Tonnarello Calisto — Restaurant in Rome

My girlfriend and I had the worst experience during our trip to Rome, in this restaurant. The food was decent, although nothing special compared to the many other establishments in the Trastevere area. The service, however, was absolutely atrocious, even when considering the busy time of day we were there. The experience went downhill when a friend of the waiters was seated with his date next to our table. The couple was loud, flamboyant, and at times rather inappropriate in their behaviour. They spent the entire time playing loud videos on their phones and taking pictures that frankly encroached on our personal spaces. All of this was compounded by the fact that our waiters oftentimes came to talk loudly across our table with the couple, completely neglecting our pressense. We didn't hide our dissatisfaction with the situation but decided not to make any fuss about it. Instead, we asked for the bill, with the hopes of getting on with our day. This, however, prompted the gentleman at the other table to laugh at my girlfriends English and ridicule her. I dont think he expected us to understand Italian. And a young waiter who was standing near apparently found this amusing too. Once again, we decided to ignore them, and we asked the bill a second time. After 10 minutes, it seemed the waiters had forgotten about us, and we once again tried to ask for the bill. When another 5 minutes had passed, during which the waiters repeatedly came to chat with the couple at our side, we had simply had enough. We got a waiter to bring us to the cash register at payed right then and there, making damn sure not to leave a tip.

In all my years, I've never had such a horrible experience at a restaurant, which prompted this review. Our experience was no doubt affected by the couple seated next to us, but the staff of the restaurant acted very unprofessional and honestly disrespectfully towards us in conjunction with...

Our waiter purposely neglected us. Other tables that entered an hour after us received their entrees, ate, paid the bill, and left before we even got our entrees. These tables were larger parties than us as well.

The waiter provided a poor excuse saying the restaurant was busy and blamed it on the kitchen. Clearly, it was not the kitchen’s fault if people who arrived after us got the same food that we ordered an hour before. We asked the waiter where our food was and he kept saying it was coming soon, but I am pretty sure that he just put the order in an hour after we placed it.

This seemed very racist as we were one of the few Asian people at this restaurant and he would prioritize white people (despite the fact that we also spoke English). He would check in on these tables, but ignored ours. I would highly not recommend going here. This was a complete waste of time and wish we had never gone. Worst experience ever. Again, do...

We showed up hungover, dehydrated, and spiritually hollow. We left jubilant, loud, and ready to adopt a tomato. This place doesn’t serve food—it unleashes it. Plates hit the table like declarations of war, and every bite felt like being slapped awake by your nonna’s ghost.

Enter Hadi: part waiter, part local legend. The man moves like he’s orchestrating a symphony of chaos and carbs. No pad, no pen—just full eye contact and a memory so sharp I’m convinced he eats Sudoku for breakfast. He brought us a limoncello spritz that tasted like someone bottled sunshine and gave it a college education.

The carbonara was so good I forgot my own name. The amatriciana? Illegal in 12 countries and counting. Even the olives tasted like they’d been handpicked by someone holding a grudge.

This place doesn’t want to impress you—it wants to obliterate you with flavor and then cradle you as you cry.

5 stars. Take a friend. Take an...