Otello alla Concordia — Restaurant in Rome

Easily our worst experience in Italy. This place had a great rating so we walked by Tues afternoon to make a reservation for Thurs night at 7pm....we wanted the best rated place to be our final meal in Italy. Mistake. As soon as we arrived it was empty. We thought that was weird, but maybe they just opened. A lady seated us in the garden area. As soon as we're seated, we realize the garden area has a filthy tub of water with gnats & mosquitoes surrounding it. Bit by a mosquito on the ear. Not great, but still overlooking things in the hopes of a good experience. Waiter approaches with a vibe of, "I'd rather be doing anything else in the entire world". We chalk it up to the idea that maybe he's simply over English-speaking tourists. We're still hopeful for an amazing meal.

I'd like to stop here to say that every meal that we had in all of Italy, from Florence, Rome, Naples, Pompeii, or the Amalfi coast was the exact opposite of our experience at Otello. Either the waiter was fine & the service as well, or we met incredible people while getting exceptional service. (il Gabrielle, Dilla, Al 34, among others to name a few in the area)

We are given the menus, they are single pieces of paper in lopsided font with words misspelled. Ok, weird, but maybe they change the menu often and this is a convenient thing for them. We're given another sheet of paper w/ chef specials for the day. They know food in Italy, so we go with the Bruschetta that has grilled mortadella, portobello mushrooms, and a creme cheese of some sort. Regular apps were 7€, the special is 12€. When served, it is two slices of bread only, and the mushrooms were slimy & ice cold. I've never been served cold, slimy mushrooms on any dish in my entire life. The cream cheese is cold and....stringy? The entire thing was gross. We scraped off most of the cheese and ALL of the cold mushroom slime. We ate warm toast with a small piece of grilled meat on it. I ask the waiter if it is supposed to be this way, he says, "no, it must not have been warmed up when they took it from the refrigerator, sorry about this".....oh, you just told us that your special is not made fresh & your quality control is garbage. Great. Ok, now we are realizing that this isn't us imagining things are bad. It is definitely not going well.

Next up, wife orders the Otello spaghetti. It's named after the restaurant, it CAN'T be bad. (It wasn't -actually the only highlight of the entire experience. 7.5/10) I order pizza thinking I can't go wrong with pizza in Rome, regardless of how things had gone so far. Wrong. Warm bread arrives with ice cold tomatoes, cold, hard bufala cheese, cold prosciutto, and a drizzle of room temp pesto looking sauce. I took a single bite. The pizza crust was amazing, everything sitting on top of it was gross. I asked if it was supposed to be prepared that way and was told yes. Maybe it's just me?

I hand it back to the waiter, uneaten, and say I won't be eating this one but thank you anyways. No attempt to ask what the issue is, to offer to cook it differently, or to replace it. He just takes it & leaves. At this point, the final dinner of our incredible Italy journey is officially a disaster. I ask for a to-go box & the check. He tries 3 times to take the food & I have to repeatedly tell him to please leave it & simply bring me a box. There is no chance I'm letting that pasta leave my sight, sorry. He brings the bill, everything is on the bill. No discount, nothing removed, full price.

We begin to walk to the register inside the main restaurant across from the garden. I see him & ask him about the bill & let him know that it isn't ok. He says too bad, please pay up front, ciao. Nope, that doesn't work either. "Please allow me to speak with someone in charge to discuss our experience". He tells us no one there is in charge. Then, "1hr for boss to come". I tell him we'll wait. He suddenly changes & asks what we want. He re-rings the bill w/o the pizza. We pay & leave. Thin, sandy hair, blue eyes, deep...

When we first went in, we were “greeted” (more like blocked) by a young male waiter trying to seat us really near to a corridor, which we preferred not to since it might be busy. Politely pointing into the further section of the restaurant and asking whether we could be moved inside, the waiter stared impertinently into my eyes and raised his voice: “This is inside!”

There was no reason for him to raise his voice at all. The restaurant was not busy, there were plenty of space in the restaurant and yet he decided to yell at customers who politely asked to sit somewhere else.

This rude behaviour was only worsened by the fact that the food was the WORST we had in Italy.

We ordered the daily special Spaghetti with shrimps, zucchini flowers and yellow tomatoes, some other pasta and some lamb chops. The food was VERY underwhelming, and definitely not worth the 4+ stars the restaurant is currently beating at the moment of writing.

The restaurant was very noisy when we were dining too, with tables set too near to each other. Only plus point is that the air conditioner was strong enough.

Impolite waiter and meh food are just a recipe for a bad dining experience. Would not recommend to anyone, unless such impertinent behaviour can be changed, which seemed unlikely since during the 45 minutes or so we dined in the restaurant, the young male waiter did not show any signs of regret or...

I am not sure what to make of this restaurant. I went there on consecutive nights and the experiences were vastly different. The first night, the service and the food were awesome. Everybody LOVED their dishes. Waitress was superb and one of the owners came by to check on us and we told her how much we enjoyed her establishment. That visit rated 5 stars. The next evening we returned but the owner was not there. We had to wait at least 10-15 minutes before a wait person came for our order. We waited for our food another 15 minutes and when it arrived the food did not taste the same as the evening before. Bread was stale and service was slow. The person in charge just did not look interested in doing his job and the experience was quite negative.

As I stated above I am not sure what to make of this place. It comes highly recommended from our Roman friends, so I am giving them the benefit of the doubt by awarding them 4 stars, because the second night’s experience merited only 1-star.

To the owner(s), I beg you to be there all the time because when you are your food is terrific, service outstanding and the atmosphere fun and energetic. You restaurant is not the same...