"This was not only the single worst meal I've ever had in Italy (in or so trips), but might be the single worst meal my wife and I have had ANYWHERE. We are not their enemies, just shocked travelers. We went because three guidebooks,...all supposedly independent, raved about this place. The room is beautiful, and the hotel stunning. A good start. The obsequious staff should have been a warning, but that happens sometimes. My wife started off with a cold dish described as a salad with strawberries and mint. One strawberry, cut into four pieces, and mostly spoiled (which if I had known would have been sent back), smothered with can it possibly be?!? Island dressing, or at least the Italian equivalent. This would have been simply bad had the strawberry been edible. My soup was marginally adequate. My wife's second dish was grossly overcooked tuna that might have lain around for a week or so. I made the terrible decision to have veal, which came out as German weinershnitzel. Oh my goodness! The obsequious waiter asked us how the meal was and I said in a condescending voice, abastanza bene certainly no compliment. I should have said Horribile and Non voglio pagare but I was still in shock. BTW, the coup de grace was that their credit card line wasn't working. So instead of making us comfortable at the table, they marched me into the manager's office so he could explain. Shouldn't he have come to me? The only other diners were British travelers who didn't have full menu access. They were laughing and having fun and may not have noticed how bad things were. My wife was convinced that the restaurant crew was laughing at us, and afterwards, I had to agree. Thank goodness I at least told them the food was mediocre. But mediocre was a gross compliment given what we had. Minus stars."
