Okrepčevalnica "Cantina", Robi Tomšič s.p. — Restaurant in Upravna enota Piran / Unità amministrativa Pirano

It's a bit hard to rate this one. Visited this place after reading all the great reviews and probably that is why my expectation was really high from this place. The restaurant is located in a beautiful inner courtyard in Piran with lots of outside sitting possibilities. The whole sitting and ordering can be a bit confusing as you need to first wait till one of the employees takes you to a table and then you have to walk to a window and order there. Once ready, they ring the bell and you need to take the food to your table yourself. All these were fine but we were sitting in the inside section as there were no free tables outside and it was quite difficult to hear the bell from inside. We ordered fried calamari, octopus salad, fried sardines and grilled seabass. The octopus salad was a bit under seasoned and probably we expected something "wow" after reading all the reviews, thus were not super impressed. The fried calamari were nice and so were the sardines. The seabass was also nice, but to be honest, we have had better seafood in Croatia, Italy and Spain.

Having said all these things, the atmosphere was really nice and they had really nice drinks as well. And to be fair, if I haven't had read all the extremely positive reviews about this place, I probably wouldn't have expected something with the "wow" factor and probably would have given a 4. But I guess my expectations were higher and couldn't give it...

I'll start with the good. The food is excellent, fresh fish, flavoursome garnishes, great sides. From a food perspective it is a 5.

The reason I have reviewed this restaurant a 3 is that it is a poorly managed establishment. It is not set up for peak season service.

Terribly understaffed. I was able to order my first drink from my table. But after that, I was told to 'go to the bar'.

The waiting system DOES NOT WORK. People take tables when they see them free. Sometimes they asked to move, sometimes they aren't.

Wait staff do not take food orders. When I ordered at the designated window, my table was taken by somebody who walked up. I had to fight for my table after being given a lecture about how 'young people take liberties'.

A simple solution would be to have a note af each table to indicate the designated wait area. I shouldn't need to come up with solutions though. As I understand it this is not a new restaurant. I don't blame the wait staff for poor service, as the manager had given them a poison chalice.

A great place to go in off season maybe (if the fish is good at that time of year). Otherwise there is a fantastic pasta restaurant 10 metres away. Do yourself a favour and go there instead.

Again though, kitchen staff are fantastic, and deserve better than what the...

The food was delicious but the service was awful.

The whole wait to be seated then order from the hatch and wait for your number seems a bit unnecessary but it was a novelty and we had a drink and fun chatting with others in the queue so no problem.

There was a long wait after ordering the food, but it was delicious and if they are cooking everything from scratch, no complaints here.

My problems are with the service.

We could order wine at the bar while waiting in the queue, but when we were seated we had to order from the waiter who took forever to take our order, then forget all about us and we had to order again. Then we paid when the drinks arrived, not knowing the protocol, he accepted payment. Then when we were leaving the same waiter accused us of trying to sneak off without payment, in front of all the people we had been chatting with in the queue. I've never been so embarrassed. For this reason I would not recommend coming here. My advice to the management, either make it self service or table service, this half way house is just confusing for everyone. Even the waiters...