Hedera — Restaurant in Rome

Surprisingly poor gelato. We don't have gelato shops in Canada so we've been tasting a ton throughout our Italy trip and Hedera was easily the worst, low quality gelato we tasted in the entire country, yet had a bigger price tag than many other shops. And for the needlessly high price, I expected much better flavor and quantity. I asked for a sample of the hazelnut and got major attitude from the presumed owner (an old, balding man with serious attitude and ego issues), as if I was inconveniencing him by giving him business. The hazelnut was disgustingly sweet, it tasted of nothing but sugar. I then asked for a sample of the pistachio, which he rudely refused. The hazelnut was truly gross so I just settled for a cup of the pistachio, and was equally disgusted by that flavor. It was overwhelmingly salty and sweet, and I only ate a few bites before throwing it away entirely. The absurd over sweetness made it completely inedible. What ruined the experience even more than the low quality gelato was the owner's nasty attitude. He was sincerely hostile and combative, for seemingly no reason. Maybe because we were non-Italian tourists? I understand that Italy has a stereotype of having emotionally unstable men, but the owner's unhinged attitude just gave the whole place a really low class feel. I would recommend walking 30 seconds down the way to L'Arena del Gelato. They were so much nicer and the flavors were so much better.

Edit: the owner is schizophrenic or misguided and can't seem to accept that many independent people don't like his gelato shop and is randomly linking my review about my experience from over a week ago with some other random stranger....

The Apple cinnamon gelato tasted amazingggg!! But the person who served us was bias (not sure if racist?). Essentially we got a medium cup and he scooped the smallest amount possible, that the top was "flat" (even when he had more gelato on the scooping spoon, he did not load it all into the cup). Usually when we get ice cream/gelato at any other store, it will be "round" at the top above the cup line.

Anyways, we then saw an Italian family getting gelato in cups and he filled all of them up how it should have been.

I think management should have a serious talk to this person in regards to customer service, bias and racism..thankfully the brand is a franchise and I hope the owner provides their staff with education. Pretty sad of them since it is the year 2023 to act in that manner.

I would advise international tourists to avoid this gelato place and go elsewhere!! We are from Australia if you...

Guy behind the counter was a total jerk. I asked for a taste of the pistachio and he got butthurt that I wanted to try before I buy. It wasn’t my favorite, but when my wife asked for a strawberry he immediately got upset, said They are closed now and kicked us out. I don’t know why he would get so mad about wanting to try a flavor before purchasing. Don’t waste your time here there are better gelato spots in every direction. It’s too bad he was so rude and hostile because the store front is really nice and the Ivy growing on the building was picturesque. Which brings up the next part. As we were leaving my wife was taking a picture of the ivy and closing her phone apps and the guy was yelling at her from inside and taking her picture like he was going to expose a Karen type. The store was still open and he just decided he didn’t want to serve us and harassed us on the way out. All because we...