RESTAURANTE CASA ITALIA — Restaurant in Marbella

Rude and arrogant staff, deliberate slow service, unbelievable from service industry standpoint, worst restaurant experience so far.

I need to preface this with the owner of the restaurant will probably reply rebutting a lot of my comments as I’ve noticed from other reviews. Which goes to show just how much compassion or lack thereof for his customers & criticism he can handle. Note to whoever that is: no we didn’t have a bad day in fact the restaurant we went afterwards got such a good tip simply for the reason that we had seen the level of service was so vastly different from this place.

Secondly, we own a small chain of restaurants in southern regions of France & Monaco. It’s safe to say we know a thing or two about the restaurant business & the service industry.

In fairness the menu had some appetizing sounding choices. The drawback was placing an order never only took place until one of us from the table has to stand up come up to the bar and ask if our order can be taken. Prior to this our hands were raised for about a 2 minutes or so. Again for context, we were two tables infront of the bar. Perfect line of sight for the staff. There was two staff members there one of which was just waiting for drinks to be made having a chat with the bartender. As such, we made a simple call out from our table and the man at the bar shouted across the room “one minute” at this point we knew we stepped in the wrong restaurant. After over “one minute” of waiting that is when one of us approached the bar & asked if there’s any chance we get assistance or not. Cause to put it simply if it will take long to get service we will find another restaurant. From a service standpoint: staff can approach their guests to politely inform that there is a wait for whatever reason. Rather than shouting across the room. Or having your staff to be more attentive and attend to their guests more punctually would be appreciated.

Now the man from the bar was I guess fed up with one of us come up to the bar to ask for assistance with our order. Like it was our fault? Yes sorry sir for wanting service from a service industry restaurant? The man from the bar came up now to the table looking to get our orders. With the same energy as if “let’s get this over with so you can stop pestering us” again very wrong approach and we had noticed this. He unnecessarily mentions McDonald’s has fast service. Completely unnecessary to mention and argue with your customers. Instead listen, take criticism like a man and apologize for any inconvenience to your guests. Here the owner is always right and the guest is always wrong rather than the customers is always right. Moving forward, we mention our orders to just move behind this as it was late already. We then ask for the wine list and now the man from the bar just says “you want wine list or take order?” All while shrugging like it’s such a big job for him to walk 1 meter to get a wine list and come back within 5 seconds. That’s the level of arrogance we had to deal with. Nobody is good enough. He then continues to argue with one of us about what do we want the wine list or take our order. From a service industry standpoint: NEVER argue with your customers, listen to your customers, take criticism and improve on it. It’s not illegal to be nice, friendly & respectful. End of the day we are the customers who pay for service and a good experience.

Consequently, After we hear arguments coming from the staff that’s the cue now to leave. We stand up and walk out. Now he’s loudly ranting to the staff. We mention as we leave in a polite manner that it isn’t hard to be nice. He flips off and tells us we are rude? And we should get out. He stood us off as we left. We were a party of 5 & we can all say this was the worst experience ever. From a service standpoint: it takes 0.005% effort to smile and be polite. it takes about 180 seconds of your time to do your job and take in an order. it takes a special person to not listen to feedback, blame customers & call them rude. Napoleon...

We entered the restaurant at 19:30 on a summer day with a reservation for 10 pax, the table was ready as agreed! The service though was slow, turtle slow, almost close to no service at all. So one of us stood up to ask the waiter to take the order (twice), at 20:11 the order was made. After a ton of swimming in the sea/pool people are generally ready for food at this hour, this restaurant doesn't appreciate it's clients. Pizza is not good anyway (burnt crust, not my style) and too much oregano all over it!! So, we rate this italian restaurant for its dull service and so-so cooking! Plus, hefty prices! Generally, similar to other spots in Marbella, but for what you get - it's simply...

Can't fault the food but service was slightly arrogant possibly due to them being established as though they do not need to make much of an effort to be friendly and welcoming. Basically seated ourselves would not recommend sitting in the porch as we got eaten alive with bugs I'm not normally one to complain but with them having received an award of excellence last year by trip advisor I thought that a...