"I went to Borgotaro last night with my Wife and a couple of friends. We hadn't been before and were looking forward to a nice Italian meal. My goodness, it was awful. We were warmly welcomed and shown to our table. We ordered drinks and looked at the pretty standard Italian menu. To start, I had Minestrone. It was weird. It tasted like it had come out of a tin, and it had bits of meat in it. I've never had meat in a Minestrone before and I'm pretty sure that it isn't supposed to be there. The rest of our party had Gamberoni, Funghi al Forno and Calamari and they said that their starters were nice. I ordered the Veal Milanese for main course, as did my friend Steve. When it came, it was pale, the crumb coating was greasy and missing in places, and the veal was tough. We both sent our meals back, explaining what was wrong. We also had to send back the side of Spinach we'd ordered as it had gone cold. The Waitress was very apologetic and came back to advise that she had given our feedback to the Chef, and that new dishes were being prepared. The Girls got on with their mains, which were Rigatoni with Italian Sausage, and Risotto with Gorgonzola. Feedback on the Pasta was good, but my Wife said that her Risotto tasted nice, but was dry, and she thought that it had been reheated before serving. Our replacement Veal dishes arrived and, if anything, they were worse than the originals. They looked to me as if they had been deep fried but, however they were prepared, they had been left to long in oil that was not hot enough so, again, they were greasy and tough. When we complained for a second time, the Waitress said that she would ask her Manager to come and speak with us. He completely refused to accept that anything was wrong and stated that he had tried our first dishes and thought they were fine. I told him that we disagreed, and I again explained what was wrong. He simply would not accept what we were saying and said that the only problem was that we should have been given a steak knife. Ridiculous. We decided to give up at this point, so my Italian meal ended up consisting of a bowl of bad Minestrone. When the bill came, the Veal dishes had been removed, but the sides of Spinach had been charged. Steve went to address this and, whilst I was not party to the conversation, he said that the Owner was again argumentative and refused to accept that anything was wrong. We left shortly after that, leaving cash to cover the bill. We had just got outside when one of the waiting staff came out to tell us that we have not paid our full bill, and were £10 short. I am pretty sure that we left the correct money, but we couldn't be certain, so we paid the £10. All in all, a pretty bad experience, made worse by the arrogance of the Owner. We'll certainly never go here again, and I wouldn't advise anyone else to go either."
