Ristorante Marco Polo — Restaurant in Ventimiglia

The Ligurian town of Ventimiglia is situated on the coast of the Gulf of Genoa just about 4 miles before the French border.

I ate recently in a restaurant on the seafront, called, Marco Polo. It was an alpine chalet style building decorated with a maritime theme with a terrace overlooking the sea which would be perfect for summer eating.

The Michelin guide 2017 gives it a good rating (The Michelin Plate) and overall my impression was of good food beautifully presented. The whole experience however wasn’t perfect by any means.

The welcome was friendly and we were given the last available table for lunch. We weren’t offered drinks to start so we insisted that we wanted a glass of prosecco each. The waiter didn’t seem to understand this simple request but eventually by speaking a mixture of French, English and Italian the message was conveyed. The prosecco failed to arrive so it was necessary to prompt another waiter. This precipitated the start of a blame game between two members of staff.

In the meantime an amuse bouche was served. It was a shallow drinking glass with something akin to caesar dressing in the bottom and a few fresh, crisp salad leaves and a carrot button standing in it. It looked faintly odd but in fact was a refreshing way to start the meal – something I might copy at home. The prosecco eventually arrived…

For my starter I had fresh anchovies that had been coated in chopped hazlenuts and then deep fried and served with crisp purple artichokes, thin slivers of lemon and orange peel and coleslaw. It was fresh tasting with a pleasing citrus zing to it.

The main course was Lobster with pan-fried fresh foie gras. Now these are two of my favourite things and in this instance they were very well cooked and presented, being served with crispy slivers of deep-fried sweet potatoes and a few spinach leaves. Delicious and colourful!

Whilst the food was lovely there is something strange about how the place is run. In short it doesn’t seem like a happy ship and that can spoil the entire effect. At one point an almighty argument broke out in the kitchen which could be clearly heard throughout the room we were in. Those with better Italian than I, described the language as being very colourful indeed. None of the waiting staff looked shocked by this so I can only assume its a fairly regular occurrence. There is a review for the my...

I was shocked by the rude and unprofessional behavior of the staff during my recent visit. I arrived with my two toddlers to join my family, who had already been seated for 20–30 minutes. I was holding a sandwich that my children were eating during our walk through the Friday Market. As I approached the table next to my family, the waiter abruptly told me the table was reserved—in a very disrespectful tone. The restaurant was nearly empty at the time.

When I responded with surprise, he replied, “Yes, really!”—again, very rudely. I decided not to stay for lunch due to his attitude and told my family I was leaving. As I walked out, the waiter began saying things in Italian I couldn’t understand. I told him, “Shame on you, this is not how you treat people.”

Another waiter then approached and told me I couldn’t enter the restaurant holding a kebab sandwich. I explained that a polite request to put it away would’ve been fine. His response? “Just leave.” Then the first waiter came back and shut the door in my face while I was speaking with my family.

This was a completely unacceptable and disrespectful experience. It left a terrible impression and I won’t...

Totally agree with David Pärnamets. Beach worker are not professional at all. One customer was disturbing us with his cell phone really loud and despite only 18 seats were occupied on 78, the barman makes difficulties in a very arrogant way and bad talking for us to move on other seats telling all other are reserved and we must follow his rules (sort of « I am the owner so shut up ! ») Fun fact no one came later on the afternoon on the other seats 😅 If you want to enjoy a good afternoon, pass your way and find another spot, they don’t deserve your money. In a tourist business you can’t act like this those guys are bad in commercial activities, they don’t realize that they are killing their business by their arrogance and laziness.

Don’t be surprised if you still want to go…unless you want to be treated in a bad way.

Advice to the Marco Polo owner : train your guys on customer satisfaction, this is Mediterranean Coast, not rural...