Il Margutta — Restaurant in Rome

Service was absolutely atrocious and as a vegan I paid more for significantly less food. They tried to give me a cheesecake at the end and then walked away when I said it wasn't vegan. and completely ignored us for the whole time. The plates were chipped, and I was without water for half the meal. My seitan "cutlet" was just dry seitan like you could buy at the store. I'm not sure what they were going for but when I complained they were even more defensive and kept trying to direct blame at me for not saying anything. I explained that they were the 4th person we dealt with so I had no idea who our waiter was. I went on to explain how everything, including them not having our reservation, was absolutely not a high end experience. Then the bill came. I told them "we seem to be missing the chef special as advertised, you made us pay for bread we didn't order, and gave me an alcoholic drunk when I literally could die from drinking" again blamed me for the mix up. That's when they brought the cheesecake as I was trying to pay. I couldn't believe the last move they had was to try a non-vegan item on me when I clearly from the start told them I was vegan and ordered the vegan tasting menu. After being fully ignored yet again, I finally threw up my hands in defeat and just walked to the register to pay and leave. Then their reciept printer didn't work. Our waiter proceeded to run out the door and get on his phone. No one said anything to us and we got a half- sorry about half way into me explaining i would pay the bill but that it was one of the worst eating experiences of my life. I was still actually incredibly hungry. I have never been so pissed off in my life in a restaurant. I know service staff have it hard so I'm always incredibly patient and understanding but these people working tonight. I have no remorse for them if they get fired. They probably lied about the restaurant manager not being there anyway. I'm 102 euro more poor and incredibly angry about the experience. If you are a vegan I'd recommend somewhere else--they don't know what they are doing here.

As an extra: whoever runs this place is lost- half their seats are leather (perhaps faux, but how would one know? A terrible choice for a vegetarian...

I don’t even know where to start…from the terrible and rude service to the bland and u creative food for the price. I wouldn’t have felt as bad if the food cost was reflective of what was served. As a vegetarian I had a very mediocre food that was just heavy on cheese to cover up everything else. Not worth it at all. I expected way more from a “fine dining” place. My partner was vegan and he had to pay more to get half the portions as I did. We ordered the chefs menu which was supposed to come with a chef surprise which we never received until we mentioned it at the end when we were so done with their terrible service and then they brought the cheesecake (a second dessert as a surprise?!) which was not vegan!!!!! It was also supposed to come with a “sparkling drink”. Didn’t mention at all that was going to be alcoholic and my partner doesn’t drink so there goes that too. The wait staff had an attitude towards us the moment we arrived so I was not surprised by the continually terrible and rude service. When we told them that we were so unhappy and still hungry , they kept playing clueless and kept saying to tell them what was wrong with it and we kept saying all the reasons! Super small and bland tasting dishes that should have been 1/10 of the price to be worth it. It also took 2.5 hours of our day which would have been better spent exploring the city and not this uninspiring fluorescent bright environment. There are so many better options for vegans and vegetarians in this town. Don’t let the “first vegetarian restaurant in Rome “ fool you. Oh also their bread was terrible, didn’t ask us if we actually wanted it and still managed to charge us...

It was a long time we had been meaning try this place. It's hard in Italy to find vegetable based dishes. We called and made a reservation for lunch for two people.

We arrived at it was packed, stressful energy like a busy cafe in NYC. There was a huge line of people in the middle of the restaurant. Any restaurant full of tourists and the staff first speak English with you before Italian, always gives me red flags. They checked our green passes and sat us at a comfortable but not particularly clean table. They only have filtered water, not mineral. By the time the sliced lemons arrived with flecks of black all over them, I was already ready to leave.

After a long time we asked for the menus, and the waiter was shocked, "they didn't explain to you about the brunch buffet?" Ah, that explains the non-moving line and lack of service! (We didn't even know buffets were allowed again in this COVID era.)

No. No one did. It was late and we were worried the other restaurants kitchens would be closing. The waiter had us speak with the director who full of arrogance said the buffet was the only option and everyone knows because it's several years they only offer the buffet brunch on the weekends.

We left. His rudeness was really the final straw and we have no plans to ever try actually eating there. I can't understand how it is supposed to be a first time customer's responsibility when making a reservation by phone, to know what the dining and menu options are.

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