracted him from the fact we have no service ware. Fine. Looked like KFC anyway so I started in with my fingers

I have been eating lamb dishes for over 40 years and I have the sad report to tell you—this was the worst lamb experience I have ever had. I have had better tasting Armadillo served in Louisiana, USA. Yes that was a roadkill dish served to me in the past. Also, as another sad aside—whomever slaughtered the lamb had no clue what they were doing as there were savagely broken/clearly shattered bone fragments strewn throughout the bone ends. A daunting task to not swallow dangerous bone shards. I hope I did ok! Fire the meat monger. Find a new source. Awful meat content. Awful meat preparation. Also, who in their right mind would fry lamb?

After suffering through all that? They were out of the Crème brûlée—which was the reason we decided to attempt this disaster dinner in the first place.

Perfect.

The wine was good. I recommend Caccia Al plano 1868. Just…somewhere else.

At least they added a tip on for themselves, which took a few moments after bribing the charge machine to our table—he had to go get a pen for us to sign.

Honestly this place only gets one star because we are unable to give no stars. It...

We leave a review ( because the waitress asked us when we paid to leave one )

Three years ago we fell in love with this restaurant, their staff, their food, their atmosphere. On a stay of 4 days we went 3 times, all was perfect. So sad that our memories will be only memories.

What a this time ; firstly we asked to eat for two, arrived at the table the lady told us that they not doing pizza today. A bit frustrated but anyway. We check the menu and, prices were higher than before, we can understand with the covid crisis etc it’s the same for all. Maybe doing some news menu cards and not only to cross the price and write on it.

After asking for the drinks, the same lady told me that bruschette are impossible to make today like pizzas.

So we decided to choose what we can eat, aiglo e oilo and ravioli with mushrooms. Let me explain, I don’t think it was Al dente it was more like not cooked at all, crunchy spaghettis and hard part of ravioli.

For the sauce, what happened ? Only cream, no garlic no spice and no salt at all ( what we told to the waitress) no excuses from her by the way, non-existent like her smile. She just came back after talked with her manager, maybe the owner of the restaurant. With salt and pepper, wow.

We had a long way to come back here and after a long day in transportation, I just had no choice to finish my expensive dish with 3 bitter ravioli for 16€ I think.

Impossible for my wife to finish her plate, so just before we had to eat 200 m...