Pane e Vino — Restaurant in Todi

(I wrote this post in English again)

When we got a table, it was very near the toilet- just the chair and the door of restroom was around 30cm beside. We asked that is there another table for changing when we got a guide from the male owner naturally. Who likes that table with empty tables around. He answered with high voice to my parent in-law close with faces that “we don’t have other table, if you don’t want here, go to Second Floor!” one of my parents uses crutches. Me and my partner upset to saw it behind them. but we just watched this situation because my parents wasn’t louder to talk as the same of him and they wanted to skip smoothly to do not make a problem with his leg’s situation. They wanted to be calm and accepted the place. I felt he wasn’t respect us from this reaction answer. If he answers as a normal gentle way, i would be not feel surprise.

And me and my parter felt this owner male changed his mood. He tried to being friendly with my parents in-law and often he touched on my mother in-law shoulder because of showing friendly. I think it was not the way to respect to meet the guests “being friendly” - I just expected a normal and quiet communication (conversation, guide) when we were in restaurant even the situation without other solutions.

I’m not saying to complain about where we sat on Saturday. No, anymore. I’d like to share this experience why made me write a review.

토요일 저녁, 움브리아 페스티벌 참여를 마치고, 저희는 발목을 짚은 어르신과 함께였습니다. 대화로 들으니 아마 저희의 예약전화가 그날 오후 마지막이었던 것 같습니다. 안타깝게도 배정된 자리가 1층 화장실 바로 옆이었습니다.

나중에 보니 1층의 다른 두 테이블이 모두 8인이상의 가족 단체 예약이라서, 저희의 예약전화가 안타깝게도 마지막이라 다른 바꿀 수 있는 자리가 없어서 충분히 이해했습니다. 화장실이 자주 열리고 닫혀 불편해도 운이 안 좋았다 치고 감안할 수 있었습니다.

제가 말하고 싶은 것은 남자 사장의 드센 태도였습니다. 처음에 테이블이 화장실 바로 옆인 것을 알고 다른 자리가 있냐고 물었을 때, 큰소리로 저희 부모님 얼굴 가까이에 대고 “여기 아니면 테이블 없다” 고 “아니면 2층으로 올라가라”라고… 뻔히 양쪽에 발목을 짚은 70대 후반 노인 앞에서요. 저는 뒤에서 상황을 보고 놀랐습니다. 남자 주인이 차분하고 정중하게 말하셨다면 저는 이 후기를 적지 않았을 겁니다. 부모님이 먼저 화를 내지 않고 상황을 받아들이셨기에, 저도 조용히 따랐습니다.

제가 시킨 수프는 맛있었지만, 특별 메뉴로 신선한 타르투포 버섯의 28유로의 파스타는 버섯 양도 적고 버터의 향만 느껴졌을 뿐 특별할 것이 전혀 없었습니다. 남자 사장이 기존의 10유로대의 타르투포 버섯 파스타는 냉동이라고 특별메뉴를 강력추천하셨는데요, 이해가 잘 되지 않습니다.

다른 젊은 청년 웨이터들은 차분하고 정확하게 설명해주셨습니다. 그 분들 옆에 이 남성사장의 권력이 많이 느껴져, 고객으로 앉아있는 저는 약간 불편했습니다.

남자 사장님이 나중에 태도가 바뀌면서 자꾸 저희 가족 중, 70대 어머니의 어깨를 다독이면서 친한 척을 했던...

We stayed in Todi for two days on our way driving back up Italy. It's a great hill town in Umbria, and it's easy to see why it's been voted one of Italy's most livable places. While we were there, we found Pane e Vino, and liked it so much we ate there both nights. The food is inventive and well-cooked, using ingredients which are traditional in a mountain area like this, but each dish felt fresh and considered. The staff were helpful, and made excellent (and reasonably priced) recommendations for local wine, and the owner made us feel very welcome. He's a real character, and rattled through the menu in a mixture of Italian and English. I'd happily drive all the way back from the UK to Todi, just to have dinner...

In total we had 9 dishes and just 2 or 3 were ok. The vegetable salad was just bitter chicore, the strangozzi with truffle didn‘t taste like truffle at all, the entrecote was more like a boring beef salad, and the melanzani was so overcooked that it lost its flavour. Only the moon shaped taglione and the beef tenderloin were ok. Also for that quality the price was way too high. Very sad, because most of the waiters were nice and the ambiente...