Trastevere

Extremely disappointing. The visual appeal is high, but once we sat down and ordered an appetizer, we quickly realized this was a bad choice.
The free bread came with olive oil with mostly olive chunks in it. It was very overwhelming with olive. To get butter, we had to pay extra for a tiny thing of extremely hard butter. My girlfriend got the chicken Parmesan and I got a seafood pasta dish. Her chicken was extremely thin and flavorless. The potatoes felt uncooked and flavorless, borderline disgusting. My seafood dish was way overwhelming. I don’t believe that they mention there is squid/​octopus in the pasta but that put me over the ledge (and I’m never grossed out by food). The seafood pasta was bland and too fishy overall. The pasta too tough as well!
We’re very disappointed in this place, and more so that we didn’t look at the reviews first.

I literally just ate the best salad of my life. Arugula and beets, goat cheese walnuts and blackened salmon. O M G how have I lived my life without this salad. I wish I had taken a picture of it but I was too busy eating!

Great atmosphere and excellent service. The fettuccine alfredo was outstanding, as well as the dessert options. The staff was prompt and attentive to our needs, and the restauraunt’s atmosphere was quaint and intimate despite being in the middle of a major shopping center. ⁵⁄₅

There’s no way the lasagna was prepared the same day. It tasted as if it was lounging around the kitchen un-​refrigerated for at least a week. Hope I don’t get sick…

This is more of the tourist place than Real Italian restaurant. Had dinner tonight and the food was average, not great. They did not have angel hair pasta, so I ordered spaghetti Alfredo with shrimp. My wife ordered soup. Spaghetti was ok, but the soup arrived cold. Bread for the table was not toasted. True disappointment came when both of us ordered ricotta. Well it could have been anything, but one thing for sure ricotta it was not.
Service was great and price was reasonable for the location, bit not the food.

Worst table service They don’t care about their customers. All they care is to close the restaurant and go home. They don’t even ask you if you need dessert. Worst service.

THEY HAD WORM IN THEIR FOOD!
If I could, I would give 0 for this place. Came there today hoping to have a great dinner with my boyfriend. After we finished eating the bread, the waiter brought us our dishes: lasagna for me, and pasta for my bf. I almost started to eat, when my boyfriend stopped me and pointed at something in my plate. The was a little WORM! How is even possible? When I told the waiter about it, he just said: «Probably, just because it’s a fresh basil from today.» So what? Didn’t you try to wash your vegetables before you serve them?! After, he just suggested me to order something else. No apologies, nothing. The worst experience I ever had. Hope, you will never make our mistake and will avoid this place. Prefer the place down the street: Locanda del Lago.

If you’ve ever been to 3^rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, you have definitely walked by this place. A lot of new stores always open on 3^rd Street but this restaurant manages to always stay there.
A large Italian restaurant with a cute outdoor patio but food is not good. And overpriced (they sell gelato here for freaking $ 10). The menu is your average Italian cuisine offering pizzas, pastas, and antipastis. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Once you are seated, you are given a complimentary basket of bread. The bread wasn’t served warm and was accompanied with olive oil and diced up olives. Tbh, the bread was better than my actual meal lol.
I got an order of their lasagna for $ 19.00 made with a beef ragu. The entrée came out really quickly. At first glance the lasagna looks good — not too much cheese to garnish the pasta and even layers of bechamel and ragu. However, looks are completely deceiving! The lasagna was so damn mushy. The flavors were there but the texture just made it awful. I literally grabbed a piece of the bland bread to add some bite to the dish.
Service wasn’t as bad as I was anticipating based off the reviews. We were seated promptly and were constantly getting checked up on. But we did dine at 9pm so there wasn’t a huge crowd of people.
Will I be back? Nah.

No customer service. I asked for table that is not reserved they refused. They offered tables that are corners. I told them i dont like seat corners they still refused to serve the table i asked. Even manager came out he also refused the service. I told them if not i will leave the manager told me ok leave

Their bread is so soft and delicious.
The calamari is pretty amazing.
Ask for basil pesto on the side, they charge for it but it’s the best basil pesto I’ve ever tried. Yes. It’s the best thing ever made. I pour it on my pasta. Their food is pretty good. Fresh and authentic.
Their service is absolutely terrible. Every single time I eat here.

Awful service my second time and last time.
My first time was not that good of service either. I came with my daughter and two times in a row they forget to bring me a highchair I had to look for one myself as the staff did not seem to care.
The food is awful, i minus well cook myself if I want an Italian plate.
I asked for minestrone soup and it had absolutely no beans in it it was just cut up zucchini and carrots onions !!! Not a true minestrone Italian soup was just a bunch of slop put together
Orders calamari and shrimp and the breading was soggy and was not good to eat I left it.
Nothing special at all about the food!
They sat me next to a register and a bunch of talking waiters I was so annoyed !!!
Never refilled my drinks
Asked for bread and was never brought out.
Staff standing around everywhere.
Do not eat here their is better on 3^rd street

I came here to have lunch a few weeks ago. The location itself is cute– there is outside seating and also a lot of doors/​Windows to allow for a open feel inside. Service was good, and food was ok. Got a pizza to share and pasta. They start you off with bread but overall nothing spectacular.

