We had finished up a wonderful RS tour of Venice, Florence and Rome and spent a couple of extra days in Rome after the tour. Hooking up with another couple that we met on the tour, we dedicated our last day to churches. While waiting for St. Peter in Chains to open for the afternoon, we decided to stop at this little place on Via Cavour, near the church, for lunch. We had not had a bad meal in Italy and were expecting the same here. The place looked like a typical little Italian trattoria/gelateria.
We sat down outside and were given pizza and pasta menus, but not the full menu. That was fine, as pizza and pasta were OK with all of us. We were still waiting for our food when another group of diners sat down at an adjacent table. They ordered sandwiches (we weren't given a menu that had sandwiches on it). We were still waiting when they got their sandwiches. The tuna sandwiches looked terrible, hardly any tuna on them, and another diner's hamburger was obviously frozen.
The food finally arrived. I had mushroom risotto which I actually enjoyed. But one of our traveling companions took one bite of her cannelloni and complained that it was cold. Then she tried to cut off another piece and realized that it was frozen! She managed to get it taken off the bill, and didn't want to order anything else since we had already waited so long and were eager to get out of there. Thank goodness she also had ordered salad so she didn't go hungry.
We had asked for separate checks for my family of three and our traveling companion couple. The restaurant messed up, charging all beverages to me. What followed was a long negotiation to straighten out that situation, made more complex by the fact that neither of us got itemized bills to pay - the only itemized bills were the handwritten ones that the waitstaff used.
A number of travelers on a popular rating site have reported being ripped off by this establishment (search and you'll see). I don't feel as though I was ripped off money-wise, but I could see how it could happen to an inexperienced traveler. And it was the worst food, and worst service, that we had on the whole trip. There is a place right across the street. We would have surely been better off eating there, which is the advice that I give to anyone who might be considering eating at the Bar Gelateria Gastronomia Sandra Rose Eguaveon.