Through an English language blog, I found out about a L’Unità 1 July, 2009 report that the Ristorante Passetto near the Piazza Navona tried to charge a couple 580 euro + 115 euro gratuity for dinner. The article doesn't specify what they ordered, but apparently it wasn't sufficiently expensive enough and the restaurant owner was charged with fraud.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Is this a place that should be avoided?

{{Edited to supply city}}

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Amy,

It is a well known restaurant in Rome, a stone's throw from Piazza Navona. The owner of "Passetto" via Zanardelli was sued for fraud against two Japanese girlfriend on vacation in the Capital. The couple, after visiting the beauty of the city had lunch in the historic center, a stone's throw from the Senate. All well until the arrival of the account to pay for two meals complete with wine and water the waiter had "asked" 579.50 euros. The couple there for them has thought of a mistake, but doubts have failed when they are back in possession of the credit card on the receipt showed that the total was added to the tip of 115.50 euros, taken without their permission.

Two Japanese tourists are now gone to the High Commissioner Trevi-Campo Marzio and made the complaint. During an inspection at the business, it was found that the prices of the lunch of the two Japanese did not correspond to those indicated in the menu. They were also required monitoring of hygiene and food and has been taken to close serious gaps in health and hygiene: structural deficiencies, dirty environments and refrigerators are not functioning.

Among the other tings the two japanese ordered a lavish meal that included oysters, lobsters, sea bass and porcini mushrooms, truffles and an extremely exopensive bottle of champgne(180€).

Now there are a couple of things I want to point out:

The restaurant wasn't closed for fraud. It was closed for hygienic issues.
What does it mean.. It mans that even if the bill was outrageous, in certain situation the restaurant owner can charge different prices when he offers off the lists dishes.
Sometimes great chefs offers special things to which they can apply the prices they want.

Passetto is an expensive restaurant, and I see the Japanese couple falling inthe trap of "let me pick for you". Who of you woulkd have fallen for this? Technically this is not even a crime.

The prices in restaurants are exposed and the prices of Passetto too, but a friend that has been there told me that the price lists scared the heck out of her.

So, no doubt that the restaurant people were acting badly, but even the Japanese people were extremely naive.

The thing that really bothers me is the tip!

Again, the restaurant has been closed for hygienic issues, not fraud. The fact that some of all of the prices of the lunch didn't correspond to the menu prices is irrelevant, off the chart special dishes always have special prices.

And if I go in a restaurant that show me first dishes for 80€ - as this is the case - I don't sit, I go. So I think that the restaurant owner has acting not correctly, but not criminally -not in the bill issue at least- and the Japanese were mindless and not careful and let him take advantage of them. In that restaurant bills can climb up to 150€, 200€ per person easily, depending on what you drink. Even if I would have sat there, after the first White truffle dish I would have stopped all.

It remains me of one time near Florence in which this couple was going from restaurant to restaurant eating the best and dispute the bills all the times -in one month it happened 6 times- in 5 cases the restaurant owner let them go away so not to have problems with the other clients, the fifth disputed it publicly and this time it was clear that this was a way for them to just get away with it.
One last thing.

When in 1996 I was in LA and at a Japanese restaurant was charged 120$ for two plates of a murky soup with fruits and meat (!!!!) and 30€ for wathever they served us to drink, for a total of 150$ of untouched food. And all this happened because I let the waiter take care of me, I didn't run complaining to the police, or the newspapers but just called myself stupid for not knowing better and let them take advantage of me. Of course this has never happened to me again.

The food in my case was also awful. Inthis case the Japanese had at least a memorable lunch...

So, before you jump at my throat, the restaurant acted badly, but not criminally, the Japanese were so naive to eat all the world knows is the most expensive food in the world and then 3 days later go to the police.

I am glad theat the restaurant is temporarily closed for hygienic reasons.

quote:

Originally posted by April2Cats:
Through an English language blog, I found out about a L’Unità 1 July, 2009 report that the Ristorante Passetto near the Piazza Navona tried to charge a couple 580 euro + 115 euro gratuity for dinner. The article doesn't specify what they ordered, but apparently it wasn't sufficiently expensive enough and the restaurant owner was charged with fraud.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Is this a place that should be avoided?

{{Edited to supply city}}

La Nazione had a piece on the affair this morning. Not only were the couple asked to pay through the nose for the meal, but after they fetched up a credit card €115 was added without their consent as a 'tip'. I wasn't impressed by the owner's responses as quoted in the paper. The couple made a report to an official inspectorate (not sure if this was the police, guardia di finanza, or other). Anyway the inspectors weren't impressed. Menu prices and charged prices differed. They called in the health inspectors and the place has been closed for hygiene violations(what a list). Inexcusable but sadly not that uncommon story.

quote:

Originally posted by jeremiahisrael:
... but after they fetched up a credit card €115 was added without their consent as a 'tip'...

This is the thing that drove me mad the most.

Again, I can -hardly- understand a 580€ bill, but the in built gratuity??? As if this is a rule?No way.

