Caffe’ Vecchio Borgo

We ducked into this restaurant after searching for one that looked good in Bellagio. We were pleasantly surprised by the deliciousness of the food that we had ordered! Like the other review says, the service was not great. It took a while to order and to receive attention that we were finished eating. But in my opinion, the food was worth it.
We ordered the No. 14 Italia pizza which had fresh tomatoes, rocket, and parmesan on it. It was quite good. We also ordered ravioli with sage butter and ricotta and spinach — it was delicious! The sauce used was not too heavy and the ravioli was really light and had a great sage flavor to it. We also ordered a caprese salad that was very fresh, and the gnocchi which was piping hot but very good.
The other salads were huge and looked delicious — but we had already ordered a lot of food and decided to pass. Great food despite the not-​so-​great service!

In a tourist spot you typically encounter two types of restaurants: the ones that love what they do and aim at serving good food, happy about customers coming again and again. And the ones that just serve something saying «Meeh, if someone doesn’t like it no problem, there are plenty who don’t know stumbling into this place tomorrow.» I’m afraid Vecchio Borgo is one if the latter type, and I’ll explain why.
Located at a small corner at the one way main street going through the upper part of Bellagio it could have been a nice evening. We sat down at one of the tables outside, being one of a total of six occupied tables (of which two were already finished and two eating their starters). The menu was brought quickly. It consisted of basic antipasti, pasta, pizza, panini and some main dishes. Next to the salad a note said «cover charge € 1,50», don’t know if that’s were you typically put that note in Italy. My gut feeling was not too good (another learning: when it comes to food, trust that part of you that’s dealing with it!), but we hadn’t eating since breakfast and needed to leave for the ferry in about 1 hour, so we stayed and ordered Pizza Capricciosa, a green salad, and Penne Arrabiata. When asking for changing penne to Spaghetti we were told that’s not possible, which surprised me (forgive me my gut, for not listening, again!) but we agreed.
Then the waiting started. And seemed endless. At the table next to us with a couple who has been there already, the lady changed her seat and also pulled out a jacket. Later I realized they must have been waiting a long time already, too.
So waiting it was, and since I had checked in at Unilocal when we ordered I knew it took 34 minutes to finally get the salad and some bread, and a reminder and a couple more minutes for the pasta and the pizza to appear.
Surprised by the really small portion of pasta (see photo) we started eating — and were surprised once more: The pasta and sauce were both cold. I mean not just a little below temperature, but really cold as if they were not cooked at all. Now my Sherlock Holmes gut said «I told you!» and combined «no change of the noodles possible» and «cold» to «precooked or convenience packages, but certainly not fresh and home made!»
I went inside and complained about cold pasta, and only got a «pasta cold? and the pizza?» as reply. Well if you manage to bring me also a cold pizza I would not even bother talking I thought to myself. The lady came to our table and simply took the noodles away. Not even a simple «I’m sorry»!
My pizza was less spectacular, just too soft (weren’t the Italians the ones who invented pizza and mastered it to be thin, crispy, with fresh juicy toppings full of flavors?). All covered with too much taste free cheese. And I never got the point of using canned mushrooms (shut off gut, don’t want to hear a word). I’d call it anywhere-​take-​away-​quality.
When asking for the bill, we received it after a while, and again no sorry or any explanation. Just the bill without the pasta on it. But including the cover charge of course. 23 EUR for a green salad, a pizza, a water and a cup of tea.
When leaving I told the lady picking up the money from the table «It would have been nice to just hear a simply sorry». She shrugged her shoulders: «Meeh.»

La partie resto est sympa et on mange bien pour le prix. Resto sans chichi qui gagnerait si les serveurs étaient plus souriants. Petite terrasse ensoleillée sur une petite place avec la montagne en fond.