Osteria Donna Carmela — Restaurant in Saint Julian's

Went here for dinner last night and soon realized this place is a tourist trap. Excellent location, great atmosphere, high prices, but subpar food. I ordered the caprese salad and eggplant parmigiana as starters. The eggplant parmigiana was quite good, but the caprese salad left a lot to be desired. I received bare mozzarella and tomato slices topped with lettuce. When I brought this to the waiters attention, she did not know what basil leaves were. How the waiter at this caliber of Italian restaurant did not know what basil leaves are is beyond me. Maybe it was language barrier. I had to spell it out to her by opening the menu and pointing to the fact that it is supposed to come with basil leaves and not lettuce. I sent the dish back and they replaced the lettuce with basil leaves. I ended up garnishing it with olive oil and salt and pepper myself at my table. For my main I ordered the most expensive steak on the menu, the "Fiorentina". This steak was the most bland piece of beef I have had in awhile. It is a shame the quality of food does not live up to the ambiance and the location...

Even though the food was good, our experience in this restaurant was really bad. The manager, a middle aged man with glasses, was really rude to us. We tried to tell him very nicely that the table we had been given wasn't the one matching our booking.

He very impolitely almost shouted at us saying "the one you want is busy! Do you expect me to kick them out?“ Which was quite shocking since we had made a reservation 1 week before to make sure our guests would have a nice view.

Even though I asked if it may be possible to change after the other clients had left, the answer was a rude NO, followed by the fact that the table actually remained empty for the rest of the night.

Regarding waiters, it seems a few of them were really upset about having to be working while Italy played vs England in the Eurocup. Even when we tried to cheer one of them up, the answer was a pocker face followed by a very rude attitude.

Anyway, it's a shame that such place is run by such unprofessional people (Although some other waiters were really nice). We are definitely NOT...

With an overall score of 3.8, this place is overrated. Here's my detailed review:

🥫🥚🧀 Food ingredients 5️⃣ Food ingredients were of high quality and very fresh.

😋 🥗🥘 Food taste 3️⃣ There were no unique surprise in the taste or any kind of innovation in the way the food was prepared. The taste is okay though.

🦑🥑🍡 Food style 4️⃣ The plates were fairly decorated and nice to look at.

🐁🙋🏻‍♂️🦣 Portion size 4️⃣ Portions were of fair size, a starter combined with a main dish can be sufficient for almost every level of appetite.

👨‍💼👨‍🍳👩‍💼 Staff and service 2️⃣🚫 Be careful, there were an error of about 40💶 in our invoice. Once we noticed it, the staff were cooperative though. Moreover, I didn't feel most welcomed during the enterance and during the placement of the order.

👠🎙⭐️ Atmosphere 5️⃣ Nice location with a nice view to the harbor and the see. Well decorated. Proper for families and the age range of 30-60. Also a romantic place proper for dating 🔱

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