Rosso Eat Drink Stay — Restaurant in Rome

(italian review below)

Awful experience, do not recommend at all if you see a hostess greeting customers. I'm a local and have been here several other times when clients are greeted by a host instead, it's a much better experience. We were a small party initially with a couple of toddlers, we arrived for a pre-lunch drink that may have turned into a lunch for a larger group once everyone showed up. Greeted by a somewhat polite hostess, we thought, who shortly thereafter showed her true nature. We were seated by the entry, on a couch with a couple of chairs around a coffee table, between the cashier (her podium) and the waiter's menu station. Here the fun experience: One of the toddlers, my son, wanted an ice cream on a cone, they don't have cones, she says, so I advanced the idea of getting the kid a small one next door, at a gelateria. The conversation started as I expected, not customer friendly let's say. Ahhh ok, now I know your nature madam. "No can't do, you can't bring the (€3) ice cream from next door, due to... food regulations... she says... Ok, fine, no favors here, if it's regulations, since we Romans follow so closely all the time, then we'll eat it outside quickly, no problem. So I made my son happy and we did have the gelato outside. After a while she sends the waiter to let us back in as he was finishing it... I guess she felt bad. My son finished the gelato at the coffee table. Everyone is happy, thank you for the kind gesture. We then order a couple of Aperol Spritz's. Unfortunately my son kicks the coffe table by mistake, one of the drinks falls to the ground, glass everywhere. I apologized of course and you could see she was not happy. Instead of making me feel better (but mostly my son feel better as he was crying from the fright he got), as these things can happen, she abruptly shot off instructions to her team, shooting off unhappy looks everywhere. No kindness or understanding from her expression at all. She did give instructions to replace the drink to be fair. Thank you again! We ordered a burger for the other toddler and more cocktails and then, the unthinkable happens... One of the waiter's kicks the coffe table closest to the menu station where i had placed the drinks away from the kids and voila', another Aperol Spritz goes flying... and here the fun begins. This person, this client caretaker, who's supposed to be the face of this establishment, snaps at me saying she even put another coffee table on the side to avoid this, and keeps going off to reprimand me because of what just happened. I was baffled, quite shocked to say the least because I couldn't believe of how she was addressing me, a paying customer, someone she should be trained to be respectful to most of the time i would hope, plus for something that was not even my fault.

As good Romans, we exchanged our views, the drink was not replaced this time, but i was over it anyway. I paid the €50 I owed and we left. We met our friends outside and happily spent over €300 at the place next door, Numa and had a great time.

Strongly recommend to stay away from Rosso if she's in charge that day. It's a pity because the staff is amazing, as are the drinks and food. A little pricey but for a good experience one doesn't mind the hefty bill. For a bad experience, I wouldn't want to spend one Euro here.

Italian review: Se c'è la "hostess"...

If you've lived in Rome long enough, you get used to the waiters having sanctimonious attitude, a bit of a hassled temperament. I don't mind it at all, in fact, that is part of the charm of the city!! But there is a fine line between patrician demeanor and absolutely disgusting snobbery.

I thought I'd be immune but the rudeness of the staff was absolutely shocking! I was having a drink with my friends and another friend came for a few minutes to say hi. She said she will leave in 5 minutes but the waiter came back to tell us that "We are extremely rude to occupy property from Rosso." He said something else in Italian which my Italian friends were too embarrassed to translate. We were occupying our space, there were other tables that were empty and it wasn't as if we were taking away any business opportunities. And all this for a friend saying hi for 5 minutes!!

Incredibly embarrassing and unexpected. I have never been treated this way before, at a restaurant of all places! Instead of creating a scene, we decided to take the high road. We quietly left our drinks, paid our bill and left the place.

It would be easy to avoid the place since it doesn't offer anything spectacular. I guess they'll continue making money off tourists but I really wish they would get off their high horse and treat...

We came here for lunch and got a small table outside. The place was very busy as it was business lunchtime, and the wait staff were stressed but still friendly and efficient. We had a caesar salad and a chicken poké, both very nice and pleasantly presented. The prices were okay for what we got, particularly considering where the place is-right opposite the UN building and close to the Circo Massimo. I feel like people complaining about prices forget that any restaurant has rent to pay. Also those complaining about rudeness: I don't want to assume anything, but if you don't speak Italian, don't expect that Italian wait staff speak perfect English. Sometimes, what they say may come across as rude in English but is perfectly polite and appropriate in Italian, or you may be misunderstanding something, simply because English is not their first language and they're not familiar with how direct translations of Italian phrases come across. Not here to lecture anyone, but on my Italy vacations I often see tourists who seem to be waiting to be offended instead of dealing with hiccups/misunderstandings etc with a bit of humour...