Labottega Pastificio con Cucina Roma — Restaurant in Rome

TOURISTS BE WARNED! We arrived at their restaurant and we waited for a few minutes and no one came out to the front desk. We placed our items on a table and waited to order while one of us went to use the restroom which we thought was down the stairs. The male owner comes out yelling and berating us asking if this is our house and says 'i dont know what you do in your own country but you dont use someones washroom' and then left back to the kitchen. Yes we are tourists and we are very understanding and are from Canada. We know how respect works. But this behavior showed a lack of humanity and discrimination that you would berate someone for trying to find the restroom in a restaurant and not someomes home. The ratings for the food may be good, but the behavior is terrible. Its the same tourists that contribute to these businesses and a little respect goes along way. The male owner behaved rudely and its unfortunate this is how he feels about tourists.

Reply: Dear Owner, Thank you for your thoughtful reply.

Here are a few points I’d like to clarify: • There was one other guest seated in your dining room at the time. • As you mentioned, since you were occupied in the kitchen, you did not notice us waiting and trying to get your attention to advise that we were here to dine or to request access to a restroom. • The urgency of the situation led us to look for a restroom — something most people naturally expect a public restaurant to have. We now understand that your establishment does not have one.

Please note that we did not enter your restaurant solely to use the restroom; we were there with the intention to dine in.

If your restaurant does not have a restroom, there are simple ways to avoid confusion for future guests. We understand that being asked repeatedly about restroom use can become frustrating. Perhaps a small sign could help clarify this for customers.

What feels ironic is that you mention courtesy and hospitality — values we also appreciate. Yet, rather than addressing the situation calmly, as you have done here in your google reply, your reaction in person was quite different. You raised your voice and scolded us on how we must be behaving in our own countries which is extremely unnecessary and does not exemplify respect.

You did not give us a chance to apologize or explain, even when we returned a second time. Instead of the display of anger and dissmissive language, if you had allowed dialogue we would have preferred to discuss and rectify the situation calmy rather than having had to write a review to explain the circumstances.

Your restaurant was actually the first place we stepped into upon arriving in the city of Rome from the airport. We will not use this experience to judge the rest of Rome, of course.

However, it’s important for other customers to understand how urgent or accidental situations are handled by businesses so that they can make informed decisions as after all a wholesome dining experience is expected.

We sincerely wish you all the best and hope this experience serves as an opportunity for reflection on effective communication, understanding, respect and...

We stopped in this restaurant while walking around Roma. Due to the high ratings, we decided to give it a try. The night before, I tasted my friends carbonara at another restaurant and it was amazing so I definitely wanted to try it before I left Roma. Excited to try it, the first bite was very salty, way too salty for me to eat. The quality of the food seemed fine, it was just not to my liking. My three other friends liked the dishes they had. I didn’t say anything but the gentlemen behind the counter saw I wasn’t eating. He asked if it was okay and I said it was too salty for me. Wow, this man went off. He said I don’t know what carbonara tastes like and how I am used to eating it the wrong way with cream (assuming I had eaten carbonara from another country). I had never had it until the night before. He continued by saying they serve 100 carbonara dishes a day and everyone likes it. I did not say a word, my friends were shocked as well.

This man was so rude for no reason. I didn’t intend to hurt his feelings or insult him which is why I didn’t say anything.

If you go here, eater eat your food if you don’t like it or pay and run out of the door. The angry man may come chasing you...

Highlights: Pasta

Don't trust google reviews in Roma - except for this one

This is not a restaurant, this is a craft shop specializing in handmade pasta, and they are incredible at it. In terms of value for money, this is the best pasta I've had in Italy, and some of the best on value alone, competitive with and often clearly superior to much more expensive/fancy sit down trattoria and tavernaccia. Out of about a dozen times eating Roman pasta over two trips, there is only one restaurant as good or better than this one (they also make their pasta in house), and that one is about 60% more expensive. The tonnarelli is absolutely exquisite. The interior is relaxed and casual, the staff is helpful and friendly, and the food is superb while being incredibly affordable for fairly large portions. You could serve this in new York with white tablecloths and pretentious wines and charge 4x the price and no one would bat an eye. This is my go to for a budget friendly, no frills authentic pasta experience. In my opinion this is a must try for anyone in Rome that wants top quality...