Il Fermento — Restaurant in Circolo di Lugano ovest

Tell your staff not to work while drunk / high and maybe things will go better for you.

Sunday. 5 p.m. I arrive after traveling all day to get to Lugano, no lunch. I am relieved to find food. I politely explain to leave the cheese off my plate due to my lactose intolerance. The waiter seems tired or maybe a little stoned so I say it twice to be sure he understands. I order a beer too. 15 minutes pass. No beer. The food arrives. Cheese covers my food but I say “no worries, I can take it off”. 5 more minutes pass. Still no beer. This is where it becomes shocking. I ask for my beer. The waiter says “Ah, it happens, you know, sometimes we drop beers!” The beer is sitting on the counter by the cash register. I ask if I can just have it since I’ve already started eating and the plate is small. He becomes defensive and acts extremely odd again. Gives the beer. Comes back a minute later and slams down a bag of bread on the table, saying nothing. I go to pay. He asks, “how was everything?” I answered honestly: “well, not so good given that generally a beer would arrive within a couple minutes of ordering and then the food, rather than the opposite.” He gets down on his knees and mocks bowing to me, touching his head to the ground 3 times. He says, “excuse me signora I have committed a grave sin, what else would you like me to do to repent?” At this point I was like, seriously? Don’t work when you are high. I have never had worse (or weirder) service in my life.

I come to Lugano regularly and it was at least the third or fourth time at this place- also with large groups. I would not sit down again if he is still...

Was here on New years eve and unfortunately had a bad experience. We were 4 people. Waited 20 min to get a menu, which we had to ask for ourselves. Waited an hour for food for two, then 15 min before the third one got food. Fourth person never got any food as they forgot it. The food itself wasn't great either, salad had no dressing whatsoever, veggieburger was okay lastly (since we never got the fourth dish) the Flammküchen was the only highlight, as it was fun to try and had a good flavour.

Never possible to talk to the waiters as they were too busy. Place needed at least another or two more waiters/bartenders and probably another cook. Beer I had wasn't good either, however could just be my taste. Music also a bit too loud as waiter nor we could really hear each other.

Also no toilet...

This place "can" be really nice. "But" the outdoor seating in front of the lake view is surrounded by clear plexiglass walls. It is hot and stimy in the hot days because the wind just can go through and the people sitting in the enclosed sections are drenched in heavy cologne and perfume that chokes the living air out of lungs. Fine, on the other side of the restaurant is the outdoor smoking area. We've tried again 5 hours later in the evening, finally no one smokes and we can sit down to order dinner. However, the servers aren't fluent in English and the menu shown to us was "meat balls" in tomato sauce, no pasta dishes available. But eating just meat balls and pizza together it's a bit hard for us. We gave it twice chances in one day, no more and left to other restaurants that have...