Ristorante Museo Caruso — Restaurant in Sorrento

My girlfriend and I visited this location on our drive to the Amalfi coast. I saw good ratings as well as a past michellin star rating.Emphasis on the past! We were welcomed by a very friendly maitre D/ waiter. He accomodated us at a table in the corner. He helped us choose a wine and started us on our tasting menu.

To begin the afternoon, a typical amuse bouche was offered with a tasting menu. Presentation was good; a macaron with gorgonzola, a gelatin piece and a chip customly formed with a cheese. Unfortunately, looks can be deceiving. The macaron, I soon realized was stuck to the plate, the chip was soggy which led me to believe this amuse bouche was most likely plated and left in the fridge from a while back. Next came the bread with homemade butter, curry butter, whipped butter and anchovy based butter. Best one was the curry ... rest were ehhhh. Did I mention the chefs freshly made bread was also days old?...... Please just buy a piece of bread from up the block for .50. Overall, dinner was average. Octopus was good and tender, spinach was cold and bland. Ravioli "mezzalune" were good but nothing to rave about lastly Spigola with cold flavorless potatoes covered in old truffle. My girlfriend and I felt bad as the front of house employees were very helpful and friendly but unfortunately they can only work with what the owners/ chef offer. For example, fly traps are not expensive and DIY is also possible. One got in my wine glass. The waiter noticed and strained it. I'm not picky so it was fine. Flies on our bread and lastly to finish the night, flies went in the complimentary limoncello as well........

For 175 Euro for 2 i would expect much more. Very mixed feelings about this restaurant. The decor is really special, might worth a visit by it self. The food is hit and miss. The service was below any standard upscale restaurant. Even worse than a touristic panini cafe.

Half of our tasting menu was delicious and the other half had poor preparation. Pork belly although looked amazing on the plate it was tasteless and tough as my leather shoe soles and the pastry for desert was partially frozen and wasn’t fresh!!! OK if you are in a touristic restaurant not OK if you are in Michelin guide featured restaurant. And absolutely not OK if you charge these prices.

Service!!!! NON EXISTANT!!! Maybe they were understaffed, but this isn’t the customers problem. There were no excuses. No body asked us even once if our food was OK. No body approached to apologize for the delays. Our tasting menu took 3 hours to finish. Up to 40 minutes between meals!!!!!! We arrived with a child and wanted to ask her gluten free pasta with tomato sauce, took us 30 minutes to get the waiter! Seriously 30 minutes!!!! I don’t know how much longer we would have to wait if I were not to nudge them.

Being on so many successfull restaurants I am not sure how and why this restaurant got a high star rating.

A big fiasco...

This restaurant is PHENOMENAL. The decor is a special kind of curated kitsch, the servers are an absolute delight in both Italian and English, and the food is to die for. Treat yourself to a once-in-a-lifetime experience: reserve a table for 8pm, have a very lite lunch, and have 4 courses over 4 hours. It is so, so worth it.

My travel companions and I ate here as our last big dinner on our Europe trip. The place seemed kitschy, but we were completely taken aback by how modern and delicious the plates were. We're pretentious foodies, and everything blew us away. The most perfect octopus, crab ravioli, figs and prosciutto, duck breast, mussels, and zucchini flowers you've ever dreamed of, right down to the dessert mousse plated as a perfect little gnome garden. Every single thing was delicious to the last bite.

The three of us had four courses each (antipasti, primi, secondi, and dessert/liqueur), plus two bottles of excellent local wine (selected with wonderful help from the head waiter). The bill came to €260. Worth. Every. Single. Cent. I'd do it again tomorrow if I didn't have a plane to catch.

Just go. Eat, drink and be merry. If you strike the right chord with the staff they may even give you a tour of the wine cellar...