Ristorante il Giardiniello — Restaurant in Sorrento

This restaurant is an experience that you can afford to miss. The pizza was simultaneously over-floured and burnt. Other dishes were insipid, the peppers and olives bitter, the wine rough and acidic. Our plates arrived with no semblance of coordination. And as for the Tiramisu, I weep for the crimes committed against this queen of desserts: we were presented with a gelid, flavourless mass.

The ambience was provided primarily by Nonna's deranged goading of prime-time Rai Uno gameshow contestants. Sadly, she did not get the correct answers any more than they did. She also raised a mechanised screen when we sat down, revealing the "garden": a wall of fading house plants whose resemblance to the bounties of nature was minimal. It did, however, free the insectoid inmates... We wondered if the place was a front for some other endeavour, and what might be revealed by other hidden screens: our aghast amusement at how thoroughly bad this place was (you can always trust a Brit to find camaraderie in adversity) provided the only high point of the evening.

If you find yourself in this establishment, run, do not walk, to the nearest exit. One other family entered as we were leaving after our meal, and we greeted them as old friends before surreptitiously...

Never in my LIFE have I been treated so badly at ANY establishment. If I could give negative stars to a place, I would to this place .

Go ANYWHERE else.

I went in to check it out but none of the food really looked good but the waiter brought me a water before I even asked for one so I asked to pay for just the water and that was it.

The waiters proceeded to HARASS me for 15 minutes. They basically screamed at me for only wanting a water and then badmouthed me infront of everyone at the restaurant. Even the nonna from the kitchen came out to get mad at me.

EVERYONE was staring , horrible atmosphere.

Then I proceeded to wait an extra 20 minutes to be allowed to pay the 2 euros for the water. They made me wait there as they talked bad about me to the other customers for only wanting a water.

I speak some Italian but I don’t need to be fluent to understand their eye rolls, scoffs, and laughs. I have never encountered such rude service people.

Not my fault the food looked horrible.

AVOID...

We were drawn in by the multiple signs promising air conditioning, which much to our disappointment, turned out to be just a large fan. Unfortunately for us, we didn't take the false advertising more seriously and decided to embrace the breeze and give it a try. We were swiftly brought over water and bread. We asked for some olive oil and balsamic vinegar to accompany the butterless loaf, which after some abrupt, loud, incoherent babbling, was delivered to our table in sachets. Food arrived in dribs and drabs over about 10 minutes. It was ok. Not terrible, but not amazing. Definitely not great enough to make us want to stay for coffee, so requested the bill. Bill arrived, and after presenting my card, was confronted with lots more incoherent, rude babbling, essentially telling us to go around the corner and draw out money - obviously we declined. My advice - please don't embrace the breeze and just find somewhere...