I was not impressed with the food here. The service wasn’t great either. My vodka penne was probably the worst pasta I’ve ever had. It literally is just a tourist attraction, which is the only way this business stays alive. I would not recommend coming here.

I read the reviews. I knew the food wasn’t good. I knew the service wasn’t good. I knew it was a tourist trap. So why did I still go? Well, I was seduced by the ambiance. I walk by here daily and it just looks so cute and enticing with the big stone walls, the made for people watching outdoor patio, and the people who always look like they are having so much fun. Plus I had a major pasta craving and felt like having dinner pretending I was in Italy. But I should’ve trusted Unilocal,because I left with my pasta craving highly unsatisfied and feeling very far from Italy.
The food:
Not great. We got the vodka pasta which was good because pretty much all vodka sauce pasta is good. We added chicken and the chicken was gross. Butternut squash ravioli was inedible and I love butternut squash.
The drinks:
Super weak and not even tasty enough to justify it.
The service:
The host and busboy were great. We saw our waiter twice: once to take our order and once to bring the bill. Thanks for checking on us or even acting like you care.
The prices:
Average $ 20+ for a plate of lackluster pasta that’s not even super fresh or made with high quality ingredients.
The ambiance:
Here’s why I gave 2 stars. The ambiance was just as wonderful as I expected. Although you don’t really get to enjoy it for too long since they obviously try to rush you out of there (food comes super fast, check comes faster, the bread basket is removed before you’re done carb loading) I really don’t get the rushing people out. There’s always so many empty tables. Doesn’t a full restaurant look more enticing to people passing by?
The best part of our dinner was the awesome street performer who played classical music on a saxophone throughout our dinner. We felt better about tipping him than we did our waiter.

On a nice day like yesterday, can’t beat this location, to sit outside and enjoy dinner while people watching!
Even Though we got the wrong soup, (ordered minestrone but got tomato) it was delicious!
The gnocchi is soft as pillows… the spinach and arugula salad is a good choice also, the bathrooms are smelly but the food is good.

We sat outside Trastevere overlooking the promenade on a summer evening. This place has a lovely atmosphere and it’s a great place for people watching. Our server was friendly and attentive, even though he ran one half of the restaurant by himself. I would say the food is alright. I ordered a Capricciosa pizza and it was not bad. Their complimentary bread and olive dip were delicious. The only downside is the prices I paid were a bit steep and it took a while to receive our food.
In the end, it was worth it because we ended up satisfied with our food and drinks. Definitely worthy of a return visit if I’m in the area and craving Italian.

Came here with the kids. They had the kids spaghetti & meatballs, I had the carbonara and a caesar salad. All pretty standard. The carbonara was rich as you’d expect. The meat a little fatty and didn’t finish it, but I can’t say that is out of the ordinary.
Service was decent. Place might be a tad over-​priced for what you get, but overall fine.

I’m impressed! I’ve walked by here a lot and finally came in! The service is wonderful and the pizza is great! Highly recommend!

The atmosphere was good. The place seemed busy. This place has a huge sign outside the Promenade so you can’t miss it.
I ordered a fettuccine pescatora alla vodka. They had a penne all vodka but I substituted penne with fettuccine and added pescatora (seafood to the mix). The pasta ended up tasting alright.
My pasta came out very undercooked. They were stuck together and hard to bite into. The waiter came back and asked me if everything was all right. I told him about the undercooked pasta and they recooked the pasta. The food took a while to come out.

Ok, food was ok, but a little inhospitable of a feel to the place.
Managed to get a seat outside and that was nice for the ambiance.
I noticed quickly that in order to get a table, there was a $ 20 minimum per person, and they want you to eat and leave.
This bugs the hell out of me. I’m spending my money in this place, if I want to have a glass of wine with my date and we aren’t in the mood for a full dinner, this should be no problem for outside seating.
So on to the food. I had the arugula salad with grilled veggies, with some grilled chicken. Iced tea to drink for me. My date had margherita pizza and a red wine.
My salad was dressed properly, though the chicken breast was a little dry, I can let this go because chicken breast is tough most of the time anyways.
The arugula was peppery and crisp, and the grilled veggies had a nice flavor to them, though they were chopped a little too fine for my taste.
What irritated me was that not once did someone offer to refill our water or my iced tea, and no less than three times did our waiter offer to take our check payment for us. This sends me the message of «GTFO!»
Though the food was good and the prices fair, I will not be returning to this unwelcoming tourist trap with a «come in, leave money, get out» feel to it.
Two tepid stars for this place from me.