Ristorante Cecilia Metella — Restaurant in Rome

The restaurant itself is in a secluded area that most likely is beautiful during summer, with grape wines on top of the outside seating area, a lot of greenery and even a pond with live turtles hence a star for atmosphere, however when we were seated we were given quite stained water & wine glasses and not polished cutlery as well. The main menu had crumbs&stains on it too, and the paper wine list had dry wine drops over it. The place only had a few tables in at the time so they definitely could've cleaned everything properly. The menu list was quite large which is already quite alarming for a restaurant as that means most food is not served fresh. We asked for recommendations and the waitress told us it was scrigno tagliolini with ham, Parmesan and cream (€16), that was chef's special that we are not able to get anywhere else. I decided to go for it and it ended up being the worst dish in our group. It was served in a ceramic plate covered in cheese with grilled top, underneath with overcooked pasta drenched in oily mediocre cheese sauce with some tiny bits of ham. After bringing our food the waitress didn't ask how it was and just disappeared so I had to wait until everyone else was finished and she came back to clear the plates. Thankfully they took it off the bill. My friends were quite hungry so they ate what they ordered but it wasn't good either. We asked for tap water but were brought bottled water (€2.50 in the menu) but were charged €3 each and were given some excuse that price wasn't updated in the menu yet. Same with my friend's steak, it was listed as €22 in the menu we were given but they charged €24 and waitress showed us another menu with different price after we asked about the difference in the bill so watch out as you can be scammed over already overpriced food. 2 friends had salmon & avocado salad (€14) - plain salad leaves with a few tiny bits of smoked salmon, no dressing/sauce or seasoning whatsoever. One friend had steak and asked for medium but his meat was not just pink but red-raw in the middle.

Very disappointed in the food overall and they definitely should change both their kitchen and front of house staff.

One of my friends is a native Italian speaker so can't blame anything on them on the staff not...

I had very fond memories of this place, having had lunch with my parents here 35 years ago. They are both dead now and I went back to relive an old memory. What a mistake! The staff was overtly rude, walking by us several times without showing us to a table and ignoring me when I spoke to them (although many tables were empty). Finally upon being seated we sat for 20 minutes without being offered even a menu. Multiple attempts to flag down a waiter were ignored. I travel a great deal and I'm used to the casual attitude about service that you see in much of Italy, but this was way beyond that. I honestly think we were being overlooked because we were Americans. Friends of ours in Rome told us that the place had changed hands and has really gone downhill in recent years. I can't say anything about the food, because we left in disgust never even having seen a menu. This was far and away the worst experience in a two month trip through France, Italy,...

Be aware they will put a lump of stale bread with no butter on your table without ordering, and charge €8 for it! Otherwise Food is good, my companions ordered fish, I got a plate of mixed fried prawns and calamari. The fish was ONLY the fish, so no garniture (this is probably the normal way and only us dumb tourist who were surprised) but remember to get a side order if you want something other then just the main thing. The service was terrible, waiters were uninterested, and brought cola zero twice in a row both times being told we ordered normal coke. He did filet the fish for my friends, but took forever to give us a check in a nearly empty restaurant. But then we weren't in a hurry, and the place is fine with fruit trees and a small pond in the middle of their court yard with many bees buzzing around it (not bothering us at any point) and turtles sunbathing on rocks. Toilets were unusually good, lots of...