Restaurant La Cantina di David — Restaurant in Utrecht

Disappointing experience, poor communication, and mismanagement. Would not return.

TLDR: A frustrating dinner that was completely eclipsed the following night by a far superior experience just 500m away at San Siro — authentic Italian food, exceptional service, better wine, and significantly better value. There, we had two starters, two mains, a dessert, a bottle of wine, two waters, and two limoncellos — for less than what we paid here for a shared starter and one bottle of wine.

What started as a pleasant evening quickly turned into a disappointing experience due to poor communication and weak management.

Our server was courteous and clearly trying his best. He should not be blamed. The fault lies in a failure of training and communication between the kitchen, service team, and management.

We ordered a bottle of wine, a bottle of water, veal carpaccio, and a Tomahawk steak for two with seasonal vegetables.

Wine: Good, needed airing. Initially told there was no decanter, but the waiter persisted and found one — unfortunately, it arrived dusty and with a dead insect inside. Disappointing.

Veal Carpaccio: Very good quality and presentation — no complaints — but it took over 30 minutes to arrive.

Tomahawk Steak for Two: The main issue. We had discussed in detail how we wanted it cooked (medium), asked about the bone, size, thickness, etc., and were assured of what we were ordering.

What arrived was pre-sliced steak, covered in sauce (possibly Béarnaise), no bone in sight, and most of the meat was rare to blue — barely edible apart from a few end pieces. When we questioned where the Tomahawk bone was, the server (clearly surprised) checked and returned with a colleague who casually told us, “Oh yeah, we’re out of Tomahawk so you got this one instead.”

At no point were we told the item we ordered wasn’t available, nor given a chance to change or cancel. They just substituted it without warning, which is unacceptable. We were also offered to have it "re-cooked", but how? It was sliced and sauced already. The vegetables were undercooked and clearly not roasted as described.

The manager’s response made it worse. Rather than acknowledge the issue or take responsibility, she tried to get us to order something else and blamed the new waiter, saying he "didn't know what he was doing." In contrast, we found him professional, diligent, and the only person who seemed to care.

We paid for what we had consumed and left, feeling disappointed and frustrated by the lack of professionalism and poor handling of a situation that could have been easily avoided.

In short: This restaurant failed on transparency, communication, and accountability. There are far better experiences just minutes away — including San Siro, which delivered everything this venue lacked: honesty, skill, value, and...

First of all, your response was extremely unprofessional and disrespectful. As the owner of what you call a “fine dining” restaurant, I expected more class and basic courtesy. But your reply only confirmed how poorly you treat your guests.

You claimed I arrived at 18:30, but I have a photo taken inside your restaurant before that time—from my own phone. So please explain how I managed to take a photo inside your restaurant before 18:30 if I hadn’t even arrived yet. That alone shows your version of the story is NOT accurate.

Let’s also talk about the complete lack of hospitality. Not a single smile or warm greeting from your staff. I raised my hand to call the waiter twice, and she clearly saw me and ignored me. That behavior made me feel UNWELCOME and UNCOMFORTABLE right from the start.

You also spoke as if your restaurant is the only fine dining place in the world, and it felt like you were trying to teach me how to act. Let me be clear, I’ve been to many high professional restaurants, and not one of them treated me the way you did. The issue here is not the type of restaurant, it’s your ATTITUDE toward your guests.

Your comment about us ordering non-alcoholic drinks was unnecessary and inappropriate. Why did you even mention it? That detail had nothing to do with the situation, but it made me feel judged, especially as a visibly Muslim woman wearing a hijab. That felt DISCRIMINATORY.

Then there’s your comment about me taking pictures for Instagram. Why are you monitoring how I spend my time at the table? It’s none of your business. As long as I wasn’t disturbing anyone, you had no right to interfere. A professional restaurant respects its customers’ PRIVACY.

You also condescendingly mentioned that we were “very young.” For the record, I’m 29 years old. But even if I were younger, age should never be a reason to treat a customer with less RESPECT.

Finally, your statement that “if you do this way, you are nowhere welcome” is simply outrageous. NO RESPECTFUL BUSINESS speaks to a customer like that.

I actually deleted my review at first and decided to stay quiet. But after reading your arrogant, defensive, and honestly insulting reply, I realized I shouldn’t remain silent. People deserve to know the truth about how you treat your guests.

Actually, we never told you that we ate at another restaurant. All we said was that we ate, without mentioning anything else. There’s no need to invent details that aren’t true.

It’s clear that you don’t care about how you treat your customers. If this were a classy and upscale restaurant, you would have apologized and called it a misunderstanding. But the level of service says it all.

My EXPERIENCE was disappointing, and your response made it WORSE. And now, I’ll be keeping my review for...

We reserved a table for two people. But when entering the place we had to stand there awkwardly for a few minutes while someone had to check for places. Which would have been fine for a restaurant at a lower price point. Then once at the table, there were stains in the cloth and a small shard of glass on the table. Not acceptable. On telling the waiter, he said we could get a new table. But i didn't hear any apologies. At that point I was almost ready to go away without eating there. If you charge 100+ Euro for two people (starter, Main and some wine), then this is again not acceptable. Oke, So we stayed and for starters we ordered the "Antipasto Cantina Esclusivo". Well that was a let down, nothing Exclusive about this dish. It was so big that it could have been a main course. The Prosciutto, was just a normal supermarket quality Prosciutto, not at all a nice old tasty Prosciutto what i would have expected. Then the salami, also not that great. The skin on the salami was extremely chewy and almost no bloom on there (the natural mold on the skin, which is found in beautiful aged salami), so not a high quality skin. Also the fat was not pearly white in contrast to the red meat. All indicators that the salami was just your average salami. Then there was this lump of salmon on there. Again, no nice marbling or white fat strips in the salmon which i would expect from a exclusive dish. There rest of the dish was in the same matter of quality or better said a lack of quality. To think that you pay 17.5 euro P.P. for this. I would have rather seen less and far better quality. For the main we go the "" Pasta Flambata". Well this again was kind of a letdown for this price. It was a nice show, and the pasta was cooked properly. But my god, the cheese. There where lumps of half molten cheese with almost an elastic property in my pasta. That was not great. And then the black truffle. Don't get me wrong i like it, but this were a few big flakes in there. Again i would have rather seen less with better quality. just a little black truffle trough a grater would have been enough for me. I will finish with a positive note, The wines are very tasty. We would definitely NOT go back there. The price versus quality is totally lost. For this money i could be eating in the Urban Kitchen (Water Tower). Which on every aspect is a far...