Al Mascaron — Restaurant in Venice

Came here during a busy period of late spring. Received the worst service of my entire life. That is not an exaggeration. Never before have I been harassed by the staff of a restaurant while trying to just eat their food. We asked for a table for 4 but initially it was only 2 of us. The other two were late to arrive, and we wanted to eat something small and have a drink while waiting. 15 mins in, the older waiter started to shout at us, waving his hands aggressively. Other staff pointed aggressively at their watch, berating us repeatedly without giving us an opportunity to explain why our friends were late. They continued to shout at us multiple times while we were eating what little they had finally served us, asking us “where are your friends” and not waiting for a reply before dismissively groaning and walking away. Like they were just venting some misplaced frustration on us because we were there and willing to pay for their bland over salted food.

We were able to reason eventually with the younger male waiter. I simply asked if they wanted us to leave or stay and they said stay. But by the time you’ve had a pointless argument with ignorant and rude staff, you don’t really feel like eating, and certainly the atmosphere had been ruined.

And despite what some people say here, the masochistic service is not worth the food, which was mediocre by any objective account. Easy to find better food at many other places in Venice by asking more of the few normal people who, somehow, still live in the area.

The bottom line is that Venice, and the strange old man who runs this restaurant, harbour a hatred for tourists that is unparalleled anywhere...

You will first be greeted by a sign at the entrance  door. "No pizza, no cappuccino. No toilet for non-customers". Next possible scenario may contain the situation when you'll be pulled aside by a family of local Italians who will be served first. When the locals have everything ordered, they will possibly drink a first glass of wine whilst enjoying  a  small talk with  the owner of the restaurant and/or the waiter for about five or ten minutes. You (maybe) will have a chance to order your food after all local rituals are perfomed . In 30-40 minutes your waiter will bring the  plates with your food. The food is still a bit tastier than in 90% of other restaurants in Venice. So enjoy. But take your time. The hosts and waiters  are very consistent in attending  to other local Venetians. Please be prepared that  you will probably not be offered wine and water a second time. Since you are now a customer you can fill up your own water in the toilet. It is very clean and even  equipped by the shower head for some reason by the way. In general, my dear  fellow Tourist, you better  eat you pizza and wash it down by cappucino in other areas specially designated to the south of Naples . This restaurant is not our cup of tea.American tourist Joseph Brodsky loved this restaurant in 80s. I don't think he'd be happy to see the modern version of Al Mascaron. Which has even  a different location...

We just had the worst restaurant experience at Al Mascaron. Rude and unprofessional service.

After 15-20 minutes wait for our food, it turned out that a waitress made a mistake with my order and brought another pasta instead of the one I initially ordered. She took it away, whilst my husband started eating his dish as, otherwise, his pasta would have gotten cold. At the time he was finishing, I got my dish, spaghetti vongole, which was extremely salty. I had lots of various dishes in Italy so far, but in that pasta I couldn’t taste anything but salt. It wasn’t right. After speaking with the waitress, she offered to remake it, which would have taken 10-15 min more. Her suggestion implied that they could make it less salty. But at that point, I was too hungry and asked for something quick like a salad. In the end, the staff charged us for the pasta I couldn’t eat. We tried explaining the situation to the manager/owner of the place, who admitted it was the waitress’s mistake, nonetheless, did not apologize for it; and we still had to pay for the pasta dish. The communication was poor, and whilst we were trying to clarify the situation, another guest of the restaurant used an f* word on us and told us to get out of there. The whole experience was...