Marchese — Restaurant in Turin

EDIT (as we cannot reply):

Our evening started alright. As you do in a restaurant that seems somewhat gastronomical, we ordered the degustation menu to explore the chefs journey through his cuisine. The girl serving us recommended us a nice wine, although serving it somewhat clumsy. All is forgiven, we know that hospitality has growth path. The starter was foie gras terrine and was nice. Nothing extraordinary, but a nice enough start. My girlfriend had just eaten her (second but) last bite and the plate was quickly taken from her to put the next dish in front of her. Which in my opinion is not done, at this point we asked her to pace the coming dishes. As we were not in a rush and like to dine at ease. The second dish of 5 was slowcooked beef in a crust on a puree of potato and beans. Quite heavy, and lacked seasoning and balance (some acidity would have helped). Also at this time we were still looking forward to the next one. The 3rd dish was a primi, the pasta was fresh, but again lacked seasoning and tasted quite bitter. The disappointment was already growing as the flavour was lacking. As well as the speed this dish was served after the previous really didn't match our expressed concerns. When clearing our plates we asked if they could wait a while to serve the secondo. We went outside for 4 minutes, when the girl came outside to inform us that our plates were already waiting for us on the table. Imagine that... Serving food to an empty table, just putting the plates there, job done... This dish was the one that really made us regret this evening. A stale piece of meat covered in a flavourless brown jus, with unseasoned sauteed greens and a dry potato croquette. After 1 bite we called the girl serving us and asked her to take it back. While in a utmost friendly matter sharing that we were really not happy with how that turned out. She laughed friendly and said 'ok'. After this we were presented with dessert, a truffle crême brulée. Nobody asked us how to fix this, even though the chef clearly looked through his kitchen door window at our table after the secondo. We kindly asked for the bill, as we wanted this nightmare to end as quickly as possible. While exiting we told the servers that we were really not happy with the food and the course of our evening. We received nothing more than a smile and 'ok'.

We do realize that that there is a language barrier. But still I think we can expect some kind of recognition and to have our feedback and concerns addressed throughout the evening.

So here is the full report. Think of it what you like.

And it is quite silly to threaten with defamation on the internet.

Below you can find the original review I left. Admittedly somewhat emotional.

In short: I have eaten better in hospitals. Marchese clearly aspires gastronomy, but the effort stops with the interior. Service is clumsy (if there at all), food uninspiring and unbalanced in the beginning to even inedible towards the main and dessert. They pushed out dishes as if the chef had better things to do that night. Even when we hardly touched the primi, sent back the second I and the dessert. No one tried to fix it, as if they all expected this or are used to it. Marchese looked such a good place to dine online... 4.8 here on Google and 9.6 on The Fork. For a person with a history working in gastronomy, I know that isn't easy to achieve.

You have...

Terrible dining experience!

Do you know that feeling when you enter a room and the host doesn’t welcome you warmly? From the very first moment we entered the restaurant we didn’t feel welcome and the atmosphere felt cold!

We were seated at a table in the corner of the restaurant, yet the restaurant was half empty. The waitress handed us the menu and asked for water. So far so good - even though her appearance still wasn’t friendly and rather cold. She didn’t take time to even explain us what the degustation menu contains and she didn’t ask if we have any kind of food allergies ( I have a severe nut allergy ). She brought some small starters including homemade focaccia with walnuts in it. Luckily my wife saw it.

Once we ordered our food, it took them quite long to serve it, taking in consideration that the restaurant wasn’t busy at all. The first course dishes we had were very ordinary and nothing like fine dining. And surprise surprise, the Turbo fish that I ordered, for the main course, came cold and was raw inside. The best that we were served on our table was the glass of wine.

We finished our main courses and the waitress came over to our table. She didn’t ask us if the food was good. She simply said: finished? Do you want something else? ( for a fine dining restaurant you should expect the waitress to offer you the dessert menu ). So we took the initiative and asked for the dessert menu. And we waited and waited and the waitress passed our table and passed our table for a staggering half an hour. This part is particularly frustrating and disappointing because it’s actually my wife’s birthday and when I booked this restaurant I informed the restaurant about this special evening. But it seems they don’t care about such events. Eventually, after half an hour of waiting, we have decided to get up and walk to the front desk to ask for the manager. It turned out that the manager is the waitress that took care of us. We told her that the treatment towards us was absolutely unacceptable. She replied to us by saying we could have said something to her if we want something else. Like we did the mistake. Eventually she offered us a 10% discount on the bill and asked us to leave.

The conclusion is: please avoid this restaurant! Torino has so many better...

Worst experience at a restaurant since years. The host was rude already when we walked in, no smile no hello. We were handed the menu with no introduction at all, no explanation of what’s in the tasting menu. No one asked allergy so my husband who has severe nut allergy was served with bread with walnut. The main dishes were served cold. The manager clearly spoke English (she spoke excellent English in the end when we made our complaints) but she only introduced the small dishes in Italian so we had no idea what we ate. We waited almost 30 minutes for someone to bring the dessert menu but the waitresses just walking past by us over and over and over again without handing us the menu or asking if we need something. In the end we made complaints and the manager’s response was “you didn’t say something”, as if their lousy service was our fault. Cannot believe this is the service of a fine dining restaurant. Even after we complained she still has such bad attitude just offered us a small discount (10%) and asked us to pay and leave. Absolutely ridiculous. Torino has many other restaurants with much better food and better services....