'Gusto - Osteria

I have never bothered to write a restaurant review in my life, but after eating at 'Gusto, I immediately went home to register with Fodor's just so I could warn everyone else about this travesty of a restaurant.

This is the by far the worst restaurant I've been to in Rome (out of a total of 30) and one of the worst restaurant experiences in my life. First, my girlfriend and I were seated for over 20 minutes with menus closed as the waiter passed by several times without first attending to us (although he did stop to say "1 minute" quite a few times.)

Once we ordered, the waiter was quite rude and gave us a difficult time because we did not wish to have wine (an act he repeated after we declined dessert.) The food took over 45 minutes to be served, and when we received it my otherwise tasty eggplant dish had turned very cold. In contrast girlfriend's simple pasta was the correct temperature, but extremely salty to the point of being nearly inedible.

It took 20 minutes for the check to arrive after we asked for it. We were surprised to find that despite the very high prices (23 Euros for my eggplant dish with no meat) and the usual charges for stale bread and tap water, there was an ADDITIONAL 15% service charge added to every meal. I wound up paying over 50 Euros for one cold entree, one over-salted spaghetti with pepper and grated cheese, and one fried appetizer.

If you get the chance to visit such a wonderful city as Rome, please be sure not to ruin a night of your trip by eating at 'Gusto - Osteria.