Ristorante Zi Ntonio Sorrento — Restaurant in Sorrento

Tl;DR: A cockroach crawled out of our dessert. The manager’s response? “It was a small bug.”

Edit: The manager (who probably didn't see the bug herself) now lying that it was a fly (in the review response). The most regretful thing in 2024 just became not having taken a photo. To everyone reading this: I swear to god it was a cockroach.

요약: 디저트에서 바퀴벌레 나옴. 컴플레인 거니까 (차분하게 말함, 돈 얘기 안함) 매니저 왈 “작은 바퀴벌레였어, 주변에 있었나 봐” 리뷰 답글에 파리였다고 거짓말 중.

Disclaimer: I’ve left only two reviews in my life, both 5-star. This is my third. We never asked for money or discounts during the entire process.

My wife and I visited Ristorante Zi’Ntonio on June 22nd at 9:30 PM. We had pasta, risotto, and codfish fillet. The pasta and risotto were passable, but the codfish tasted like it was marinated in the Dead Sea. We ordered a strawberry tart for dessert. After two bites, a cockroach decided to join our meal, emerging from the middle of the tart (“thankfully” as we’d only eaten from the edges).

I called the waiter over, who took away the plate, the cockroach still merrily crawling on it. We asked to cancel the dessert (naturally). The waiter, struggling with English, didn’t apologize and simply said “SÌ” and walked off. Seeking a proper apology and reassurance about their hygiene, we asked to see the manager. The waiter said the manager would come to us but later directed us to go downstairs.

Downstairs, the manager handed us the bill, minus the dessert, and muttered, “I’m sorry.” My wife explained the situation calmly, pointing out the cockroach. The manager’s gem of a response? “It was a small bug; it was in the area.” Now, I’m no entomologist, but I’m pretty sure cockroaches aren’t native to strawberry tarts.

The manager then proceeded to offer a series of alternative (and frankly absurd) scenarios, as if we’d somehow conjured the cockroach ourselves. It was like a scene from a bad comedy, except we were the punchline. Another staff member chimed in with a helpful “We said sorry ¯(ツ)/¯,” proving that Zi’Ntonio isn’t just a restaurant, it’s a philosophy. Nearby diners began to murmur. The manager finally silenced the other staff member, we paid for the rest of the food, and left.

If this were McDonald’s, we’d have let it go, but it’s not. The prices suggest a certain standard, one clearly not met. The reviews indicate they often force tips, though thankfully not in our case. All we wanted was a sincere apology and reassurance that this wouldn’t happen again. Instead, we got a shrug, a half-hearted sorry, and an implication that we might be lying.

No wonder their last Michelin star was seven years ago. I recommend this restaurant to anyone eager to experience the service quality of a 1.5-star Popeyes, plus a cockroach-strawberry dessert.

Bon appétit, and may your desserts be...

I don't know what to say about the experience we had here... Reservations can be made online, which is great. Waiters are extremely professional, patient and nice. The atmosphere is amazing. There are so many domestic dishes options to try here - we didn't know where to start. Wine selection is also amazing and everything we ordered was really delicious and special. And then the payment comes... We knew this is a nice restaurant and we didn't have any problems paying for the professionalism and the amazing food and wine we came here for. But... When I asked for the check I also asked to pay by card, but the waiter just brought the check on a plate, told me "the tip is not included" (that's all he told me as he brought the check) and went away. I sat there confused because he didn't bring the POS device and the "coperto" part (€3 per person) is on our bill. I expected it to be there, but I was still planning to tip extra (in cash) because of the professional service we received throughout our whole dinner. 5 minutes passed (still no waiter with POS device), so I had to call for the waiter (again) that I'd like to pay by card. Now the waiter, probably disappointed not seeing any cash tip on the table, brought me the POS device and pointed out again "tip is not included, you can leave the tip by card" and then offered me to type in the desired tip amount. This is just a level of restaurant where this kind of embarrassment I did not expect to experience at. Tipping by card is a normal thing (and it's optional as all tippings are) and I've never experienced this sort of unnecessary begging for a tip in any restaurant or bar and I especially didn't expect it on the level like this. This is a level of a restaurant where it should be done casually, discrete and smoothly. I'm sorry, but this approach ruined my...

We made a resso for 7:45 for a Monday and good thing we did. It was packed at that time and the restaurant is pretty big.

To start, we had the appetizer with fresh mozzarella, anchovies, sundried tomatoes, olices, Sorrento lemon, and olive oil. This sounds like a really weird combo but everything worked very well together. The mozz helped balance out the acidity of the lemon, and the lemom helped cut the strong flavor of the anchovies.

For the main, we had the veal scallopini, which comes with a side of grilled veggies, and the Pizza Nerano, which had zucchini flowers, zucchini, and basil. Don't be fooled by the looks of the veal. It doesn't look like the most appetizing dish in the world, but it was really good. It was perfectly cooked and drenched in this lemon sauce, which we ended up dipping everything else in. The grilled veggies were kind of a soggy mess but again, the lemon sauce helped it go down easier. The pizza was ok because I didn't love the zucchini since it was soggy. I did enjoy the zucchini flowers though. We also ordered this one by accident because we meant to get the one with the zucchini flowers and anchovies so maybe this was our fault.

Service is good until you get your food. They don't come by to check on you to see if you want anything else. Since we had an early day the next morning and it was getting late, we knew we weren't going to do dessert so when we were almost done eating, we asked for the check. 20-30 minutes passed, and still no check or sign of our waiter. We ended up just getting up and paying at the front.

We were kind of iffy about this restaurant at first because we weren't sure if it was a tourist trap or not. But the food turned out to be pretty good. It was just an issue of getting the bill. If you don't mind that, this is a good option...