Hostaria Da Cesare Bottega Storica dal 1921 — Restaurant in Rome

[Updated Review]

I have updated this review to include text, and not just my star rating.

I found this restaurant using the Michelin Guide 2024, as I do for every city I visit. On my current travels I have visited 2 in London, 3 in Malta, and 3 in Rome.

Food: the food was, to say the least, lack luster. It wasn't unique, nor did it offer anything special. It's taste was little different to that of many of the tourist traps lining Romes central streets. We ordered a suppli tartufato ai funghi porcini, a arrabiata and something else - I can't remember, it wasn't particularly memorable food.

Nonetheless, back to it. The starter was reminiscent of frozen food, and the pasta was, tiny in it's portion and again, rather lackluster. But why write this review?

The food was disappointing, and what made it so was when comparisons were drawn with other, similarly rated Michelin guide restaurants. The price point was higher, the portions smaller, and the food all around of a significantly lesser quality than the food we tried at Armando al Pantheon, and Poldo e Gianna Osteria. Both of these were amazing experiences, I've never quite had pasta like it. Portions were larger, good better, and in some cases, cheaper. More bang for your buck. I saw in a different review that a justification (excuse) for this was due to the quality of the ingredients (unrecognisable...), and to be in keeping with "ancient" recipes - as per the book, Apicius, this is untrue.

Atmosphere: Good. Outside seating is along a main road, but it's rather pleasant. Quite-ish side walk with a lovely view, and close to some of Romes main attractions. Beyond that, no comment.

Service: Though the reply mentions someone coming around to ask how our meal was - no one did such a thing. We were not asked how our food was, not were the waiters very engaging. I appreciate the job at hand, however, the aforementioned restaurants took time to engage in brief, yet humours conversation. The service was significantly better even at a non-Michelin, but deserving both in terms of food, service, and atmosphere, like Da Tonino - Trattoria Bassetti.

p.s. it's Mr...

We were recommended this restaurant by a local tour guide and so naturally we decided to check it out. The location is absolutely beautiful and the restaurant has very nice outdoor seating with lights. We saw the doorway filled with accolades including recognition from Michelin, so we were very excited to try the food. We ordered suppli and the raw shrimp starters and while the suppli was very delicious, the shrimp was unprepared and still had the veins and intestinal tract in it, which we were told by a relative in the restaurant industry was not how it was supposed to be. The shrimp also came out without lemon. The service to this point was decent, although the wine was poured while it was still warm. We get the food and a few things were an issue. Firstly, the food was not all served at or near the same time and the cold food was brought last. Secondly, the waiter got my sister‘s order wrong and brought out the wrong item. So the service was okay but no huge issues. The food was amazing and we were starting to see the reason for the accolades and recommendations, but then the worst happened. I was eating my food and I bit down on something unusually hard for carbonara, so thinking it was weirdly sized salt, I bit harder but it would not give. I took the thing out of my mouth and it was a broken piece of ceramic. Passing it around to confirm, we flagged down the waiter. Upon telling him what we found, he dismissed the concern and claimed it was a piece of salt, the exact opposite of what he should’ve done. We thought it was strange and that he would at least apologize, but nothing. Later in the meal, as we were about to leave, he came and said the chef had apologized to us about the piece, meaning the chef had seen through the waiter and could recognize fault. All in all, the food was amazing, the service was bad (even our Italian relative thought this way), and the ambience was great. Recommend for food and ambience,...

We visited the restaurant to feed our two kids after long walking. Son asked for a pizza and daughter wanted a salad Caesar. The waiter said that they don't have the Caesar or any similar. Ok, we asked for one pizza then. Answer was "Only one pizza? No!" So they refused to make the small order for us. Is it normal in Rome? We were just shocked.

PART2: The owner answered and I found that he is the LIER in addition to the highest snobbery. We chosed the restaurant randomly. Not because of a "a nice outdoor table", not because of a "nice table for 4 people, fully equipped to air conditioning" (we only asked the waiter where is cooler - inside or outside), not because "in order to use a bit of rest and refreshment using the bathrooms". What an absurd!! We just had 2 hungry kids and decided to order a pizza and a salad for them.

"ask only one pizza for 4 people." - LIE - we didn't asked 'one pizza for 4 people'. We asked just for 1 pizza. The parents were not going to eat at all.

"the cost of a pizza (€ 8.00)" - LIE. We ordered € 13.00 pizza.

"Obviously in the price we must also include the rental of linen, their washing, their ironing and the equipment of the table. Without considering the cleanliness of the premises, and the management costs." Oh, so you refuse to make pizza for a single person? He'll make the linen dirty, isn't? So you'll need to wash and iron it then and you go bankrupt. So pity ))))

"In any case we have honored the children more, welcoming them for the first necessities" - LIE! You refused to feed the children. The waiter said 'NO' very clear, twice, without any additional 'minimal request' or questions.

We travel a lot, we visited many countries, cities, cafes and restaurants and this is the first time of such disrespectful and humiliating attitudes we experienced. I think we never forget this place because of such negative emotions...