La Botte Antica — Restaurant in Rome

Extremely overpriced and extremely disappointing. This is easily the worst place I’ve ever eaten in Italy. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been so disgusted with pasta and fish in my life.

Ordered the spaghetti bolognese with meatballs, spaghetti gamborini, and the fried sea bass as waitress recommended seafood. The spaghetti bolognese w meatballs - the meatballs had a mush like consistency, and were tasteless. Seemed as though they’d been frozen for a while. The sauce was quite obviously out of a can. Had to sprinkle parmesan on it to eat it as it was very bland. The spaghetti gamborini - the pasta was very bland, 3 pieces of prawns which still had the poop veins in them, which means they weren’t de-veined. Pasta sauce was missing flavour, all I could taste basically was a fishy taste. Did not taste like gamboroni, there was 2 small tomatoes and no herbs at all. Very disappointing and sad to say that this is the worst spaghetti I’ve had in Italy. Who would’ve thought. The sea bass was a fillet with crumbs on top. Again tasteless, definitely was frozen. No herbs, only lettuce and bones in the fillet.

The waitress was obviously trying to get us to order the most expensive meals. At first was friendly, towards the end we didn’t finish our food was very cold. She looked embarrassed to serve us the dishes and was very awkward when seeing the look of disappointment in our faces.

Also, streaming the English premier league soccer, staff chanting in the restaurant when goals are scored while having the music top 20 music hits playing the whole time is definitely not authentic Italian. The atmosphere felt as though it was a hostel bar and 10x the price yet much poorer quality food.

I recommend that you walk past this place, and don’t ever step...

My second meal in Italy, and such a good experience. Sunday, May 15th was my first day in Italy, after waiting many, many years to visit. So long, too long... I flew into Rome with my sister in the morning and after a day of walking, she went to bed early at a hotel close to this restaurant. I was tired too, but also hungry and much too excited to just go to bed. My first day in Rome! I asked the hotel staff for a suggestion but when I found it, it was closed. So, I kept walking. On to the meal. I ordered the meatballs with guanciale and a quattro formaggio pizza with a couple glasses of wine and two large bottles of water. The pizza was too hot at first, but that gave me a few extra minutes to watch as people strolled by. It was 10 or 11, so the street was very quiet and peaceful. I enjoyed all the food, and even with a big appetite I had to work to finish the pizza since it was pretty large. Also, I study Italian on my own and I was able to have a nice conversation with the young lady who was the waitress as I sat outside. I guess I was so tired that I forgot to ask her name, but she moved to Rome 10 years ago and loves the city. I also liked the fact that she waited by the wall instead of going inside, so she was available anytime a customer needed something. That's very good service. It was a pleasure for me to eat at La Botte - good food and drinks, a nice atmosphere, and a friendly and attentive staff. In somma, un ricordo fantastico della mia prima cena in Italia. La Botte, grazie di tutto!...

I'm going to give a fair rating based on totality and not just my negative experience. Food was great, service was great etc. My only gripe is being lied to. When I received the receipt, I noticed it said Servicio 10%. As the waitress gave me the receipt before I noticed that, she says in essence, "tips are not expected but if you like your service etc a tip is appreciated" when she returned I asked her about the servicio and if it was a tip. She insisted it was not, it like a restaurant tax. Being our first night in rome I didnt question it but researched it after only to find out that's BS. 4 days later, our last night here in Rome we ate at "Very Good Ristorante" not far from here and came across the same thing. We've eaten at nearly a dozen restaurants since being here and only twice have seen this til now. You wont find Very Good Restorante on here as they used to be called Ristorante La Scuderia. Their receipt shows that and you will find that name on here with horrendous reviews. Now that I knew I asked this guy and was told the same BS. Negative, no extra tip and walked away. Asked a convenience store down the street about that and he said yeah, unfortunately they're trying to get more tip from you but the servicio is a tip fee they auto added on. How crummy these people are to take advtange of us tourists. So be warned to all, avoid these places, all they care about is taking your money over providing exceptional service and...