Don't Ever Visit This Restaurant
- May 6, 2009
- Rated 1 of 5 by
theShero from Århus Danmark, Denmark
I am a Dane and was visiting Oslo for the first time on a one-day trip. After a really pleasant day we decided to end up having dinner at Mamma Rosa, which seemed a nice place.
The interior was finer than average for a pizza restaurant, and the owner and staff were Italian.
The food was ok, but really nothing extraordinary.
Worst experience came when we were going to pay for the dinner. Total sum of NOK 377,-. The waiter brought the Visa card machine to our table, but for some reason it wouldn't accept my or my husbonds card, which we had both used several times that same day all over Oslo.
The waiter did not try to help us at all. Instead he mocked us for not having any money in our accounts, and contended that we were trying to cheat him for a free meal.
We tried to tell him that there was plenty of money in both our accounts, that we had both used our cards in Oslo several times and that we had to get this thing settled quickly because we were leaving on the ferry back to Denmark in an hour.
He absolutely did not care and just kept asking for another credit card, which we continued to tell him that we didn't have, and that we were sure that something must be wrong with his machine or the line. He rejected that possibility and told us that either we left something of value (e.g. our camera) with him until we could pay our bill or he would call the police. "No way!!" we replied, and asked him where we could find a bank machine.
I went down to the machine at 2 different 7-Elevens, and both informed me that "this service is temporarily not available". Obviously the inter-banking system was not in order.
The waiter still kept accusing us of cheating and for having no money and even said to my husbond, who was staring at his Visa card trying to think of a solution: "stop looking at your card. There is no money in your account!" At this point my husbond asked to talk to the owner as we were obviously not going find a solution with this waiter. The waiter came back twice telling us that the owner refused to come to our table and that he would just say the same thing.
I asked the waiter where to find a bank. He just insisted on directing us to the 7-Eleven "minibank". I said: "I SAID A BANK!!!"
Finally - leaving my husbond at the restaurant - I succeeded in locating a real bank, and immediately there was absolutely no problem in withdrawing money.
We paid the bill (no tip) and left the restaurant with a bad last image of Oslo.
What kind of restaurant is it, where owner refuses to come to try to solve a crisis situation?
What kind of restaurant is it, where waiters choose to mock and insult guests for a problem instead of trying to help?