Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - San Francisco Italian Restaurants

This is my review of Steps of Rome, enjoy. Steps of Rome: Tourist trap, average food, *R-U-D-E* staff. This may the perfect place for tourists willing to be mistreated by a bunch of rude, juvenile, insulting waiters who hit on women customers with cheesy lines in Italian, in exchange for average food and bad loud music, but it's definitely not the place to go if you are looking for ambiance and decent, respectful, professional service. I wasn't expecting a classy place, but the lack of manners of the waiters was beyond belief. After sitting down, when we said we just wanted some coffee and dessert they gave us a mean look and told us very impolitely to "go order that at the bar". We should have left right away, but instead we decided to order some antipasti because we wanted to stay seated. When my friend asked for mineral water, the waiter kept asking "do you want water with bubbles or wine with bubbles" as she was stupid or something. He then tried to hard sell us some wine. My friend and I kept looking at each other in disbelief, and I felt very embarrassed for bringing her there. When the bill came and I tried to pay by card, the waiter whispered something in bad English to my ear like in a scene of a bad mob film (I could feel his breath). When I asked him is he could repeat he gave me another mean look and whispered something to my friend's ear, but she also could not understand a word. He then WROTE IN HUGE CHARACTERS on the tablecloth the words "CASH ONLY" and left without a word. Maybe he was trying to be funny. Several people told me they had similar experiences. Don't waste your time here, there are tons of great Italian places in the city. I will certainly not go there again. By the way, I'm from Italy and I guarantee you that this is NOT a typical italian experience: you won't find such a behaviour in the worst tourist traps of Rome or Venice.