Pauline Borghese Restaurant — Restaurant in Rome

I really don't recommend this restaurant. We are fond of restaurants and this was the worst we had during our stay in Rome (and the most expensive one!).

We had chosen this restaurant because we wanted a special place for the birthday of my mother. So we thought that a luxury hotel might offer a great experience for her. But: NO.

The service was really really bad. We are accustomed to hotel school trained staff, so we know the "etiquette" and what is required from the waiters. Waiters are supposed to make your experience better than it would be without them, to make the evening unforgettable. Here they made it worse. They were not able at all to see when was the appropriate moment to come: so they always came at intimate moments interrupting precious emotional moments, they came a lot for nothing during some parts of the evening and did not come at all when we actually needed them. They were really invasive and not helpful or agreeable.

On top of that, they brought the starter to my mother (she was the only one having a starter) at the same time as the main dishes for us (which is a total nonsense. Nowhere have I seen something like that!) despite me having explained that we wanted the starter before and the main dishes afterwards. I was really furious about that. They also cleared the table all the time, which is very not polite. Have they never learned that everybody should have finished his plate at the table before clearing the table? I have never seen that in a restaurant of those standards, really not. Well, they were also stressed, not bringing positive emotions. We ended up being stressed for being interrupted all the time for nothing and for fearing other mistakes on their part.

Concerning the kitchen: it was tasty, but clearly not the best experience we had during our stay. I would recommend to go to another italian restaurant to have a real taste of the wonderful italian kitchen. Here, there is nothing special, really.

At the end of the meal, my sister decided not to tip, because the waiters had ruined our evening and were well below the standards we had expected, which was true. But they did not assume their bad work and decided to not say goodbye, which is really disrespectful and not classy at all.

If you expect 5 stars standards, do not go there. The staff is really not well trained and far from being classy in their attitude.

I was really sorry for my mother that we brought her there. Do not make the same mistake as us.

N.B.: I usually only write reviews when we are satisfied, but here I had to say that we were not satisfied at all to spare you, customers, a bad evening and a big disappointment. We had a lot of evenings in high standards restaurants, so we are able to recognise that is was not...

Let's begin that everything we ordered was fresh and tasty. The waiters also were very polite and generally friendly.

Why 1 star: I hate places that charge mandatory service fees. If it's part of your service, include it in the price, don't charge separately. If those are tips, let me decide do I want to leave them or not.

Situation: I ordered Coke as my drink. They didn’t bring me coke with my order, they charged me for it, when I highlighted to them that I had paid for the item they failed to bring me, they suggested me to take coke with me when we were leaving. Not the service I expect from a restaurant in a five-star hotel, and with that is charging me extra for their “service”. So despite the good kitchen and nice waiters experience was bad, and that is...

Probably the best dinner we've ever had! We celebrated a couple anniversary in May. Very suprised by the amazing quality, freshness and textures of the food. The ambiance is like from fairytale - exterior and interior. We combined both. The service was impeccable - always present but not too intrusive. We had very nice, cozy talks, guys were just super polite and friendly, class. The Chef even proposed us wine for dessert and some suprise as a second dessert. After eating at NUMEROUS Michelin star restaurants, I must say this experience overcame them all not only relatively for the affordability but overally. Grazie...