Echoes Bruschetteria — Restaurant in San Gimignano

I didn't intend to write a review—because of the recent negative reviews—but seeing how an awfully suspicious five-star rating popped up, I just had to share my experience. Something has CLEARLY gone wrong in the last few days because this restaurant is no longer what its reviews and images indicate. I had dinner here and ordered a panini; it was bland, with the biggest loaves I have ever seen. The loaves were untoasted, dry, and had a maximum of three drops of olive oil. The Parma ham was extremely thick—NOT TRADITIONAL—making it impossible to eat. The ends of the tomatoes were used, making for an extremely unappealing and overall bland meal. It's like the current owner/chef doesn't know what seasoning is. I can't speak for the bruschettas (only served in the morning), but I assume they share a similar story, as also indicated by a recent review.

I don't want to bash the restaurant, but this "food" is barely fit for human consumption. I urge the owner to take a look inward and realize the glaring issues with this restaurant. The service was okay—he had a hard time speaking and understanding English—and the atmosphere was calming, though the walkway by the restaurant was quite narrow.

The recent five-star review contradicts all my points, which is why I am almost certain it is propaganda by the owner. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but the points in that review are EXACTLY what he told us when we asked him about our meal at the restaurant.

For now, I do not recommend going here to eat, especially...

Please give yourself a real treat and go to this place, seriously!

The bruschetta's are huge so the price of about 6-10 euro is very justified (about the size of two thirds of a foccatia bread and waaaay better than the touristy sandwhich sellers). The place is run by a highly positive and enthusiastic man that likes Pink Floyd very much. The restaurant is small, cosy and has a romantic peakthrough to a lovely Tuscane landscape.

In short, definitely a go to in San Gimignano, I would dearly recommend it to everyone going here. As for lunch it is perfect, for a large dinner it may be not enough (when accounting for the american standard ;-)).

Ps. Take the Truffel bruschetta at the end of the menu... I...

Unfortunately the day we were there there was a problem due to which they didn't sell the Bruschetta. We got instead an appetizer plate with salami and ham, both were displayed rather loveless. The bread was quite hard. As a main course we got Tortelli filled with spinach and cream cheese and topped with sage butter and sage leaves (quite big pieces). The portion size was rather small and the sage pieces made it quite hard to eat. The Pici with wild boar ragù were good, a few of the single strands were still hard though. The server (who probably is also the owner) was a bit intrusive and didn't really try to warm up...