RISTORANTE STREGA — Restaurant in Rome

I doubt that anybody will read this review prior to dining in this restaurant as it seems to be a place that tourists visit on a walk-in basis, so this will make no difference whatsoever to it's custom (If you are unlucky, you are reading this having had a really bad experience). My wife and I did just that, walked in while on a trip to Rome. We shared a huge portion of courgette fritters consisting of thin strips of courgette deep fried in batter, the dish was mostly batter and quite oily and would have benefited from some type of condiment or even some lemon wedges to cut through the oil. I ordered a hamburger which was on a special of the day menu. It came with a large portion of fries which were cold and hard but were probably home made. The hamburger bun was hard but the real surprise was the hamburger itself which consisted of some kind of meat type substance processed to a consistently even paste which could be spread with a knife, it was topped with a luridly coloured slice of processed melted cheese. The "meat" may well have been delicious but the appearance was so disgusting I wasn't brave enough to taste it. As an enthusiastic cook I still cannot fathom what method the "chef" used to cook this substance, it may have been boiled or steamed although it had very slight grill bar marks on the surface. My wife had a type of salad bowl advertised as a tuna bowl, it consisted of pieces of what may have been tuna, deep fried to a crisp and resembling bacon, also included was red rice, a large amount of what appeared to be sesame seeds and some pieces of pepper. It was all drowned in a sweet processed teriyaki type sauce and was as inedible as the hamburger. I sent back the hamburger and was offered a replacement meal but the sight of what had been put in front of us had completely taken away my appetite. To the great credit of the management they would not take any payment for the meal but as we are not cranks we insisted on paying for the wine which was good. The young waitress who served us was pleasant and helpful. The food we were served in this restaurant was truly vile and the "chef" who prepared it genuinely does not know how to cook on even the most...

My experience at Strega was very disappointing to say the least. I had read reviews for this restaurant online on TripAdvisor that were very positive and was expecting a much better experience than I had. The table was dirty and had spilled foods all over it but the staff were still happy to sit us there for some reason. The table was also right next to a bunch of fairy lights that flickered frequently and in sitting there for a few minutes I could feel an oncoming headache, and I wasn't the only one in my party who felt like this. We tried to ask if we could get moved but there was literally no staff anywhere so we decided to move to another part of the restaurant's outside seating. It took way too long for us to get service, to the point at which I was asking if our party could leave and go find a better restaurant. We were ignored for a good 10 minutes despite the fact that we had already sat down in the restaurant itself and had had members of staff walk right by us. When we finally got service our waiter was surly but at least took our order. It took around 25 to 30 minutes for us to actually receive our order which had 3 main dishes and 2 drinks (which were brought to us in cans, no glasses included) and in the end my ravioli was terrible. It was oily, it made the ravioli slimey although the pasta itself was a little undercooked, only had 6 small pieces of actual ravioli, no vegetables with the icing on the cake being that when we tried to ask the waiter if we could get the dish sent back in exchange for a better one, he told us that that is how ravioli is made in Italy. Without an apology or even acknowledging anything was wrong, he walked off. So, in short, I would never ever recommend this restaurant to anyone as the food was expensive yet lacking in any quality or quantity and the service was...

Rare bad experience dining in Italy!

While I enjoyed my spaghetti with cherry tomatoes and basil, I found the service to be lacking and the wait to be unbearable. Several times I considered getting up and demanding my check so I could just leave while my wife and I waited for our dessert. Our drinks were empty our plates taken away and we just waited listlessly for over 30 minutes for our dessert to come..this was after waiting for our server to offer us dessert for about 10 minutes. I get that Italian dinner is meant to be enjoyed slowly but we sat with NOTHING on our table for 40 minutes!! Insane!

I didn't like my affogato, but maybe I was just annoyed at that point. It came with too much ice cream. Drowning out the taste of the espresso. Kind of surprising in Italy..but maybe that's normal. I thought it was a boring, over sweet post dinner mess. But maybe if it came 30 minutes sooner I'd have been more appreciative. After waiting for and eating our desserts, the bill came, it was not itemized with any pricing. No transparency as to how they arrived at their total. Total pet peeve of mine.

Just please go...