Ristorante Santa Cristina al Quirinale — Restaurant in Rome

LIFE-THREATENING ALLERGIC REACTION DISMISSED BY STAFF

On October 4th, my boyfriend, his father, and I dined at Santa Cristina, and it turned into a nightmare. My boyfriend has a severe, life-threatening egg allergy (anaphylaxis), and while traveling through Europe, we’ve found that restaurants generally take allergies very seriously, with clear allergen labeling. Even so, my boyfriend always takes the extra step of notifying staff and confirming his dishes are safe. This is standard for us and shouldn’t be difficult for any competent restaurant to handle.

At this restaurant, after informing the staff about his allergy and receiving confirmation, my boyfriend ate the Beef Wellington and antipasto platter. However, during a short walk back to our accommodation, he collapsed in the street from a severe allergic reaction. He was rushed to the hospital and stayed there late into the night. The hospital confirmed that his reaction was caused by something he ate—meaning it had to be from this restaurant, as he hadn’t eaten anything else for over seven hours.

The next day, we returned to the restaurant to find out what went wrong. When we asked the waitstaff whether there was egg in the dishes he ate, one of the servers (the female server) immediately confirmed that the Beef Wellington contained egg. The other waiter—who then dominated the conversation—flatly denied it. What followed was nothing short of appalling. This male staff member was rude, dismissive, and shockingly indifferent to the fact that a person almost died because of their negligence.

Despite our clear distress, he barely acknowledged the severity of the situation. We asked him to check with the kitchen about the ingredients—something any responsible restaurant would do immediately—but he acted as though it was an inconvenience. When we requested to speak to the chef, we were again denied. To make matters worse, he had the audacity to suggest that we should’ve come back right after the meal if we wanted him to take the issue seriously. Let me make this clear: we didn’t come back right away because my boyfriend was unconscious in the street and being rushed to the hospital for a life-threatening reaction.

The callousness and arrogance of this staff member were beyond belief. When someone nearly dies because of a restaurant’s incompetence, the absolute minimum expectation is that they treat it with the gravity it deserves. Instead, we were met with condescension and a complete lack of accountability.

If you value your health and safety—especially if you have any dietary restrictions—do not eat here. This restaurant has demonstrated not only a failure to manage food allergies but also an appalling disregard for human life. I wouldn’t trust them with something as basic as serving a safe meal, and...

We came here after reading the numerous 5 star reviews expecting quite a lot but left slightly disappointed. Location is gorgeous and food was fine but there was several things that soured our experience. First off, the menu is on the limited end and features several rather "passive-aggressive" notes on most pages such as "we don't serve tap water or cappuccinos". There is nothing inherently wrong with that but putting them in bold everywhere just makes you feel like you've been told off before you've even ordered anything. None of the meat dishes come with any sides included, even though the price tag would suggest otherwise and the menu is not entirely clear on it either. Asking the waiter about this was answered in a quite cold manner as well. Speaking of service, for a place that prides itself on providing an "experience", our waiter was quite brusk, didn't really do anything beyond the bare minimum and to add insult to injury, food came after almost 40 min after ordering even though we were one of few tables eating food that evening.

Another thing that's a bit odd is the fact that they only accept debit or credit card payments above 100€. Thankfully we spotted another review mentioning this in advance and brought some cash. In today's day and age this is completely unacceptable and makes you feel suspicious of why exactly that is even a policy of the restaurant. The waiter also gave absolutely no warning regarding this at any point during our visit, which would have been helpful given it's such an unusual policy to have.

When it comes to the dishes, portions were definitely on the smaller end and it tasted ok. We didn't get "the experience". There are better places in Rome where you can eat better...

Absolutely fantastic little family owned restaurant. Located on a little back street and only found as we were looking for restaurants located near to our hotel. Antipasto and caprese for starters followed by carbonara and swordfish pasta. All of our dishes were beautifully presented and the flavours were outstanding. This was then followed by homemade tiramisu and marmalade tart. The tiramisu was to die for and you’ve got to try the tart to really appreciate it. Words cannot describe how good our meal was here. It is a proper family run restaurant with the food clearly being cooked with love and passion.

We returned to this restaurant on our last night in Rome and were greeted with smiles from both the lady and gent in front of house. Clearly returning guests are the greatest compliment and the evening lived up to expectations again. Starters this time consisted of the caprese and beef tartare. The beef tartare was a generous portion and very good quality. The pasta dishes this time were ordered ‘for the table’ so we could try a few dishes. The swordfish pasta was ordered again along with the gruyére lasagna and the amatriciana pasta with all 3 dishes cooked beautifully again. We finished again with the homemade tiramisu and the daily special blueberry tart. Gorgeous.

We honestly cannot recommend this place highly enough. It is a genuine family owned restaurant. When you arrive and see tables full of ‘locals’ you know you’re in for a treat. Thank you and if we ever return to Rome we will...