Al Buscion — Restaurant in Stresa

We ventured into this charming establishment, lured by the sparkling ratings. Spoiler alert: those stars must have come from a different galaxy, because they certainly didn't align with our experience.

The cheese plate, touted as their specialty, was a decent start. The cheeses were delightful, but the bread? Let's just say some pieces could double as construction material. Fresh? Maybe in a past life.

Next up, the pinsas. We sampled two varieties: the ham and the vegetarian. The ham pinsa was generously topped and somewhat satisfying. The vegetarian, however, was a minimalist's dream (or nightmare). About ten small tomatoes and a few artichokes seemed to have been dropped from a great height. Check the photo for evidence. The dough, on the other hand, was like a salty lick from the Dead Sea.

But the pièce de résistance was the wine. Ah, the wine. Imagine our surprise when, on a sweltering 33°C day, we were served room-temperature red. Not the cheapest on the list, mind you, but a no-go in every sense. I think our waiter missed the memo on "wine cellar" and thought "wine sauna" instead.

In summary, this place didn't quite earn its four stars. Maybe two, and one of those for the sheer comedic value of our dining...

In my opinion, this Bistro does not deserve any stars at all!!!! An outrageous customer service as well as the staff behaviour towards their customers!!!! To be more precise, the management treats people in a disrespectful manner. POOR SERVICE, POOR QUALITY OF FOOD " !!!!! Most importantly, the staff does not care whether you enjoyed their meals or Not!!!! Additionally, they don't try to attract people to come to their place!!!! Above all, this taverna is facing major issues in HR Management ,Business Ethics, communication skills , customer behavior skills and other required skills ( specifically related to customers service). I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS BISTRO TO ANYONE!!! UNLESS, YOU WANT TO SPOIL YOUR STAY IN STRESA!!!! WHICH I DO NOT THINK ANYONE WOULD DO SO TO HIMSELF/ HERSELF . Stresa has many other restaurants to dine out .For example: I would strongly recommend Torino Restaurant. As Torino Restaurant has a great variety of meals, excellent service , friendly staff! So once again I strongly suggest to rather dine out at Torino Restaurant. DON'T GO TO AL BUSCION OR GO AT YOUR...

Discrimination against foreign tourists, very unfriendly! Very expensive food! We originally wanted to take a break by the lake and eat some ham platter, so we came to this store. Maybe because we are Asian tourists, we were treated indifferently by the staff of this store! Although it is not worth it to get a very small ham platter for 18 euros, it is nothing compared to the bad attitude of the staff of this store! The clerk served us very indifferently throughout the whole process. He put the juice on the table and left directly, but was very friendly to the German guests at the next table and took the initiative to pour wine! This is ridiculous! I can't believe that in 2024 there will still be service industry staff who discriminate against foreign tourists. What is your purpose in discriminating against Asian tourists? Are you superior? Do you think you are from what you think is a "developed country" and look down on people from other countries? This is simply a bad incident that cannot happen in the...