Ristorante San Barnaba - Menu

We came across this restaurant on our travels from Florence to Como. What a find. Fabulous neighborhood restaurant. Pasquale the owner will take good care of yo... read more We came across this restaurant on our travels from Florence to Como. What a find. Fabulous neighborhood restaurant. Pasquale the owner will take good care of you. Parma ham and Parmesan cheese was excellent! All entrees were great. Highly recommend.

I seldom give mediocre reviews, but the food was in fact mediocre. We started with the gnocchi with mushrooms; the dumplings were better than average, but the p... read more I seldom give mediocre reviews, but the food was in fact mediocre. We started with the gnocchi with mushrooms; the dumplings were better than average, but the porcini mushrooms looked and tasted like they were canned. There was also a fair bit of ground beef in the sauce (actually more than mushrooms), which was not mentioned in the menu. Second dish was fettuccine with octopus, pasta was not flavorful, and had virtually no sauce but the octopus pieces were very well cooked and tender. On to the service, which deserves one star (which is what my companion would have left had she been writing this review). After we ordered, it was difficult to get the waiter 's attention. He would walk around the restaurant looking down, avoiding all eye contact. We also ordered the branzino scallopini, but the waiter forgot to put the order in, so after finishing the pastas and waiting for half an hour we were finally able to flag him down and were told it wasn 't coming. Other diners had come in after us, eaten and left by this point. To cut our losses we decided to order tiramisu to split, which was a mistake. First the waiter couldn 't understand we wanted one desert and two plates, he kept saying due tiramisu . When it finally came (he spent 10 minutes making coffees for other customers first) it was one plate, we had to raise our voices to get his attention again for a second plate. The lady fingers were very small, in a single layer on the plate (though with a good coffee flavor) and smothered in a a thick layer of loose yellowish custard. It was sweet, but like everything else, only average. The meal came to €54 with a $17 bottle of Chardonnay. On a side note the table next to us ordered lamb chops on the bone, it came so over cooked that there was zero pink left. The diner complained to her companion but ate the dish in resignation anyway. I would have sent it back. I chose this restaurant because it had five stars, which is rare, but in truth it doesn 't deserve them if they 're going to put out average food and poor service. It may have been an off night for the restaurant, but it was still a poor experience. I sent this text to my companion for approval and she agreed it was fair and to the point.