Rimessa Roscioli — Restaurant in Rome

My overall review is that the food was bland and overpriced. The wait staff was incompetent. Do not eat at this restaurant.

Please read on for further details.

This was by far the worst meal of my trip to Italy. My wife and I spent a week in Italy split between Florence and Rome. While in Florence we were delighted by the wines and truffle menu. On our last night in Italy we wanted to experience a truffle pasta again and were excited by the menu at Rimessa Roscioli. I contacted the restaurant to ensure we would be seated and was given a 6:30 PM reservation.

When I arrived promptly at 6:30 PM, the restaurant could not find my reservation and it took a few minutes of conversation with other coworkers to work it out. Unfortunately, we were seated.

Bread and olive oil were promptly brought to the table. The focaccia was hard and dry with little flavor. The house bread was soft and also tasteless. The olive oil was not of great quality and so little of the bread and olive oil was eaten.

We sat there with our tasteless bread and disappointing olive oil for 30 minutes without anyone asking to take our order. I finally had to get the attention of wait staff (who were not busy). The waitress took our order, which was a la carte as we were not hungry enough for a course meal and we had been told that we needed to be completed with the meal by 8:00 as that is when the next reservation was. My wife and I each ordered a starter and a first course dish. We asked about the wine menu and were told that it was on the QR online menu at the bottom. The waitress said she would be back in 2 minutes to take the wine order.

Fast forward 15 minutes and we still had no wine ordered, but our starter dishes arrived. My wife had the beef tartar and I had the scallop tartar. Now, if the food had been amazing, I can be extremely forgiving of slow or even rude staff if the food is spectacular. The food wasn't even good. It was average. The beef tartar meat was tender and soft. The mustard used for the beef tarter had a nice taste and was not too hot. However, the meat was still in rather large chunks as opposed to a refined tartar. The scallop tartar tasted of raw scallops. I would expect as much with such a dish, but I also expect an accompanying flavor to carry the raw scallop. No such flavor was present. A plate of raw scallop. The sliver of good news...the wine finally arrived.

This whole experience was already disappointing. We are now 50 minutes into our meal after slowly eating our respective tartar. We sit patiently for another 20 minutes and have not been waited on in any shape or form. No questions of enjoyment or if another glass of wine was required. No second dish either. I finally asked where the food was as we have now been there for over an hour and have each eaten a single starter.

The waiter responds that it will be out immediately which translated to 5 minutes later. I was irritated but excited to once again enjoy the delicious flavors of a well prepared truffle pasta. However, this anticipation fell flat on its face when I had my first mouthful of bland tasteless pasta covered in dry truffle. I hoped my wife's sea urchin pasta was not more of the same. It wasn't. It tasted of ocean...and nothing else. The flavor was mild and fluttered away before the first breath after a swallow.

Please see pictures for documentation of the unfinished meal. This horrible meal and disgusting service cost me 80 euros. I love delicious food and I don't mind paying a premium for delicious food. This was the opposite.

Please avoid at all costs. By far the worst meal in Italy. Ranks in the bottom...

We discovered the back room at the Roscioli Cafe on our first trip to Rome in 2019, where we had the most amazing burratta with little olives and dried tomatoes, with a basket of delicious breads, a bottle of Barbaresco, and we ended up eating there multiple times on that trip. We ended up being friendly with the bartender who broke out her homemade Limoncello to share with us after our final meal prior to our trip home, at which point we bought the cookbook. In reading the cookbook, I learned about Rimessa Roscioli, visited the website, and found the cooking classes and wine tasting, and discovered it was literally right around the corner from the hotel we love to stay at. So when we finally could make it back to Rome, post-Covid, I booked the wine tasting dinner right away. Closer to our trip, I decided what days we could attend the cooking class, but the only day left available was the same day as our wine tasting dinner! I thought, "no problem" and booked it. The cooking class was so much fun! The chef, Francesco, was amazing! He was thoughtful, informative, patient, and WOW - we literally made the best tiramisu I have ever tasted. I loved the stories of his grandmother. We learned how to make three different pastas with three different sauces, and the tiramisu. The sommelier, who was Dutch, was GREAT! I learned so much from her, and we had wonderful wines paired with each course that we made. The couples who took the class with us were great, and it was just a really fun afternoon. When we arrived later that night for the wine tasting dinner, the chef and sommelier went out of their way to provide different wines than we had earlier in the day, with different food pairings as well - I can't believe Chef remembered, and it was a really nice, personal touch that made us feel special. I would highly recommend both (maybe not in the same day - we were so, so full!) options, as well as all of the outlets in the Roscioli family - we also went to the bakery and the deli and both were fabulous. Awesome part...

Review of Rimessa Roscioli – Rome Last night, we had a very disappointing experience at Rimessa Roscioli.

Let me start by saying that the food quality was very good, the ambiance was inviting, and both our server, Roberto, and the sommelier were outstanding. Normally, I only write positive reviews. If I have nothing good to say, I prefer to say nothing at all.

However, I feel compelled to share this experience to spare others a similar disappointment. When a restaurant offers good food, a pleasant setting, and kind employees, yet still manages to deliver a poor experience, the problem usually lies in leadership.

Here’s what happened: our daughter ordered the special of the day — a simple fettuccine with pecorino cheese. It took over 40 minutes to arrive and was brought out a full ten minutes after my wife and I had received our main dishes. By the time it finally came, we had both finished eating — and I am a very slow eater.

Our daughter, who has worked in restaurants and bars for several years, was in disbelief. Frustrated, she asked for her dish to be packed to go. Although the staff apologized for the delay, they still charged us for it. When the plate finally arrived, it looked like something that could have been prepared in five minutes. After we complained, they removed the charge — but also took the dish away.

I would not recommend anyone spend their precious time in Rome going through such an experience.

To the restaurant’s management, I offer a few suggestions: • Hire an additional cook. • If a dish will be delayed, make sure it’s not the special of the day. • If one plate is running late, delay all dishes so guests can eat together. • If you still can’t manage that, don’t charge for the delayed dish. • And above all, never take the food away after apologizing and removing the charge.

To avoid further annoyance, please don’t respond to this review with “We are sorry about your experience, but…” — just actively work on the...