Torna a Surriento Trattoria Pizzeria — Restaurant in Sorrento

This is a difficult one to review as I'm trying to be as objective & remove my own personal emotional experience from this so I can give this restaurant a fair review for others, while also hoping that something changes.

We've been traveling throughout EU/Italy for nearly 3 weeks now for our wedding & honeymoon and we haven't REALLY experienced blatant racism or micro aggressions much until we got to Sorrento. Unfortunately, this experience was probably the most obvious one. For context, both my husband & I are American, but I'm Asian & my husband is Arab.

When we first arrived, we were greeted by big smiling faces which made us feel welcomed. However, once we sat down and began looking at the menu, one of the waiters jokingly said "Uh oh did you bring a bomb???" while laughing hysterically. I immediately said "Woah woah no not okay" but because my husband was laughing, I thought I was being too sensitive. In retrospect, it's completely human to nervously laugh in uncomfortable situations and truthfully we should've just got up and left.

...because shortly after, they brought over a chair so we could put our bags on it...as they quite literally said "what's in here? a bomb???" AS THEY PROCEEDED TO OPEN OUR BAG!

We were floored, but in the same breath, can see a world where these was merely jokes stuck in the 90s, with no ill-intent and just a couple of guys with bad humor -- especially because they consistently were jovial, animated, & free spirited from table to table (which FYI, they work for tips)...

...hence the 3/5 service & ambiance rating. The conflict lies in that I can understand that someone not being as in tune with racial micro aggressions would absolutely enjoy the fun and lively environment that the staff creates. But as minorities, this was a horrible experience -- not to mention them calling the other ONLY brown staff member KUMAR. YES, KUMAR.

NOW ONTO THE FOOD: Ragu 5/5. Husband was raving about this dish Scialatiello della chef pasta (green pasta) 3/5. Okay, but nothing special Peperoni Gratinati 4/5. Very flavorful

My hope in sharing this is that the staff becomes aware of this kind of behavior and how offensive this can be -- especially as I'm sure that this is not a unique experience for other minorities traveling through EU. Diversity sensitivity training would...

We are on a two week tour of Italy, and before I begin, believe me when I say that (1) I hardly ever write a review, (2) we put as much effort into choosing restaurants as we did planning the whole trip, and (3) we usually try and eat at different places every day, and we broke that rule for this spot.

Our criteria was budget-friendly, knowing that the best food in Italy is often the simplest and most traditional, and somewhere not right in the center of a busy touristy spot- I.e. somewhere that felt it was a little off the beaten track, without someone outside trying to usher you in.

We found this spot, which is less than a 10 minute walk from the main square in Sorrento, and was rated well.

From the second we walked in, Nicola welcomed us with what I have to say was the most enthusiastic welcome to a restaurant I have ever experienced. Nicola, who I think is the owner, was beaming from ear to ear, and was full of energy and laughter.

The food was awesome, we tried traditional dishes like Gnocchi Sorrentina, and a few others on the menu. The chef, Nicola’s wife (sadly we didn’t get her name) makes everything from scratch, and it was all really really good food.

To top it off, the desserts we had- tiramisu & delicé (a local type of lemon cake)- were fantastic too. And of course we washed it all down with the house white wine.

We can’t recommend this place highly enough- it’s incredibly reasonable, feels way more authentic than anything around the town square, and the couple running the place are two of the happiest people we’ve ever come across.

12/10...

Review 1: Food amazing Pasta patatine, lovely home cooking, flavourful but not overwhelming Lasagne home cooked and delicious Polpete al sugo perfection The insalata mista just iceberg lettuce and tomatoes but PERFECT and so fresh They offered free limoncello but we were too full We will be back!

Review 2: we went back the next night because it had been so good. This is where things fell down, which was very unfortunate:

They rushed us out because a couple were waiting and that wasn't not nice

Husband had fried balls I had fried stuffed pumpkin flowers - definitely delicious

Then I had swordfish Husband had pasta specialty

I had lemon delice Ant had tiramisu

We ordered a bottle of wine €12 it was good Waitress was a bit annoyed when I asked for large wine glass

We were not offered limoncello as we were last night because they wanted us off our table, to give it to new people waiting

The waiter made a joke about counting five minutes because I asked to wait between courses (I wanted ten mins it’s not unreasonable to want to digest your food!)

I get it They want the $ But it really left bad taste in mouth

What they should have done: Tell the couple waiting that they can sit inside or will have to wait longer until our table free. Offer them a drink? Make them at home? Don't leave them waiting on the footpath outside, which made us feel rushed and uncomfortable as they waited for our table.

So that was very disappointing and it turned a lovely experience...