Still they are investigated for bad hygiene, not fraud.

Irrespective of where you are in the world, there is always a chance you will be cheated in some way. That is, whether paying for a service or buying a product of some kind. Those reasons should cause one to use a credit card that will assist you in expeditiously rectifying a grievance arising from having been cheated. Searching for the best credit card “deal” should include a determination of how and whether a card will serve you when a problem with a purchase materializes.

Peter

Thank you all for the clarification of the situation and the reporting. I was curious about whether this was a known tourist rip off place that should be avoided or an expensive restaurant where the diners were not paying attention what they were ordering. Glad that I understand that it wasn't fraud, but health issues (yuck!) that caused the closing.

There are plenty of restaurants in NYC where 2 people could run up a tremendous bill, particularly if they add some vintage wines, so that's definitely not a situation belonging to Rome. But it's unusual that such a story makes it into the US press like this one has.

Dinner at Per Se in NYC would easily cost $1000. That would be dinner for two and a good wine. One could easily spend a multiple of $1000 if a special wine or wines were chosen—say a half bottle of white and a full bottle of red. Dinner for two at Per Se without wine will cost approximately $550. Of course that includes service charge. There are several in Italy that are in the same ballpark, including: Le Calandre in Rubano; Enoteca Pinchiorri in Firenze; La Pergola in Roma; etc.

Peter

Peter, yes of course there are restaurants with that price range.
But when I ate at the Passetto not long ago, the cost was around 50-60 euro. (Btw, not that good a meal. Rome has many restaurants with better and cheaper food.)
I imagine that someone ordering hors-carte would run up a higher bill, but more than 10 times? Hmm, maybe they ate 10 times as much as I?
Here is an article including the translation of a Corriere de la sera article on the incident. On several points, it differs from - even contradicts - what the owner said.

All in all, does not inspire confidence.

I had an experience not unlike that in Venice. We'd ordered a Pizza and we got something grilled on an electric toaster. We decided we would pay just the cost of the cover charge and the drinks. The manager said if we came back he smash our heads on the window of the restaurant.

This was very near San Marco in Venice.

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2nd case. I come out of St. Peter's and go to a stand selling coca cola. I say how much (time of the Lire) for a coke. The seller says "sette-mila lire" (7,000Lit). My Italian wife then appeared, just as I reached for my walled "How much?".

"oh siete italiani, allora 3 milla" (Oh you are Italian, it's 3,000 lire).

-------

Now at a cultural level, and this is a personal experience, people do appear to try it on a lot more in this country than my own (UK). But the two stories above could, in my opinion come from any major capital city/tourist city in the World.

Do your research properlu before you come. There's a difference between being "had", and knowing that you're being had, if it means that you will still enjoy your holiday.

quote:

I had an experience not unlike that in Venice. We'd ordered a Pizza and we got something grilled on an electric toaster. We decided we would pay just the cost of the cover charge and the drinks. The manager said if we came back he smash our heads on the window of the restaurant.

I'm confused...you ordered a pizza and sandwich, and then decided not to pay for it? Just the cover and drinks? Why? (ok..no matter what, bodily harm shouldn't be threatened, but why didn't you pay for what you ordered?)

quote:

Originally posted by Helpytuscan:
I had an experience not unlike that in Venice. We'd ordered a Pizza and we got something grilled on an electric toaster. We decided we would pay just the cost of the cover charge and the drinks. The manager said if we came back he smash our heads on the window of the restaurant.

Actually you got a nice manager, if it was me you would have had the carabinieri there to discuss with...

Heating pizzas on grill is extremely common, don't assume that they are stealing from you.

In all due respect you have frauded them.

quote:

Originally posted by Alessandra Federici:
Among the other tings the two japanese ordered a lavish meal that included oysters, lobsters, sea bass and porcini mushrooms, truffles and an extremely exopensive bottle of champgne(180€).

The article I read said they ordered two plates of pasta, a bottle of water, a bottle of wine and a fruit salad.

I'm not sure exactly what to believe here but either way, a restaurant that takes advantage of a tourists lack of knowledge/language is to be despised at any rate.

Just to clarify. We ordered a Pizza for 18,000 Lit. And we were sent a thing that was 12cms in diameter and had been made on an electric grill.

Now, you can pass that stuff off on tourists, but I'd like to see it passed off to an Italian. In fact, and this is for Girasole , if people have "Raggione" in Italy, they generally see it through to the bitter end.

So accordingly, the restaurant owners would have called in the police if he had a leg to stand on. In the event he didn't and we translated his vocal outbursts, as just a way to let off steam.

Had he called the police, we would have waited for them with joy.

Mi fa un po ridere che uno pensa che abbiamo fregato loro! (it's funny that someone might think that we defrauded them!).

But perhaps it was the light attack of a fellow Italian that made you comment in this way.

Ciao ciao.

We've drifted a little off topic here - and are also skating rather too close to the boundaries implied in our rules, so I'm closing this now.

Jonathan