Ristorante Trattoria Da Marcella — Restaurant in Rome

First off, this is probably only my second ever poor restaurant review. Usually I don't waste my breath I only post good reviews and recommendations. However, I would hate for anyone to experience what I just did. While two of the dishes were beautiful (my compliments to the poor chef who was dragged out of the kitchen at the servers demand to create a scene) unfortunately, Manuel our server, provided me with the worst restaurant experience of my life. Ive been touring Italy, Spain, Greece and France for the last month on a well earned sabbatical and I have never been screamed at by a server in front of a restaurant full of tourists EVER. Most were disgusted and some even walked out. My daughter and I hadn't finished our meals when I queried if I'd received the correct dish (I ordered what was called focaccia but came as a pizza crust, with prosciutto) and he began screaming and telling me I should have more respect for the chef. Previous to that Manuel responded with annoyance when we had requested Parmesan to go with the pasta dish and had slammed it down on the table. After quite the scene made by Manuel the bully, my 13 year old daughter and I left very shaken, having not finished our meals, and with what had been a lovely morning touring the Vatican, the Chapel and St. Peters now spoiled.

Around $60 for one water, 1 white wine, caprese salad, rigatoni pasta and a 'focaccia' all...

Seeing lots of bad reviews for this place and wanted to give my opinion. We were there in June, 2022 with a group of 8 (4 adults, 4 kids under the age of 10). We were approached outside of Vatican City by a guy with a flyer who told us they were the oldest restaurant near the Vatican (I don't think that's true) and they had air conditioning. We were hungry and hot, so we followed. Upon arrival they kept us outside for a few minutes to get a table put together. There were only 2 employees working the front of house and it was busy for lunch, so service took a little while. We ordered appetizers (suppli, stuffed olives, and a caprese salad) and main courses (seafood pasta, lasagna, ravioli, fettucini alfredo, carbonara and a few pizzas). Aside from my son, who is a picky eater, everyone loved their meals. The food was hot and fresh and authentically Italian. Prices were reasonable for what we ordered (for our family of 4 it was around 60 euros for 4 meals, 2 appetizers and a few bottles of water). Overall opinion: great food, reasonable prices, slightly...

I wish there was an option of giving 0 Stars. I am forced to write this review, just 5 minutes after I left the restaurant. The guy who called us in was a decent guy, but things started going south when the bald guy came into the picture. Despite no mention of €2 Service charge anywhere, he charged us €2 per person, ie, €6! Food was nowhere as good as other places, with the Bruschetta being as horrible as can be, pasta being dry, and the pizza nowhere as good as the Rome standard.

The worst part was yet to come when the bald guy gave us less change and absolutely didn't accept his mistake. We soon realized it was a tourist trap, and he wanted to make quick money. This is definitely one of the tourist traps, and I would strongly suggest people to ABSOLUTELY AVOID THIS PLACE AT ALL COSTS. A sour experience overall, and one that was so bad that I had to...