Da Cicco

06/22/2009 - 10:04

Had a great meal in Da Cicco in Gualdo last night. Although it was 10pm when we arrived, Michelle the lovely waitress was very helpful and friendly (she is Romanian) and spoke very good �� and English. The menu (yes there was one) was extreamely cheap - €1 to €5 for starters, €4 to €5 for a pasta course and €5 to €8 for a meat course. The Falario wine well priced at €3.50 a litre and so was the Rosso Piceno. Other wines were available by the bottle. We ordered straight away - bresaola with rocket and grana, raviolli with sage butter and two vitello steaks. The food was absolutely delicious, the homemade pasta so light and the steak huge and tender and cooked just how we like it. Finished off with a coffee and was just commenting on how much we had enjoyed our impromptu night out, when 'il conto' arrived. Now this is where it all went horribly wrong. The prices on the bill did not match up with those on the menu. We had already told Michelle that we lived nearby and were looking for places to reccommend to our guests as we have an apartment to rent and she was interested to find out all about this, giving us business cards to put in the rooms. We had already spoken about problems with some restaurants in the Amandola area wrongly charging our guests, but as there was a menu at Da Cicco, what could possibly go wrong? We asked Michelle to look at the bill and we went to get some menus to confirm our thoughts. She told us that the billing was nothing to do with her and it was the old lady from the kitchen who rang everything in the till. Mark picked up a menu - 'see the vitello is €7 not €8 as charged on our bill and the wine €3.50 not €4'. Then as we went throught the menus we came across one with the prices scribbled out and written over with 'tourist prices'. We asked her why this was and she said the old lady told her to do this. We immediatly told her to get rid of the tourist menu as they can not do this, they will loose all their trade and she just said it was not up to her. What is more amazing is that the modern till is obviously pre-programmed with two sets of prices, one for locals (which we are) and one for foreigners. This left a really bitter taste in our mouths as we had had such a lovely meal and had just decided this was going down in our 'book of reccomended places to visit' we leave in the apartment for our guests. We will give them one last chance in a few months time, only because the food was so good, but if you venture to Da Cicco, please be warned and warn your friends - check the prices on the bill, check the prices on the menu and do something about it if they are wrong! Enjoy your meal!

Location

Gualdo

Macerata Province

Marche

Comment

Sarah and Mark Thanks for a GREAT report on Da Cicco in Gualdo..................it almost seems that you are professionals restaurant reviewers!! I've not been but have heard (generally) good things about it......................I am appalled about the double priced menu................unless it is advertised as such surely it is illegal ?What can we do ??! Help anyone??

Yes the food is great - it is such a shame about their policies. I think the best thing we can all do is to keep an eye out on the menu prices and on the bill prices, complain if they are wrong and tell them they will loose their business as you will not recommend them to others, which is a shame as there are many tourists arriving for the summer. It must be illegal - can not imagine any country, even Italy, to allow this type of scam. Maybe we could set up group on here to report things like this, so we are all aware and can notify each other of any unusual findings. We have run restaurants for many many years, so problably we are some of the more fussy customers when it comes to standards, both in service and food quailty, but we would hate to feel that us 'foreigners' are being taken advantage of in any way. What do you think?

I like the idea of a reports board on these sort of 'things'...................It gives ��s a bad name, we were at a 'beach' restaurant (Quadrofolgio) this Monday lunchtime and the bill came to 36euros, which we were happy with for what we had, and I presented 40euros to pay the bill. Smiley waiter(who spoke a bit of English) didn't even offer to give me the 4euros change. I wasn't bothered as such but thought it a bit cheeky!!??? Anyway later on I thought................ actually, that was not cheeky, that's a rip off. I��ɾ�� be going back and I if it happens again I will be telling him in no uncertain terms that I will decide if and how much to tip !!

I can honestly say that in over 25 years of working in restaurants, we have never ever kept the change from any customers bill (would be horrified at the thought of doing so) and have always trained our staff to do the same - never 'presume'. Many times the guests actually say 'keep the change' but then they have made this choice. For this to happen in Italy is even more shocking as, rightly or wrongly, we have always been led to believe that tipping is not the norm and the cover charge partly includes the tip. I think that the most important thing we can do is complain at the time and do something about it, showing thet the 'stranieri' are not a pushover as some ��s presume. Then make a note and let us all know where and what we need to keep an eye out for. I fully believe that it is very much the minority of restaurants/ shops taking the **** but if we are aware and know what to look out for, we can give them a second chance to get it right. If then there are still issues, we need to work out our next plan of action. Happy dining!

Have eaten there, when we first arrived in Italy. As we were sometimes with a local Geometre, then we never thought about whether there were different prices, as subsequent visits alone always appeared ok. If they are dual-pricing, then that is not going to help them out, unless they just want the locals going. Good idea to name and shame these places and hope they change, although they will never realise unless they are contacted directly.

Maybe that's it Badger - they may just want the locals going in but even so, to actually only have one menu with the inflated prices scribbled on, they are shooting themselves in the foot as how many tourists/ foreigners actually dine out on their own. They need at least 2 menus I would have thought. Oh no, now I am just giving them tips on how to do things the 'wrong' way! We need to sort out the incident at the time (although as when we tried, it really spoilt our dining occastion). The problem is the last thing that happens is normally the most memorable and in our case it was the bill. In our restaurants we used to serve Mars Bar Cheesecake and as this was very often the final meal experience, guests would rememnber how good it was and travel for miles around to try it again. Lets just hope that we can get through to them, especially as many holiday guests are now arriving for the Summer season - we have already played a small part in getting one restaurant in the area closed down who wanted to charge us €100 for 6 pizzas and 2 jugs of house wine (the pizzas were €5 each on the menu and the wine €3), they refused to give us a bill - but that is another story!