Villa Paradiso — Restaurant in Oslo

I’ve a visited their restaurant in Grunerløkka and had great experience with their pizzas, the price fit the taste and food amount. ON THE OHTER HAND, I advise against visiting their restaurant at Munch because one of the waitresses was extremely rude to me and my friend upon visiting. Weather or not she had a bad day, there was no reason for her to personally attack us. She showcased multiple time’s unprofessional and unethical behavior which shocked us. Each paragraph will highlight the different things we noticed.

“CANT PICK UP THE PHONE” We reserved our table for a specific time but realized we’d be 20 minutes too late. We attempted to call the restaurant to let them know and left 5 missed calls because no one at their Munch departments picked up the phone. Upon arrival we expressed we attempted to call, this waitress express she’s in charge of the phone and proceeds to complain that the phone has been vibrating in her back pocket “all day” and she had no chance of picking it up. I take one glance into the restaurant and see 2 other waiters chitchatting and laughing in the background. This gives the impression the staff isn’t communicating or being well managed. While our waitress complains we are left with the impression she’s unprofessional due to the fact it’s not our problem she can’t pick up the phone, nor do we have any interest in listening to negativity upon first arrival.

THE FOOD PORTION: They charge 249NOK for 8 pieces of “handmade” pasta. The dish name is Cappellaci. The size doesn’t fit the bill. If you consider that their pizzas are 2,5 times more filling for 249NOK, and their other pasta dishes are at least double amount for the same prize, it makes very little sense for them to charge “dinner” price for something deemed as appetizer portion.

MY COMPLAINT I proceed to express my complaint to our waitress and she explains elaborately how they charge that price because it’s handmade and because the ham and parmesan and truffle ingredients are expensive. Yet my friend ordered pizza with the exact same ingredients and sits across me with a huge portion compared to mine. I then expresses that I’d like to return the dish and order something else. The waitress denies my request and says it can’t be done. I then, in calm manner, express that consumer law allows us to express complaint when the portions are too small. She kept arguing back by saying no such law exists. Whether or not such law exists, my complaint is valid. This is no Michelin restaurant with small portions and high prices. The Munch area generally has restaurants at medium prices, this isn’t Aker Brygge. Conclusion: general pricing area and the menu general price did not reflect this dish that was weirdly overpriced and small in portion.

WAITRESS PUTS UP A FIGHT I get granted and extra dish for free after a lot of arguing which was extremely uncomfortable to begin with. Another waiter (and he was super polite and kind) offered complimentary coffee which I received. I was ready to leave as a satisfied customer but what blew entire experience was what happened upon paying our bill. The same rude waitress came back with the bank terminal. And while my card was inserted she proceeded to attack me by saying “I find it laughable that you felt the need to make up a law just to attack me, you know we are actually professionals and we stretch far to make the customer happy, you could have just simply asked for a bigger portion and we’d grant you it gladly”. This was far from the truth as I did ask for a bigger portion or send the dish back to order something else, and I did in a very calm neutral manner. It was extremely uncomfortable that she attacked me by ridiculing me and accusing me of attacking her. While I told her “I didn’t make up that law, it is a consumer right and I should know because my friends work as waiters themselves”. While I’m mid-sentence she cuts me off rolling her eyes as “yeah right”....

We had the weirdest experience at this place. We were having a great time. Good food, good service…no complaints. When all of a sudden the manager came over to us and accused us of being rude to the waitress saying the waitress was crying so hard in the back because we were rude to her. Imagine everyone’s confusion! We thought maybe she mistook our table with someone else’s because we were doing nothing but being nice to the couple of people that have served us. This really really killed the vibe for the evening and all we could talk about was what the heck happened there. It would have been nice to have given us the benefit of the doubt first before accusing us of mistreating its employees, but nooo. We were immediately accused of being rude and abusive. I wonder if we were white if she would have accused us of this, but since I and my friends were not ethnically Norwegian, I wonder if we would have been treated with this much contempt. I have never ever experienced this at a restaurant and am sorely disappointed. I will never be back to...

We were really looking forward to having lunch at the Villa Paradiso near the Munch Museum. However, we ended up leaving. The waitress at the entrance wasn’t very friendly — when we said we wanted to sit outside in the shade with our baby in a stroller (a table for two plus the baby), she said there was no shade outside (even though we saw a couple of empty tables in the shade) and that the only option was to seat us inside if we wanted to have lunch with the baby. She sounded like we weren’t really welcome there. She wasn’t very polite about it, and it made us decide not to stay.

I’ve only had good experiences with their other restaurant at Grünerløkka, but we won’t be coming back to this one.

This happened...