Ristorante Il San Lorenzo "La Macelleria" — Restaurant in Santa Margherita Ligure

TOURIST TRAP!

DO NOT GO HERE! OTHER REVIEWS ARE FAKE/BOUGHT. READ OTHER REAL 1STAR REVIEWS BEFORE GOING HERE

We went to this place expecting it to be somewhat decent. It is a family-run place, and the daughter who is the one serving the customers was absolutely and utterly disrespectful. To begin with, she speaks perfect english, so the language barrier isn’t a problem. We ordered Aperol Spritz, and she repeated it — when we get the drinks, we find out that it is not Aperol Spritz, but a cheap rip-off that doesn’t taste anything alike. We ask her to kindly exchange it for something else, which she says “sorry only gin and tonic then”. We were about to leave the place, but then she says “okay, I can do you a favor and get you some white wine”. Ok. That’s fine — although, we find out that she charged us for both the rip-off aperol as well as the white wine. And not any white wine — of course the most expensive one on the menu. I know my wines, and we definetely did NOT get the white wine that we were charged for.

We then order some kind of pasta dish with clams as well as steaks. The steaks wasn’t steaks, but instead it was litterally shish kebab (super bad quality “meat” on wooden sticks). The pasta dish didn’t contain clams, and was litterally ONLY pasta with some white sauce (that did not include clams).

After making another complaint about the “clam pasta”, she says that we are lying and that it doesn’t state anywhere on the menu card that there’s clams in the dish. She REFUSED to get us a menu card, where I then had to find the menu card online to show her that I am, in fact, not lying.

She then exchanges it for a “lasagna”, which did not have any meat in it at all.

Super dissatisfied. Didn’t expect much from the place to begin with, but sadly there is not a single positive thing that can be said about this place.

The “mother” of the place was sitting right next to us chain-smoking cigarettes, giving us very weird looks and blowing the smoke over to us.

After the visit at this place, we went to Santa Margherita to get the best pizzas imaginable — which was way cheaper and way better.

The bill ended up at around 180€ for 4 people. For food and drinks not being as described or as pictures on other reviews — which is either fake or the restaurant has gotten new “leadership🤣” since the pictures had been taken.

To top it all off, the father of the place decided to park his car right behind our car, blocking any chance of leaving. Of course when asked to move his car, he had to smoke his not one, but two cigarettes before.

I can not express this enough… DO NOT GO HERE! Giant...

Perhaps best place to eat and enjoy for our last night in Camogli/Rapallo before having to leave heading back home north. Dad with 16 yo son. Most delicious food. Had as primo recommended (=aside menu) ravioli pine nut sauce with 1 portion - 2 plates without discussion. Still enough plus extraordinary taste expierience. For secondo we had to deal with misunderstanding but came out successfully together with staff devoted to service and client satisfaction always to be felt: after having ordered fiorentina steak 800 g and almost finished primo we were told sorry, ran out of beef and being offered a 500 g pieace of veal (brought it to us at table to show!). After a while of confusion about way of preparing it or if at all (please no suggested vitello tonnato, no simple cooking) we found together to kind of simulation of fiorentina with that veal chop piece which turned out absolutely fantastic and lower price/g than beef! (OK, different part) Also 2 dolce, home made tiramisu and panna cotta strawberry sauce is must be, were incredible. Waitress (family daughter?), as I already told always friendly, smiling and listening despite constantly running and communicating to everybody eventually seemed irritated about my tip (

Wie die Speisen sind, können wir leider nicht sagen, denn wir scheiterten schon an der "strengen" Türpolitik. Wir hatten uns erdreistet, zu zweit das Restaurant im Style eines Kleingarten-Vereinsheims ohne vorherige Reservierung zu betreten. Wir wurden schroff und unfreundlich abgewiesen, und obwohl gerade ein Tisch frei wurde, hatte das Personal offensichtlich kein Interesse, uns als Gäste zu bewirten. Aber Glück im Unglück - dadurch haben wir in Santa City tolle Restaurants mit italienischer Gastfreundschaft kennengelernt!

Sfortunatamente, non possiamo dire com'è il cibo, perché abbiamo fallito a causa della "rigorosa" politica della porta. Avevamo osato entrare nel ristorante nello stile di una club house di riparto senza previa prenotazione. Siamo stati allontanati bruscamente e sgarbatamente e sebbene un tavolo fosse appena stato aperto, il personale chiaramente non aveva alcun interesse a trattarci come ospiti. Ma fortuna nella sfortuna: abbiamo conosciuto ottimi ristoranti con ospitalità italiana a Santa City!

Replik zur Stellungnahme des Inhabers:

Vielen Dank für Ihre Stellungnahme. Wir freuen uns für Sie, dass Ihr Restaurant viel Zuspruch erfährt. Wir hätten uns aber nicht die Mühe gemacht, im Urlaub eine Rezension zu schreiben, wenn wir nicht über die Unfreundlichkeit und Arroganz Ihres Personals erschrocken gewesen wären. Wir sind auf Empfehlung hin extra zu Ihrem ja nicht gerade zentral gelegenen Restaurant gefahren. Wir waren keinesfalls renitent, sondern haben lediglich einmal höflich nach einem Tisch für 2 Personen gefragt. Daraufhin ausgelacht zu werden, hat uns stark irritiert. Auf unsere Frage, ob wir dann für einen der nächsten Abende reservieren können, erhielten wir nur noch knapp als Antwort, dass am folgenden Abend Ruhetag sei. Danach wurden wir wortlos stehen gelassen und ignoriert. Wir hoffen, dass diese Information Ihnen weiterhilft.

Grazie per il tuo commento. Siamo felici per te che il tuo ristorante sia molto popolare. Tuttavia, non ci saremmo presi la briga di scrivere una recensione mentre eravamo in vacanza se non fossimo rimasti sconvolti dalla maleducazione e dall'arroganza del vostro personale. Su raccomandazione, siamo andati al tuo ristorante, che non è esattamente in posizione centrale. Non eravamo affatto recalcitranti, ma solo una volta abbiamo gentilmente chiesto un tavolo per 2 persone. Di conseguenza, essere derisi ci ha davvero irritato. Quando abbiamo chiesto se potevamo prenotare per una delle serate successive, abbiamo ricevuto solo una breve risposta che la sera successiva era un giorno di riposo. Dopo di che siamo rimasti senza una parola e ignorati. Ci auguriamo che queste...