Trattoria da Sasà - Cucina di mare — Restaurant in Salerno

As I write this review I know 100% that the restaurant will deny any criticism as they did last night. This was our 4th time to visit this restaurant, twice last year and twice this year. The first time we received a warm welcome. As a vegetarian I was offered pasta with various sauces and their signature side dish of courgettes in mint which was so fantastic I had several plates of it. My husband had fish with a crunchy potato coating and we loved everything and took the time to give a 5 star review . Bizarrely when we dined here last week there were several Baccalà dishes on the scan only menu which were absent last night and no crunchy fish because they only do it when orata is available ( I asked). The following evening my husband had a fabulous orata cooked in the oven in a different restaurant. Las t night I was offered pasta with tomatoes or scamorza cheese. I think anyone reading this will allow that it doesn't sound like anything one would pay a restaurant for as I could make either at home if I did not really want to bother cooking anything much. There were no zucchini. I had a side dish of sliced aubergines, very ordinary, a plate of oversalted lettuce and the cheese. What I want to stress however was not the food but the service. NOT ONE PERSON EVEN SMILED at us or GREETED us but just asked the name and when we chose one of the many free tables ( it was early) we were told in English by the waiter " not that one, that one" as he pointed rather than accompanied us to our table. Later I noted other guests arriving without reservations being directed to various tables so they were not all reserved . No need for his orders to us. Then the waitress made me feel so stupid as she rolled her eyes and sighed when I struggled to find something to eat (yes, the guests at the next table saw it too) I lived in italy for 2 years and will admit that when nervous my Italian can be rusty. Usually polite staff try to help and I have NEVER failed to be understood before. The Italians at the table next to us sympathised with me and they had no problem understanding me. Perhaps a little patience was needed. And yes the blond waiter can speak English but after his cold attitude on our arrival I did not feel he would be too helpful nor had I any desire to interact with him again. The waitress came to ask how was everything and I told her that the restaurant website should not say "vegetarian options" if it obviously finds us so annoying. She denied this and said her partner is vegetarian. All the more reason to provide something nice for vegetarians and be more understanding. I know it is primarily a fish restaurant but I have dined in plenty of them including here in Salerno where the chef has offered to make something for me using the abdundance of ingredients available for other dishes e.g. the fagioli that were in my husband's fish dish last Friday. The place was thronged with Italians apart from 2 other tables and there was a queue outside so I am under no illusion that they will care about my review. In conclusion, this is our 6th visit to Salerno and there are many places including restaurants where we receive a warm welcome. This is definitely not one of them. We even broke with a lifelong tradition of always tipping at least 10% and left feeling humiliated, used and angry. I thought that Covid-19 lockdown would make the hospitality industry appreciate all business that their customers provide be they Italian or " stranieri" but in this case, sadly not. I have recommended this place to several other "tourists" but last night was an eye opener....

Did Not Meet Expectations We had high hopes when visiting this restaurant in Italy, but unfortunately, it did not live up to our expectations at all. To begin with, there was no English menu available, and the waitress spoke very limited English, which made ordering quite difficult. We ordered one appetizer, which tasted quite bland and lacked any real flavor. For the main courses, we were equally disappointed. One dish was fish served with mashed potatoes and olives. The mashed potatoes were watery and unpleasant, and the fish tasted poorly seasoned and not fresh almost as if it had been sitting out too long. The second main dish was fried shrimp and cuttlefish. Sadly, this was also underwhelming. The shrimp were served with the shell still on, but since only the inside was edible, we didn’t understand why they were fried in the shell in the first place - it made the whole dish quite messy and unappetizing. Right at the beginning, we were asked if we wanted still or sparkling water. We later realized this came at an additional charge, which we weren’t clearly informed about. On top of that, we were surprised to see an extra fee added to the bill for each dish. When we asked what the charge was for, the staff simply said it was a “fee,” but couldn’t explain what exactly we were being charged for. This was confusing and felt dishonest, especially since it's not a consistent practice in all restaurants. Overall, the food was mediocre, the service unclear, and the additional hidden charges left a very bad impression. Unfortunately, we would not recommend...

We went here on recommendation from our BnB owner. Given the rave reviews, our expectations were not fully met. Pros: It’s evident the fish is really high quality and super fresh the grilled octopus and peppered mussels were really good. The price is very reasonable for the quality of seafood.

Cons: only online/QR code menu available, the English version of which was not updated. The online menu’s interface felt hard to read and is written unclearly. It also incorporates emojis in place of some words (i.e. “salad”) which seems mismatched given the restaurant’s vibe. compared to our other dining experiences in Salerno, the service here wasn’t as warm or accommodating as we had encountered previously. It wasn’t bad, but it felt like something was missing. We felt a little rushed ordering and our server didn’t know how to answer our questions about the wine list or certain menu items. -while we enjoyed our dinner, we didn’t think all of the dishes lived up to our expectations based on the reviews.

Overall, it was a good meal for price/quality but we enjoyed other dining experiences in...