Osteria Nonna Gina — Restaurant in Siena

Our experience here was awful. I would give no stars but that doesn’t seem to be an option. On November 29th my husband and I arrived to Sienna for a 2-night stay. We read about this restaurant and decided to try it that night. We tried to contact the restaurant by phone but was unsuccessful. We walked to the restaurant around 6:00PM to see if by any chance we could speak to someone. There was no one there at the time so decided we would return at 7:30 when they open to enquire about a reservation for that evening or the next. At 7:20 we arrived and waited outside across the street until they opened. Around 5 minutes later two Italian ladies walked into the restaurant. We waited a minute or two and we entered. There was an older man speaking with the ladies. I looked around the restaurant and saw that some tables had reserved signs on them but there were several that did not. The man then showed the ladies to one of the unreserved tables. Then he came to speak to us. He had a very unfriendly attitude towards us immediately. We inquired about a table. He said NO in a hateful tone and then waved us to get out. One of the ladies he had seated witnessed this and she looked perplexed as why he would treat us this way. We own two restaurants and would never treat anyone coming to our restaurant like this. We also dine out frequently. We have never ever been treated in this manner. I have no idea why he treated us like that. We of course left immediately. I was quite shaken up by this and told my husband I just wanted to go back to our hotel. He said no we are going to dinner elsewhere. We then walked up to a Michelin restaurant named La Taverna di San Giuseppe. From the moment we walked in to the moment we walked out 2-3 hours later it was a fabulous experience. I wrote a Google review for our experience there if you care to read about it. It was fantastic in every way! As I mentioned earlier we are restaurant owners. I normally don’t write bad reviews as I know that occasionally a restaurant may have a bad night. But I couldn’t ignore this, I have to let people know how ugly that man at Osteria Nona Gina treated us and for no apparent reason. If you decide to try this place I hope you are treated with respect and don’t encounter...

Appalling service. We arrived at 12:20, 10 minutes before opening, with my family of 7 adults, a 3 month old baby and a 2 year old toddler. It was Palio day and the weather was 35c +. The waitress advised us the restaurant didn’t open for another 10 minutes - fair enough as we had arrived early. We checked they could cater for our party of 9 and the waitress said yes. She invited us to sit outside the restaurant to wait for opening. We did just that. The waitress and another member of staff then promptly came out of the restaurant and stood directly opposite us smoking a cigarette. This wasn’t a great first impression but equally we understood the staff were using their own free time before opening.

The opening time came and went; we weren’t invited into the restaurant which we found odd, especially as two other parties of diners were permitted entry on their immediate arrival. My family and I therefore began to enter the restaurant. On doing so, we reminded the same waitress we were a party of 9. She immediately said they were unable to cater for so many, a stark change of tune. We offered to sit as two separate parties to ease any demand on the kitchen - no they said. The only difference we could fathom was that the restaurant had seen the two young children with us and did not want them inside the restaurant. We had waited in the blistering heat with our children for 15 minutes to be rudely told a firm no. It was clear the restaurant would not offer us any kind of service. Why they kept us waiting when then had clearly decided to turn us away I do not know.? Such a shame as we were ever so excited to experience Nonna Ginas. Had they said from the outset they could not cater for us, we’d have left without the need to leave this review.

Moral of this review? Save the effort if you are a large party or have children in tow. Do better next time...

Was really looking forward to the food given the reviews and pici pictures but unfortunately our experience turned out really bad and quite shocking.

We arrived around 1.30pm and were told the restaurant was full, and that we had to wait half an hour. The youngest man (the son?) already sounded a bit cold and unwelcoming, but fair enough we can wait outside the restaurant. As we had just started to queue, this older man from staff (probably the dad? Not sure) kept staring at me from inside while serving, shaking his head with a hostile look and whispering « No ». Really unsure what he actually meant but I tried to let him know that we were willing to wait (as he could not speak English, I cannot speak Italian apart from Buongiorno, Ciao, Grazie mille or Arrivederci). Also, I was tempted to ask my « white » boyfriend to queue instead of me (being a woman of Asian ethnicity). Maybe seeing him would have been better received? Then the older man exchanged a few words with this woman (the daughter?) while always staring at me and serving, the latter not even deigning to look at me or help with a translation? At some point, he eventually came to me, speaking in Italian (I cannot understand a word), and ended up asking (from an approximative understanding of mine): « Do you speak Italian? », I respond « No…». And I could literally translate his body language as « Then ciao ».

I tell my boyfriend to leave this place, while in this « wow, what has just happened » state. Such situation has never happened to me and it made me feel victim of: 1) hostility towards « non-white » people? 2) hostility towards « non-speaking Italian » tourists?

All in all, an utterly unfriendly staff… at least, it made me want to step up on my...