Settimio All'Arancio — Restaurant in Rome

This has been the most shocking restaurant experience of my life. Would not recommend this place to anyone visiting Rome for their terrible service + hospitality. We came to try their seafood and ordered oysters -- they were fishy and one had a sharp piece of shell in it. One of us swallowed it and it got stuck in their throat. For the next hour, they were in and out the bathroom coughing up blood, vomiting, and force eating bread to try to get rid of the shell while being in extreme pain. The waiter explained that it was probably mother of pearl that accidentally got inside when the chef cut open the oyster, and recommended going to the hospital. We didn't finish our food because we were shocked and they gave us the bill. We asked to not pay for the oysters as we thought that would be the bare minimum the restaurant could do to compensate for this situation, but they refused. The translator, who was understanding but lacked power in the situation, went back and forth with the manager and waiter who were both extremely rude to us, rolling their eyes whenever we spoke. They refused for hours, ignoring us for chunks of times, so we essentially were there for 4 hours. After back and forth they compensated us for the oysters but the manager told the translator she wanted us to know that we were "pathetic" and "not welcome back again". The three of us were on the verge of tears from the rudeness of the manager and lack of empathy -- the waiter tried to force us to pay the full amount, snapped at us, and slammed the door as we left. It wasn't about the bill, but rather care for customer's well being and health which this restaurant clearly lacks. They didn't understand why we were upset and were dismissive, saying one swallowing the shell was not their responsibility. I don't know if it's because we were young and tourists that the restaurant didn't take us seriously, but this was absolutely unacceptable. The safety of a customer was on the line, and all they could care about was the money, fighting for their lives not to give us a discount. Never have I felt more disgusted and disappointed by an...

Be cautious if you're a tourist. While the place is bustling with locals (which is usually a promising sign), we left feeling as though we had been overcharged. The service was good (hence the 2 star). However, the gnocchi was listed at €14 on the menu but we were charged €18. Additionally, they charge €4 for bread.

We made the mistake of ordering the white truffle pasta, which wasn’t on the menu. Unfortunately, we neither asked for the price nor were we informed about it. The dish turned out to cost €70. Please note that this dish (among others) were offered as a daily special (it wasn’t a special request of ours). While this might well be the actual price (though we haven’t seen it that high anywhere else), it would be good practice to disclose such a steep price, especially when most menu items are between €10 and €30 and the place is not fancy at all.

We chose not to complain as we felt it was partly our fault for not enquiring beforehand. The food was average, and the €70 pasta certainly wasn’t worth it. I would recommend avoiding this place if you're not a local—unless you're prepared to scrutinise your bill...

The quality of ingredients was there, nice presentation. The waiter that was going to sit us went to say hello to people at a table and forgot about us! I took it as a great sign that this was not a tourist trap. Saw many locals greeting the waiters, a sign of consistency. All of our dishes were great, including the best french fries we’ve had in Europe. Lobster pasta was great, the costolleta, tagliatele, all great, octopus and orange fish on point. The fried calamari with fried fish appetizer was a good surprise, the pumpkin flower was fresh and not greasy. The only dish that surprised me was the amatriciana, the pasta was way undercooked (and we like our pasta al dente) to hard and then the sauce was not fresh pomodoro but more like a paste with a lot of the guanciale fat, like one concentrated paste of tomato paste and guanciale fat. The taste was just bitter. We let them know, but nothing was done about it. Maybe they think we can’t tell the difference. I had the steak and it was tender and a balanced wine sauce. Deserts were great too, tiramisu and the apple...