La Canonica — Restaurant in Rome

Tourists. Please be aware. My husband and I went here August 2021 on our honeymoon. We originally wanted to go to the place next door(Tonarello) but they were too busy so we went here since we were in the area.

From the front entrance we were greeted by a man who actually was convincing us to eat here. He proceeded to tell us we only have to wait 1 minute to get seated (even though it looked extremely busy so I knew that wasn’t the case) It was 9:45pm. He offered us Prosseco and we waited. We waited about 10-15 minutes to get seated, way over the promised time.

After we were seated, we waited another 10 minutes for the table to be cleared and for us to get assigned a waiter. Our waiter came and we ordered just water. While we were looking over the menu we knew we wanted a white sauce pasta right away but I had some questions about what bruschetta to get between the Zucchini and Riccotta cheese, regular or Bruschetta with truffle. I personally didn’t know what truffle was and the waiter laughed at me/mocked me that I didn’t know and was laughing with my husband that their truffle is expensive and good. He was on the topic for 2 minutes about truffle. I told him thank you but I will pass on the Truffle Bruschetta and get the Zucchini and Ricotta Cheese Bruschetta which he repeated back to me.

It took over 30 minutes to get the Bruschetta and when we got it, it didn’t look right it was missing the cheese and zucchini. My husband and I took one bite thinking maybe the cheese was under the black sauce on top of the Bruschetta but to my surprise, he mistakenly gave us Truffle Bruschetta because he was probably on the topic for so long about it. Not a problem at all. I kindly apologized and said I’m sorry but I ordered the Zucchini & Ricotta cheese. He made a really rude/ smart comment and said you bit this.. why don’t you just tell the truth that you just didn’t like it? I brushed it off because I know that I ordered the Zucchini Bruschetta. He then said that he would bring us the other Bruschetta. We continued to stay and observe the atmosphere. It is now 10:45-11 and we sat down at about 10:00 and not only did we never get the bruschetta or the chicken alfredo but the young girls sitting next to us got their food before us and they sat down 20 minutes after us. There was also another couple who got their food after being seated after only 15 minutes. We also waited with another couple at the line and they got up and left after not being delivered any food. Additionally while we were sitting, a lady came up and asked if she could at least get someone to get her water after waiting 30-40 minutes and questioned why someone would tell her the bathroom is not working when she saw someone go in. One of the waiters laughed at her.

So with all this being said, a waiter that wasn’t ours came and asked us if we wanted the Zucchini Bruschetta and my husband said no its fine just cancel and forget about it because we already waited so long and all we have on the table is waters. At this point, we decided to leave 30 seconds after the couple we waited with left as well. Again, all we had on our table was waters. They took on way too many customers, and they could not handle it.

We walked past Tonarello and up the street which was kind of secluded and away from the crowds. Now what happened next, I can’t believe anybody would do this let alone on the clock working at a restaurant. Our waiter came up behind us and pushed my husband against the wall, and started cussing at him/pushing him calling us stupid Americans while this other waiter who had darker hair grabbed a pocket KNIFE out of his apron and threatened us with a knife. We have never experienced something like this in our life. Near death experience. Tourists please stay away from this place. Horrible service, scary and rude waiting staff. Didn’t even get to try the food because all we had...

Funny enough my girlfriend was going to leave a review on her “google local guide” account, but she attempted to leave a negative one when we visited 2 years ago after liking this restaurant for years, and apparently it was never published and also will not allow her to modify it to post it now, so I’m going to post hers from 2 years ago (last year was fine, not worth leaving a review), and also from today, which was actually even worse.

First mine: We are staying at BVLGARI Hotel Rome (Hotel de Russie near to Bulgari last summer, Hotel de Ville the summer before that; have stayed in trastavere before that), and just like last year and the 2 years before, made a venture to trastevere (ie not nearby), to visit Mimi and Coco Trastavere and a few other favorites, such as this place. We always have just come for drinks as we do not eat in the day, only dinner, and only late at night when most restaurants in Rome are already closed.

This year even though it was only 6 pm and they were basically vacant, they would not allow us to sit (even when we said we would only be 20 minutes) and stated only for food and that it has always been that way when I tried to insist that we have been many times, so did they change their rules since last year? They were very rude saying we could go sit on the square, acting as though we did not know what we were talking about when obviously we have this place bookmarked on our phones from visiting so many times over the years, even with bad experiences. Very rude, so I guess even worse than before (where again, we always just got drinks).

Now pasting my girlfriend‘s review that was never posted from 2 years ago:

We normally visit this restaurant every year as it is charming, under a covered with plants walkway, and came to trastavere when staying at hotel de la ville absolutely nowhere nearby just to come here and Mimi and coco (per usual). I’m not sure that we could come back after this visit as we literally had to sit there listening to the workers harass every single sloppy tourist that walked by, like a complete tourist trap, it was literally painful to watch or listen to and it was literally every single person that passed (on top of us so could not avoid watching or listening). They also offered to take photos of very anytown USA/Europe tourists that were dining and kept saying “say sex!” (ie instead of say cheese).

The food looks terrible but that’s a given, luckily we do not eat before 11 PM (nor would eat anything they serve here), so we have never partaken in the food here, but the super tacky nature of harassing every single sloppy tourist passerby (literally extensively “come in happy hour!” - Please note we do not come here for happy hour - “hello!! Come in!! Where are you from? So beautiful! HAPPY HOUR!! $6 (pretty sure they aren’t selling anything in dollars even though they advertised in dollars)” INCESSANTLY, following them down the street, screaming at every single person as they approached, was just unbearable. It made us wish we hadn’t come (especially as perhaps they thought their tourist trap mentality, which we didn’t notice as we came here intentionally, brought us here).

Drinks are meh, but cute ambiance which was the selling...

Rarely post reviews nowadays but had to share my experience here: For starters, when approaching the restaurant I could barely tell who worked there, the servers/hostess outside were all wearing different clothing and did not look a part at all. We ordered a pizza (Capricciosa I believe), and it arrived whole, without being sliced at all (something completely new to me, but who knows maybe it is a thing) and with no plates, just the single plate with the pizza on it (also completely new to me, but maybe it is also a thing), so I sliced it all around, and we server ourselves directly from the plate.

As it wasn't summer yet, and it was a bit chili outside, we asked to get the heater besides us turned one. With some struggle, our server got it running, but after a couple of minutes on the fire died, but gas kept running, and so I eventually noticed the gas smell and immediately flagged down the closest server/hostess, and he came over and shut off the gas, and while he was doing so, the gentleman seated behind us also mentioned he had started to small the gas leakage, and pointed out that he was smoking, which could have potentially have caused some trouble (not sure of the likelihood of a lit cigarette igniting gas but who knows). The guy that shut off the gas asked (almost insisted) if we wanted it back on again because apparently the guy who turned it on didn't know what he was doing, to which was an easy not for me.

We continued to eat our pizza, which was pretty decent, but couldn't help but notice who the servers/hostess who stayed out front were not professionals at all. Not only their apparel was inconsistent (as I mentioned at the beginning, some were wearing hoodies and such), a handful of them were just hanging out there in a manner that one would easily assume these were friends just hanging out and not server/hostesses on duty.

I do hope that management sees this review and take it seriously, because for it to be running as it is (perhaps I went there on a "bad" day) it likely needs an outsider to point out something could be improved.

(Took a photo of the pizza after I realized I had to...