malombra — Restaurant in Vicenza

First I will say something positive about this place, the atmosphere is very cozy, charming, and the drinks are top notch. The basil gin cocktails we tried were incredible, which is so tragic, because myself, my wife, and my friends will never return to this restaurant for one serious reason of disrespect by the owner who not only mismanages his bar, but also thinks it appropriate to verbally berate customers and then make up "rules" we "violated". This incident happened around between 1800 and 2000 on Friday the 16th of May, 2025. I am very specific with the timing for matter of record AND because it was my birthday. Not a day I will soon forget! The Malombra owner has an agreement with Lime and Basil Thai restaurant on the same street and if that restaurant lacks seating, then customers may bring their food to Malombra to eat as long as they buy drinks, which is straight forward and fair. A logical agreement that grows business. You would think...... However, that agreement depends on the bar owner honoring it in a way that is not offensive to the patrons. He proves to be incapable of this basic hosting ability. After the Thai restaurant said this was possible, the very first thing we asked the Malombra waitress was if it was OK to eat the Thai Food we brought if we bought drinks. She said no problem proving she knew of the agreement. All was fine until the restaurant owner decided to make issue of our Thai food because he could not replace my group with another party (who LACKED a reservation btw). My group was 6 adults and a child. Technically a restaurant owner can kick out any patrons who break their rules, as allowed by law in Italy, and as much as the owner sincerely wanted to do that right then with us, he had no grounds as we were not disruptive, nor had accidentally, nor intentionally broken the rules. Patrons have rights and an owner cannot apply rules retroactively that were not shared in advance, especially the ridiculous demand he said "we had to call him in advance for permission to eat the Thai food". Che diavolo??? The agreement was already and in place and we had asked before hand, directly at his bar, and were granted permission by his waitress. So what is going on here?? Bad mismanagement or suddenly a decision to not honor agreements. Either way, the owner decided to verbally berate/shame us twice and my wife offered to leave 3 times, because by then you can imagine we are extremely offended. The venere of respect gone! To each offer he said no we can stay. Now at this point our other guests, who I should mention are mixed race, and not white, felt extremely uncomfortable. The impression of discrimination was felt by them at that moment. Most of my friends decided to leave without incident after that moment. Can you blame them???? We stayed an hour longer to drink some cocktails, which were amazing, such a shame because we will never be back. So thank you stronzo owner for absolutely showing us your true hospitality on my birthday.

• I'm editing my review to only say this after the owner tried to talk with me on the phone, I declined, but I allowed him to email me. He only apologized for that his agreement with the Thai was misunderstood. Not apologizing for his behavior - proving he is one of the most narcissistic business owners I have encountered. He also claims there was a language barrier problem. Not true: this owner speaks and understand English to a very high degree. Probably German too since he lived there for six years. He claims not to care about reviews written, yet here he is working to save face. Too late. He wants to desperately control the narrative now because it reflects poorly on him when the truth comes out. Now he plays the victim that my review was "too harsh", plus telling me not to tell him how to run his business? So standing up to a bully, yes that is what you are, = telling you how to run your business? My response: don't try to censor a customer on how they express themselves. Finally, there were witnesses to everything that happened...

Poteva essere un bel locale dove trascorrere qualche ora di relax con gli amici e invece si è rivelato un postaccio pieno di gente maleducata. Volendo tralasciare il fatto che nessuno, finché non lo abbiamo chiesto, è mai venuto a tavolo a prendere le ordinazioni, al momento di saldare il conto alla cassa ci è stato detto che non era assolutamente possibile separare i conti. Dopo aver fatto notare che per legge questa condotta è vietata, ci è stato detto che loro di cultura generale ne capiscono più di me (non ho fatto nemmeno fatto presente che sono una giurista specializzata nell'ambito) dopo di ciò ci cacciano letteralmente dal locale, come se fossimo state più delle ladre che delle clienti. Solo per cultura generale, infine, ricordo che ogni consumatore ha diritto ad uno scontrino per persona e non ad uno cumulativo, in quanto ognuno ha diritto ad una ricevuta fiscale singola e che, essendo la norma il pagamento individuale, l'eventuale impossibilità va dichiarata prima della consumazione e non in cassa. Detto ciò, spero che in tanti leggano questa recensione e che qualcuno possa richiamarli alla giusta applicazione delle norme, in quanto locale commerciale che offre un servizio ai consumatori. Ovviamente, non torneremo mai più, peccato perché avevo intenzione di tornarci in futuro. Vi consiglio di rivedere le...

Ci sono stata proprio stasera con delle amiche. Al momento del pagamento chiediamo di fare conti separati ma ci viene negato questo diritto. Concediamo allora di fare un conto unico ma facciamo solo notare con calma ed educazione che la storia che non si possano fare scontrini separati non esiste. Ogni singolo cliente apre infatti un implicito contratto di ristorazione che si conclude con il pagamento e l'emissione dello scontrino. Il signore al bancone, non so se fosse il proprietario, prende molto male la critica pacifica; aspetta che una di noi concluda il pagamento e dopo e ci scaccia letteralmente con un "vai vai" corredato da cafonissimo gesto con la mano. È stata una scena imbarazzante, vedere un uomo adulto incapace di gestire serenamente un appunto che gli viene fatto. Invece di ringraziarci di non esserci impuntate, sarebbe stato un nostro diritto, ci tratta come cani da scacciare. Non solo abbiamo pagato alle sue condizioni, nemmeno il diritto di lamentarci! Ce ne siamo andate e di certo non ci torneremo più. Penoso. Avrebbe fatto la stessa cosa se fossimo...