Osteria Santo Bevitore — Restaurant in Zurich

Good food but the service is so rude it's almost comical. The (mis)adventure began from the moment we arrived and inquired after a table. The place was absolutely empty, but they still seemed annoyed that we had no booking. When they finally sat us at a table, after ignoring us for 5 mins, they asked us to switch to another table (for not apparent reason), and five minutes later we repeated the same routine. Once we reached our final dining place, we waited for a while and eventually some menus were thrown (truly thrown--not using the verb for dramatic effect) down in the middle of the table and something was said in rapid iItalian. A while passed before our waiter returned and we each ordered one thing, no modifications. The waiter still seemed to be in a big rush and acted very annoyed that we were asking him for something (there were maybe 3 total tables full and around 4 waiters that we could see). Food was tossed down on the table 30 mins later with an almost impressive level of dramatic disdain. Though the theatrics reached their peak when 10 minutes after our plates were cleared (and no dessert options had yet been offered) when we dared to ask for a dessert menu (we had already dug our graves by coming here, so might as well lie in them with some Tiramisu). A single dessert carte hit the table some time later along with a disdainful "if you want dessert," sounding-growl from our waiter as he was already walking away. Once we finally were able to chase him down to order a dessert (about 15mins later), he seemed offended at the concept of us wanting to share a single dessert, and confirmed multiple times whether that was indeed it. It was. Dessert arrived and quickly disappeared. We dared ask for the bill (after once more having to practically chase down the waiter). He came by and dropped his card machine on the table and walked away without a word. I did not consider it smart to attempt operating the machine on my own given my lack of knowledge both regarding the software and German, so once more we waited for a while to convince our waiter to help us pay (almost 100pp for a beer, some pasta, and dessert) so we could be on our way and never look back. That is what a visit to the Osteria Santo Bevitore is like. The food? Good, not great. The place? It's fine, The service? It will help you understand the jokes about the staff spitting in your food and truly make you feel like you walked into some bad sitcom. Overall? Not worth it...

This place is really interesting. I am completely torn in my opinion. I am torn between three an four stars. But let me explain... the food is really good, no doubt about that!

We started with a salad, that was amazing to the eye, but a bit bland in the taste. Then came the orecchiette with clams - very savoury. I like spicy food ok, but for some people the sauce might have been too spicy. My friend had the same dish, but hers wasn't spicy at all. The dessert was absolutely amazing, as were the wine and grappa.

We were here on a friday night - the place was absolutely packed. I had to scooch my chair to the table each time the waitress walked by the table. And it was loud - if you plan to have a date here... well, just don't. At least not on a friday night. The service is friendly, but with that many tablesnto wait and tend to, it can get kinda slow.

I will give this place another try during the week. As I said, I would have given three stars, but due to the fact that the food is very good, it would not have been fair. I hope this is not just another "hype" restaurant in Zurich. But given that the host is experienced and well known in Zurich, I guess this osteria is here to stay.

See you next...

Negative: We had a reservation but still had to wait 10 minutes to be seated The place is too packed (no space between tables; you won’t enjoy it if you are claustrophobic or if you have a little bit more flesh on the bone) we were seated next to the wardrobe so I was constantly bumped into the waiter seemed overwhelmed, it was a very stressful environment the menu is handwritten and very hard to read. What you see on the homepage is not what they sell. I went for a pizza we had to wait 1 hour and 15 minutes for our main the pizza tasted like literally nothing we had to ask 3 times for the bill expensive for what you get

Positive: the waiter apologised for the waiting time (even though a couple 2 tables next to us arrived after us and were already finished before we were served our main) we were offered a lemon sorbet as an apology the chef himself came and asked what was wrong (I had to tell him that the pizza tastes like literally nothing) my friends liked their pasta

All in all, I would not go there again. It was not a...