Pizzeria San Marco - Ristorante Via Tacito — Restaurant in Rome

Possibly the worst dining experience of my 48 years. Don't go if you're not a white, cis and Italian. After an amazing weekend in Rome and some of the best food of my life, my partner and I decided to visit San Marco on a Sunday evening. We were quickly shown to a table and from that point the evening got really weird. We watched as folks got served around us, and it became apparent that we were being treated very differently: we were being not just ignored, but made fun of. After 40 minutes we had our drinks delivered and from that point onwards we were ignored again by the wait staff. When we eventually made an order, it took another hour to arrive and when it did it was appalling: Caprese salad that consisted of some tomato and mozzarella, but absolutely nothing else - no oil, no balsamic vinegar, nothing. A side dish for the main meal was delivered with the starter for no apparent reason other than to make sure it was cold when our mains arrived. We were unable to find any waiter willing to even look at us, let alone talk to us. It took another hour for the mains to arrive, which came with absolutely nothing - a steak delivered on top of the dirty plates from the starters with absolutely nothing else on the plate bar the meat - no veg, salad or anything else. As we waited we saw every other table arrive, be served and leave as we sat there being ignored. The pointed lack of service to only our table and the food arriving seemed to be a practical joke to see how far they could humiliate us. If you're a gay couple, I would strongly suggest eating elsewhere, this felt like rampant homophobia. Manger and staff completely uninterested in feedback and were actually laughing at us as we paid and left. For any readers of this review I would suggest reading some of the less positive reviews which all mention the same appalling service and...

We made a reservation, but I don’t think it’s needed here.

The food was okay, prices were okay. We had the spaghetti bolognese and gnocchi. Spaghetti had more flavour than the gnocchi. I don’t think that the sauce on the gnocchi was homemade. Cheapest bottle of wine is €12 (could not find that one on the winecart, so ask for it). We had panna cotta for dessert.

I would give 4 stars for the price/quality of the food and the location and looks of the restaurant, but......

The hospitality and service needs improvement. For example; our table was not ready, but they seated us there anyway. To make the table ready, the service was in stages; At first we got the cutlery and the cutlery was thrown over the table(!!!). 3-5 minutes later we got the water glasses, 3-5 minutes later the wine glasses. And so on and on... and it was not getting better if we wanted to order the food.. the waiters are rushed. Tables around us were not cleaned after guests were gone..

To give a hint for the restaurant; Make the table ready, before seating other people. It’s really a 2min work. Clean the table after guests are leaving, not 30 minutes later. You need more waiters in the restaurant, to give...

Came here for pizza, right after taking this picture found a male hair on it. The waiter took the pizza away without a word and I didn’t have enough time to wait for another pizza to be served, so the 2 of us had to share 1 pizza.

Worse thing is still yet to come: I was quite upset but still chose to tip the waiter, so I gave him a banknote (from which he’s supposed to charge the meal and bring the changes back) and added some additional coin as his tip. He instead kept all the changes. I was not ok with it and asked him for the change of the banknote (not his tip!), he got SO offended and said that the tip was too little. I offered even more, but he threw all the coins on the table and pushed them towards me.

I know it’s just a matter of a couple of euros, but since when it is an obligation to tip when you are unhappy with the service and still hungry? Since when can you be picky about the amount of tipping and throw them on my table? Also not a single ‘sorry’ during the whole thing. In my whole life living and traveling in Europe, I’ve never encountered sth like this....