LA CANTINA

Last Friday I visited this restaurant with 3 other people.. and because of the nice weather we took a table outside on the terrace(and I was a little bit surprised that there were so many free tables.. and maybe that was already a bad sign). A few years ago I ate there and remember it as a good Italian restaurant.. and really wanted to get this experience again with my guests. So the first disappointment came quickly when we just sat and I read on some plaque on the wall that beside Italian they also offer Turkish and Polish dishes(????). Disappointed for the reason that I remember it as a good Italian restaurant and for the second reason because I know from experience that restaurants which offer different cuisines can be very good at any of them. For me this kind of restaurants are probably so desperate that they are going to try everything to get people inside.. and that's really a pity because I had so good experiences a few years ago.. But I was thinking let's not judge to quickly and be positive.. And the start was good.. we where helped quickly by a waitress who was polite and friendly, gave us the menu cards and asked us what we wanted to drink.. and those drinks were also served quickly. For eating I ordered the (Polish) chłodnik for the starter and for the second dish I decided to have the tuna fish steak (85pln..western European prices).. where the waitress informed me that I have to know that the tuna steak will be baked very slightly and it will be raw inside and I told her that that's the way I like it. Than the second disappointment came after I got served my chłodnik.. I really don't know what it was.. maybe a Turkish chłodnik or Italian.. :) but it had nothing to do with the real Polish chłodnik how you get it served in most (better) Polish restaurants. I think they just took some milk with some beetroot juice and added some green stuff inside (what that was exactly I don't know but on one green part I chewed about 5 minutes and then I had to take it out of my mouth and put it on my plate). I (we.. because somebody else had also ordered it) informed the waitress about it and she told us she would inform the kitchen. The next disappointment which I got was when I started to eat my tuna steak.. I remember the waitress telling me about the medium raw preparing it and I couldn't wait to eat it.. but what I got served was something totally different.. well-done.. even very well-done.. which resulted in some kind of very dry, and flat , piece of tuna meat.. add with cherry tomato’s, olive slices and capers. not this half raw steak about I was informed before.. and (of course) it didn't taste good.
I also tried some other ordered dishes as the slices of steak which somebody else had ordered.. The piece I had was tender but much too salty.. but maybe that was the Turkish way instead of the Italian.. :))). But this was not the end.. next disappointment came when I wanted to ask for the bill.. first I couldn't find the waitress, but understood from a discussion earlier at the table next to us (who were also looking for her) that she is serving two terraces one in the front and one at the back of the restaurant (????). So after some time I asked another waitress for the bill.. but also without results. When I succeeded in getting the bill I got another surprise.. beside the already expensive dishes and such a high bill they also added 10% service charge?? To be honest I had not seen this on the menu card before.. so I think they mentioned this in very small letters or on some place you don't see this so easy..). Sorry to say it.. but with those expensive prices (which is ok for me when the quality is high) they also add service costs (and maybe also some costs for the live music what somebody else wrote before but I didn't notice that because didn’t check the bill position by position)..???? This is not acceptable for me.. and more a kind of way to hide even higher prices than the ones they already have... But this wasn't all what I experienced after my visit to this place.. going back home I started to feel some bad feeling (pain) in my belly.. and coming home I had to run to the toilet /.../ So my conclusion.. avoid this place.. it isn't worth eating there.. the quality is low.. the prices unreasonably high.. and in my case bad for the belly.. This restaurant has in a few years changed from an exclusive Italian restaurant into a 'cheap' but very expensive tourist place..

wybrałam się tak kilka dni temu z chłopakiem na kolację i więcej tam nie wrócę! szczerze odradzam, bo obsługa była fatalna! czekaliśmy na potrawy prawie godzinę, nie wspominając, że nikt nie raczył nas poinformować o opóźnieniu (nie wspominając o przeprosinach...), ceny są wygórowane, a porcje małe. Co więcej, myślałam, ze wizytówką takiej restauracji powinien być jej szef, a jak się okazuję to człowiek bardzo nieprzyjemny, byłam świadkiem jak źle potraktował pracownika krzycząc na niego i wymachując rękami! nie tak zachowuje się wychowany i inteligentny człowiek...ja na pewno tam nie wrócę!