Trattoria Pizzeria La Caravella di Magistri Luigi

Very disappointing experience. They’re super nice when trying to get you in the doors. As soon as you give them the chance and sit down, they change attitudes and become careless and rude.
First they didn’t give us any bread at all. I only noticed that bread was supposed to served after they gave it to another party who came in after us. Then they served my entrée first before serving my salad which is weird. The salad was nasty — it was drenched in balsamic vinegar. Normally I like balsamic vinegar but there was way too much of it. The fettuccine with meat sauce was average at best. Finally «dessert» was this little plastic lidded container that had what was supposed to be gelato. Again generic at best. Finally when we asked for the bill the waiter verbally told me the amount owed instead of producing the bill. If it weren’t for the fact that our meal was easily accounted for I would have demanded to see the bill bc it seems like they only care about taking your money.
In sum, avoid this place. Even though it’s cheap it’s still a rip off.

Avoid, avoid, avoid. Shills outside of Saint Peter’s Square will try to lead you to this restaurant for sorry salad, weak lasagna and bargain basement beer. The only reason this place gets one star is for the AC and the wireless, which I am using to leave this review.

My 3 friends and I have had an amazing two weeks traveling through Greece and Italy. Breakdown of eaters: One adventurous, two willing, one reluctant. We checked out another restaurant on Unilocal and another site for our evening meal tonight and headed to the neighborhood. When we got there, it was closed (not mentioning, as we couldn’t go).
We rock/​paper/​scissored over the two remaining restaurants on the block– one that was absolutely bustling with patrons, and another that was rather quiet. After 13 days of frenetic traveling, we chose the latter. Tip: if there’s no one at a restaurant, and a line at another, wait in line. Paper won, and we walked to La Caravella Trattoria. Here’s the only plus I can give the restaurant– we were all in utter hysterics at how bad everything was. After eating and wine-​ing through Greece, Venezia, Firenze, Napoli, and beyond, this is the absolute worst dining experience I’ve had outside of a US Dennys. I’m not kidding.
To break it down:
Wine:
— Red house wine– drinkable, but vinegary. Possibly a Chianti from box. I couldn’t ID type or region, but it was like crack– I couldn’t stop drinking it even though it wasn’t good. You’ll see why in a second.
— White house wine– Also, not good. My dinner companion compared it to a flat wine cooler. I tasted it, and it tasted like it had past its prime. Yuck.
Bread:
— Four rolls that were so hard that they couldn’t even be broken open. The type of roll is common in the region, but these were so beyond day old that even soaking them in olive oil did nothing. Hollow inside and inedible. I couldn’t even bite in to mine after letting it sit in olive oil for a minute or two
Antipasti Misto:
— I ordered this for the table, as I am huge fan of the antipasti. The waiter asked if I wanted vegetables. My Italian is grade school at best, so we went back and forth about whether or not I wanted vegetables or meat. I said both, but apparently that wasn’t understood, as we got vegetables. We received old stewed spinach, well over done eggplant and zucchini, and canned green beans. Liberal applications of salt couldn’t even fix this mess. (side note: this is the first Italian restaurant I’ve visited in Italy that had salt and pepper on the table).
Main Course:
Jessica: Ravioli Bolognese: tasted like Chef Boyardee ravioli from the can. It was bland, lacked flavor, the sauce had little meat and the ravioli was chewy in a way it’s not supposed to be.
Kimberly: Spaghetti with Clams: Clams were WAY too fishy tasting, to the point they totally overpowered everything else. There was little «white wine» sauce to speak of. It was like the waiter drenched her plate in olive oil on the way to the table.
Jen M: Carbonara: Come on. It’s carbonara. How can you mess this up? Yeah. So not good. It was simultaneously chemically-​tasting and bland. We could just not figure out what the heck made it taste that way. She is not an adventurous eater, and this is her «go to» dish. As the most adventurous eater at the table, even I couldn’t make an excuse for this; it was inedible. She tried to make me stop at McDonald’s afterwards, but we went to the gelatto stand instead.
Me: Saltimbocca. One of my favorites. Also inedible. The veal was tough and over breaded. The (prosciutto?) on the top was so dry, it reminded me of something the settlers might have packed on a long journey. Which is impossible to consider, when the whole thing was drowning in olive oil. The presentation was also so terrible– yes, that’s a stupid thing to consider, but it seriously looked like someone wiped a booger on the side of my plate. Also, the waiter insisted that my dish came with a side plate of whatever I wanted. And then only let me choose mushrooms. And then charged me three euro for it. ‘
The waiter was indifferent, bored and rude. We paid and went up the street for dessert and coffee. Miserable yet hilarious experience.
I have had amazing dining experiences through my trip through Italy these past few weeks. However, I had a better meal at the Termini train station. This place is a mess. I don’t know if they’re new or not, but good Pete, I hope so. They’ll have an opportunity to improve. They really can’t go down from here.