Osteria Maracuja — Restaurant in Rome

I'll begin by saying: don't go here. We wish we'd read the reviews beforehand cos they are true.

My friend and I had been walking around a bit looking for somewhere to eat and were heavily persuaded into this place by one of the many waiters standing at the front, one who said he'd give us complementary champagne if we went in (should have been the first red flag but we were hungry!).

The food itself was OK but not great. I had the cacio e pepe pasta which was fine but my friend had the chicken alfredo which she said was largely cream and lacked any seasoning. My wine wasn't great either. Not what we'd come to expect in any authentic Italian restaurant in Rome.

During the evening one of the many waiters seemed to be in a very angry mood with some men who showed up, and at one point another waiter physically shoved one of the men selling roses who was walking past. Slightly unsettling.

We decided to read some reviews at the table after we'd eaten and read all the worrying reviews about the tipping (we aren't American but being British might not make a difference)... we witnessed this happen at the table by us where the owner (we presume) asked them for a tip when they paid. We didn't want to tip as the food wasn't the best but, as two young-ish women, we didn't want to deal with any conflict so felt obliged to tip a small amount. The same man who took our neighbours' payment, who hadn't waited on our table at any point all evening, referred to me as a "beautiful signorita" as he gave me the bill and then quite obviously checked the cash tip amount before entering the bill total into the card machine. Seemed we passed the tip enforcement law without trouble. Weird that only this one man seemed able to take people's payments.

In short: avoid avoid avoid. It had such a weird atmosphere that made us feel uncomfortable....

TOURIST SCAM & TIP EXPECTED🤡🤡

Would give 0 stars!!

We didn’t get any bread or champagne like the rest. We order 2 pasta, 2 cokes. Vongole and seafood. Not their special.

So we walked past this restaurant, famished since we just arrived in Rome. It was dinner time. They said no service charge so we thought ok. We didn’t realise we were just right outside the colosseum/forum hill street. So we sat down. Quickly an older man (very experienced obv) came and serve us. Asked our nationality (which is weird; I already had the thght the nationality played a part of the level of scam I think) . Quickly pushed their special, mixed seafood + lobster, asked the price, it was 30€. So we stuck to our initial choice.

After dinner, he gave us dessert. The vibe felt weird and we just wanted to fill up before exploring a little. We rejected dessert thank god. Asked for the bill, he came with a receipt saying it doesn’t come with tip. So ??? We just paid exactly what was written on the receipt. 38€ I think. Exact change cause we felt weird. We stood up and they start surrounding us asking for tip and making a fuss. Saying it’s euro culture blah blah. What kind of culture is this? 🤡🤡It’s not. We don’t tip in our country. And a tip is from a service gesture. There was no great service, no bread and the pressure to tip was forced upon. If there is a said service charge we would have gladly paid for it. It’s a major tourist trap cause the bait was no service charge and where are you from? 🙄 we walked away grateful that we didn’t pay for any tip as we read during our meal it was a tourist scam. They expect a lot. Also, husband got food poisoning after his vongole. The seafood pasta I had didn’t have fresh clams as most were closed. So go at...

American tourists!!

We had a horrible experience here after arriving in Rome. We ordered the gnocchi, lasagna, and carbonara which tasted ok but not authentically Italian.

That is not the worst part. Halfway through the meal we read some reviews noting that the place hassles American tourists for tips. At the end of our meal, the bill was brought and all was charged correctly. After I put my card down, a man completely different from our waiter came to collect. At this point, he asks for a tip noting they do not have a service charge. He asks if we want to tip €5, 6, 7, or 8 plus euros for our meal. At this point I asked where this request is listed on the receipt or their menu to which he replied “Americans tip in America so you need to do the same here”. I requested not to tip and stated we have not been required to tip at any other restaurant in Italy. This proceeded to escalate to an argument where this man raised his voice and became extremely aggressive towards myself and my other female friends. The entire restaurant was watching. This man then proceeds to take the card machine and TYPE IN €3 AND PRESS PROCEED against my wishes. I then refused to sign and he became more aggressive. After 5 minutes of argument he threw the card machine down on the table and collected €3 cash from the till to return the money he illegally collected from my credit card.

DO NOT GO HERE. You will be scammed and the food is not even close to...