Locanda del Sole — Restaurant in Circolo dell'Isole

Locanda del Sole is a fabulous restaurant in a privileged location on the port of Ascona. We managed to land a seat right by the water which was amazing. We placed an order of vitello tonato as a starter and two pizzas as mains. While this order was confirmed by our waiter Sergio, we ended up being served our pizze first. When we reminded the waiter filling in for Sergio that we had ordered a starter that had not yet arrived, the waiter brought Sergio back to our table to ask us if we wanted to skip the starter as "the kitchen had made a mistake". We chose to insist on our starter of vitello tunato which was good when it finally arrived. Sergio subsequently informed us that the pizze would take a while as they would need to be made fresh. When the pizze finally did arrive, they looked remarkably like the pizze we had turned down in favour of our ordered starter. They were also mostly lukewarm at best. While the crust and ingredients were clearly of high quality, I don't appreciate being served lukewarm food under false pretenses. I hope the restaurant can take accountability for this obvious misstep and respond with a path forward to ensure a better quality experience for future guests that meets the high standards on this particular stretch of road. I do also want to take a moment to call out Zino who looked after us prior to getting a seat and was absolutely perfect as wait staff. I hope that this inconsistency will be...

Beautiful Location, Disappointing Food

We were really looking forward to our meal given the stunning lakefront setting — and while the view did not disappoint, unfortunately the food did.

In my case, the starter I ordered was forgotten entirely. When the main dishes arrived, they simply asked if I wanted to cancel the entrée — which I did, given the timing.

I ordered the spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino, but it was swimming in olive oil — truly spoonfuls of it (see photo). My partner had the “small chicken” with grilled vegetables, but the chicken was quite dry and the side dish turned out to be chard, which wasn’t mentioned and wasn’t to our taste.

Overall, the only highlight was the location by the lake. You definitely pay for the view, not the food. A lovely spot for a drink, but we wouldn’t recommend...

The food was decent, we came here because they had vegan-specific options but they actually only had three. We tried them all.

We went twice, first time the service was great but the second time the server seemed pretty upset that we just wanted water and to share a salad. I felt pretty unwelcome. But the view over the lake and the breeze made up for all that… great place to eat on your way back from the botanical garden!

The pasta was pretty good, the cashew sauce was pretty nice but the dish seemed overpriced (The other vegan dishes not so much) The vegan cheese was pretty awesome; but the vegan burger was just alright. The bread was a bit dry; my partner says she could make a better one at home with little effort. The fries were...