Cleto - La porta del Colosseo — Restaurant in Rome

In my entire stay of Italy, my friends and I still talk about this restaurant to this day. That's just how amazing the food was.

If people were to ask what restaurants I'd 100% recommend, it would be Cleto.

We stumbled upon Cleto trying to get something to eat. Actually, a lot of Italians try to convince you to eat at their restaurant and this one definitely convinced us. The owner kept saying, "food no good, no pay. Food no good, no pay." So we said why not.

He recommended the Penne ai 7 Peccati (7 sins penne) and we got the mussels.

When I say I can't stop thinking about this meal, I mean I tell people that this was possibly THE BEST meal I've had in Rome. And it's just minutes away from the colosseum. Just walking distance.

Mussels Let me just say, I couldn't stop saying how these were the BEST mussels I've had in my entire life. They were decent sized and they were sitting in this juice of whatever delicious concoction it was. The bread that sat on top soaked up the juice and man oh man it was out of this world. I think about it all the time.

Penne ai 7 Peccati (7 sins penne) Oooohhhweeeee there's so many hole in the wall places, and not many can compare to this dish that I had. The pasta was so good, it was the right amount of al dente you think you'd like, and the flavors were so good, even you being so full couldn't make you full. Just one more bite.

Peach Bellini Wow oh wow it couldn't get any better. From food to drinks, this was so good. If you like a good peach Bellini, I highly recommend!

Of all of the hole in the wall places, Cleto does not disappoint. Put this on your list of places to visit. You...

Probably the worst meal I have ever had at a restaurant. What a let down. Just don't bother going. Trust me.

Asked if we wanted water for the table and they charged us €3. It's literally free from fountains here. I've never known a restaurant to charge for table water. And if you do, warn customers.

Served me a tagliata di pollo which was LITERALLY just a plain oven cooked unseasoned chicken breast on a bed lettuce with a slice of lemon. It's actually laughable.

When I asked the server what it came with he said would you like roast potato's. I said ok assuming this was a dish because how can you reasonably anticipate they would actually just serve plain chicken and charge €13 for it? The potatoes were tasteless and burned just like the chicken and they charged me €5 for these, a tiny portion as well.

They also brought out my mums food 10 minutes before mine came out. Never known a restaurant to bring out food for 2 at different times. How disrespectful to let a customer just sit there for 10 minutes watching someone else eat their food.

A truly laughable experience. Worst restaurant I've ever been to.

On a plus, my mum enjoyed her pizza.

Honestly... save yourself an experience and just go elsewhere on...

We were really looking forward to having a nice meal here, but unfortunately, our experience was deeply disappointing. We waited about 30 minutes just to place our order. When we politely asked if we could order, a visibly upset waitress came over, raised her voice at us, and asked what we wanted.

We didn’t even get the chance to tell her our order — she immediately launched into a loud and rude lecture about how, in Italy, it’s normal to wait at least an hour for pasta. (We didn’t even get the chance to order pasta) It felt more like a confrontation than a conversation, and we were honestly shocked by how aggressive and rude she was. We felt so uncomfortable that we ended up leaving without ordering anything.

We weren’t the only ones — the table next to us, a group of six, had also been waiting for more than 30 minutes without being served, and they left too.

The behavior of the waitress was completely unacceptable: aggressive, unprofessional, and far beyond what you’d expect from any hospitality setting. It’s a shame, because the place itself looked promising, but the service made it...