La Limonaia — Restaurant in Sorrento

SO DISAPPOINTED!

This review is based entirely on the actions of our server; and older gentleman with silver, slicked-back hair.

The place was beautiful with an amazing atmosphere. The astroturf carpeted ground surrounded by lemon trees and flowering plants was gorgeous.

The waiter was pleasant upon our arrival. We ordered drinks and an off-menu plate of tomatoes, burrata & prosciutto. It was off the charts delicious.

He next described another special; a pan-sautéed sea bream with pasta. It sounded good but it was too much for one person and my wife (who doesn’t really care for fish) wanted one of the other menu selections. He continued describing the fish special—almost to the point of making us feel guilty if we didn’t get it—until we acquiesced and ordered the bream. When it arrived, it looked amazing and the same server skimmed and filleted the fish table side. It looked fantastic. The server left us to our meal.

After the first bite, I could tell my wife didn’t like it as it had a strong fish flavor and several bones still in it. I thought the dish was lackluster and completely devoid of seasoning and flavor. Additionally, the linguine we “al dente” to the point of being undercooked.

When the server returned to check on us and ask how everything was, we told him the truth. My wife said she didn’t care for it and I said it was, “Okay.” That’s the last time we saw our server.

From that point on, we had to ask a passing busser for pepper, lemon wedges and bread (which turned out to be the bulk of my wife’s meal). The server occasionally glanced in our direction but never returned. He avoided us like we had COVID. We were never offered more drinks, dessert, nothing.

We wanted to try some dessert in hope of salvaging the meal but after 20 minutes of being ignored, we asked a passing server for the check. A bartender brought it.

€139 later, we walked out hungry and disappointed. Although I am certain this restaurant has other fine dishes and servers, I am unable (in good conscience) to give it my recommendation.

So sad that this entire situation could have been remedied by our server returning to the table to try and offer alternatives but, alas, he did not. Once he failed to get his anticipated rave review, he stopped caring.

Update: The owner of the restaurant and the associated hotel (at which we were staying) made a concerted effort to remedy the issue. She apologized profusely and was (I believe) honestly surprised and upset by this incident. She was intent on trying to make up for the episode but it’s water under the bridge at this point. Very nice lady. Great...

Beautiful ambiance. We walked into a lemon grove beautifully lit with a large number of tables. The very pleasant maitre di asked if we “had booked”, “no”, “I think we can fit you in.” Cute. There were 2 tables in use. 6 in total the whole time we were there.

The place was a bit ( or a lot pretentious). We asked for tap water and we’re served a 4 euro bottle of eau natural. (The tap water in Sorrento is great).

We ordered the same local wine we had enjoyed the previous evening at another restaurant (albeit at over twice the price) which was served cold and tasted great.

We ordered the ravioli Limone to share as a starter. 6 small ravioli in a very nice lemon crème sauce. Very nice but not really worth 1euro 50 per ravioli! (The shrimp ravioli limone at Syrenne on Capri is far superior for intense flavor.)

As a main (secondi) I had the meatballs. Having seen a meatball serving at Chanteclerc restaurant the previous evening ( 3 large meatballs on a bed of rigatoni that the Brit who had ordered it said was fantastic) I was, perhaps, expecting too much. What I got was 4 small, tasteless meatballs with a somewhat overpowering pomadore sauce. Very disappointing. The others in our party ordered other items which were fine but based on our dining experiences so far in Italy, were nothing to write home about.

We decided to skip dessert, opting for a local gelato stand on the way back to the hotel. We asked for the bill and were subsequently ignored (I think actively so) for the next hour or so. Fortunately we were engaged in a great discussion so time passed quickly. When we finally realized it was too late for gelato and managed to flag down a server for a dessert menu, we were told that the dessert we wanted was not available.

So we finally got the bill, far more substantial than expected, and the maitre di went out of his way to show us how to add a tip. (The service was adequate but certainly not deserving of a tip by Italian standards).

We paid and left, hungry, wishing there was a nice pizzeria or sandwich shop still open.

By far the worst meal experience so far in our trip… but then again all the others have been so spectacular and a bad food experience in Italy is better than most...

Category: Attraction and Restaurant. Our visit started with an interesting tour of the working lemon farm. The tour explained how lemons are grown from grafts, how they are protected as they grow, how and when they are harvested, and how they are put to their best use: making limoncello. An alternate name for the excellent tour: Everything you always wanted to know about lemons but were afraid to ask. It’s kind of amazing that this large grove of lemons is only a short walk from the main piazza, in the center of Sorrento. After the tour, we were seated under a shady lemon arbor, where we were served a sampling plate with soft and medium hard cheese, lemon marmalade (never heard of it but it’s a great idea and we will probably make some), orange marmalade (they grow oranges too), honey, bread and olive oil, sliced pear, candied lemon peel, honey, and cookies. The accompanying lubricants were popular and regional Aglianico (red) and Falanghina (a new grape variety to me, which pairs well with seafood). This tasting was part of the tour for which our excellent Lemon Insegnante gave us some guidance. Our friend, who booked this excursion, booked the lunch that followed separately from and in addition to the tour. Lemon-centric cooking classes were also on offer and there is an all-lemons-all-the-time gift shop. The restaurant part of this operation has a menu, but the lunch choices were selected by the restaurant: antipasti was a per person plate of veggies (grilled peppers, zucchini, melanzane, and lemon-leaf-wrapped mozz, and fresh tomatoes). Generous and tasty, especially drizzled with local olive oil. The main course (primi or secondi, depending on your perspective), was house-made tagliatelle with butter and — wait for it — lemon. It was cooked slightly more than al dente, which all four of us loved. Again, generous and delicious. If you want to learn about lemons and have a nice lunch among the trees, this is a great half-day excursion. YouTube’s...