Ristorante Pizzeria Castello — Restaurant in Rome

I had high expectations when I saw 13,400 reviews online with a 4.7-star rating. I expected the food and service to be outstanding, but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

There was a new server who was still learning. You could see how hard he tried, but he got yelled at the whole time in front of all the guests. It was sad to witness and created an uncomfortable atmosphere.

I enjoy a good red wine with my dinner, but they only offered one option by the glass, which didn’t taste as described. After half a glass, I started experiencing a headache from the wine itself. I decided to order a half bottle instead, but when I asked for details about the wine, no one could provide any information.

We started with the “cheese and meat platter,” which was a generous portion. However, while we were still enjoying it, the server began pointing out what was left on the plate. I thought this was unnecessary since we could clearly see it ourselves. Then, just 10 seconds later, our pizzas arrived. I understand if they were trying to avoid delays for slower eaters, but my partner and I are quick eaters, and it still felt rushed. This made the experience less enjoyable.

For our main course, we chose two of our favorite pizzas that usually never disappoint. The mushroom pizza was good, but the other one fell short. We ended up removing the toppings and eating it as a plain margherita.

I would recommend ordering the seafood pasta, as it seemed to be a popular choice among the majority of guests. Maybe I should have done the same? It might have made for a better experience?

Overall, I’m sad to say that this restaurant, which I had such high hopes for based on the reviews, turned out to be the most disappointing dining experience I’ve had in...

We sat down at the table and immediately realized this was going to be a disaster. The waiter didn’t speak Italian or English properly, and instead of taking our order in a clear way, he just started listing things, asking if we wanted them. While we were still thinking, he would already add them to the order, and only after that he would say it meant we had to pay for them. Totally misleading and dishonest.

Then came the so-called “tagliere” for €20. What a joke. It was literally six slices of cold cuts and a couple of sad pieces of cheese. They even claimed it included buffalo mozzarella, but what they brought was half of a frozen mozzarella, badly defrosted and thrown on the plate without any care. On top of that, some of the cured meats were spoiled – the smell was unbearable.

When we pointed this out, instead of apologizing, the staff rudely told us that since we had “already eaten everything” we couldn’t complain anymore. Completely false – we hadn’t touched most of it because it was disgusting. I even said I was willing to pay the full price, it wasn’t about the money, it was about the fact that the food was literally bad and inedible. The waiter, instead of showing the slightest professionalism, got angry, pushed the plate away, and started raising his voice at us.

At that point, we told them we were leaving. He acted even more unpleasant and aggressive, and the only “favor” he did us was charging only for the drinks (which we didn’t even finish because we just wanted to leave).

This place is a complete scam: rude service, spoiled food, dishonest practices, and zero respect for customers. Absolutely to be avoided...

Never thought we’d ever be scammed by Google reviews, but we did, at this spot. If you are reading this, please heed my advice: DO NOT COME HERE. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. I’m not sure how it got 4.7 stars, with more than 14k reviews (I suspect they are mostly fake, and Google needs to do better) but there is absolutely no way the food here deserves even 1 star. Also, crew had no real Italians. Before sitting down, they promised that the food are all home-made, which ended up being blatant lies. The restaurant was also empty! How do you garner 14k reviews when there are no customers?!

After they took our meal orders, they quickly served bread. IT WAS HARD, LIKE STALE CARDBOARD. We’re in Italy, how can we ever ever be served stiff, hard, bread?! If it was home-made fresh bread, how can it be ROCK-LIKE. If you claim to be an authentic Italian restaurant, how can you ever think this is okay? This is such a joke. This was the moment we realised that we have been lied to, and misled by the reviews, but obviously, it was too late to leave. 🙃

We ordered a pizza which tasted like frozen box pizza - the tomato sauce was dried up and clung to the dough, clearly it isn’t fresh tomato sauce. We ordered another risotto which was just sorely lacking in flavour. To have wasted calories on all this junk on the first day of our honeymoon, I am deeply overwhelmed with disappointment.

They offered free limoncello after our meal, but no way am I consuming alcohol from this establishment.

PLEASE. DO....