Osteria del Tempo Perso Oca — Restaurant in Rome

Extremely disappointing experience. Avoid.

We left this place frustrated and sick to our stomachs—literally.

First off, we didn’t order drinks, and we suspect this might have led to our pizza being absurdly salty—so salty it made us feel physically ill. On top of that, the pizza was drowning in oil. It was soggy, and the toppings slid right off the slice the moment we picked it up. Disgusting.

They tried to pressure us into ordering expensive items from the menu. Luckily, we didn’t fall for it. Still, they had the nerve to charge us extra. When we calmly asked why, the man serving us just stared coldly and mumbled something we couldn’t even understand. No explanation, no apology—just pure rudeness.

Speaking of service, it was one of the worst we’ve ever experienced. The waiter was cold, unwelcoming, and even laughed when we asked a simple question. We were completely ignored for most of the visit. At one point, the staff literally blocked the exit while chatting in a circle like it was a high school hallway. We had to remind them after 20 minutes that we hadn’t even paid yet.

The ambiance? Miserable. Our table was lit by a weird, dim light that looked like a broken prop. Our “placemat” was just a sad piece of red paper. The napkin? Way too thick and absolutely useless—it didn’t even soak up the oil from the pizza.

The location was okay, but nothing could save the lack of effort in atmosphere, food, or service.

Avoid this place. There are too many better options nearby to waste your time...

Very unkind staff. I had our last lunch before the departure from Rome yesterday and my family was treated without respect, it was genuinely very sad after an amazing stay in Rome. After encountering so many great Italians and trattorias, it was surprising. Food is okay, normal prices, however nothing special - the waiters are openly unpleasant and rude, what destroys the entire experience and makes you feel like you wasted your money, even if the food would be great (it's fine). I've worked in gastronomy and so I would really, really understand if they had a very exhausting day, many guests, but it wasn't the case. It was still early and the restaurant wasn't packed, not to mention that there were five waiters for maybe ten tables. One waiter even lied to us at the beginning because they didn't want to offer a table outside, which we preferred (I suppose to keep it for others, although there weren't any reservations because there were three of us, not four) - fortunately the other one said the truth at...

To start, I had the fried baby squid. It was ok but did not have a great amount of flavour and was thought and slightly stringy and did not compare to some of the other restaurants I’ve ate in Rome over the last couple of days.

I did not manage to get a picture but I also had the carbonara which was a great Italian carbonara with lots of flavour but was very heavy. It was a very large portion size and it was very rich but was excellent if you’re looking for a proper Italian carbonara. I would recommend having this and a main and not the calamari as well as it was a lot of food!

For my main I got the veil escallops with ham and sage. It was good but a bit stringy and didn’t taste of much but I felt like the sauce made up for the slight lack of taste as it was strong. Again, this did not compare to other restaurants in Rome such as Brillo which was around the same price.

Overall I wouldn’t be coming back and would not recommend it as there definitely better places to eat in Rome at...