Hosteria del Mare

Jamie Oliver, this place needs your string of obscenities!
We intended to visit Dar Bruttone down the street on a the recommendation of a friend but it was Saturday and it was booked. There are not a lot of restaurants in the immediate area and a local recommended this one (presumably he had not dined there himself or had done so in the distant past!)
The food itself it expensive, not bad, but not outstanding. Pasta with clams was good but not exceptional and my order of seared tuna was well-​executed but the tuna was not filetted properly.
The atmosphere is trendy and the place was full of whatever the Roman equivalent of «yuppie» is — lots of local (this is not a touristy area) 30-​somethings showing off.
The main reason for the low stars is the service. We knew it might be a rough evening when one of our party went to the washroom and heard shouts of the Italian equivalent of «up yours!» coming from the kitchen. While Italian meals are leisurely, the extraordinarily slow service here suggested that a chef or sou chef had just walked off the job. It took over an hour between the primi and secondi. We gave up on dessert after waiting another half hour. We were not dressed as yuppies, but I don’t think they were discriminating against us — the other tables were receiving equally slow service. The server seemed very distracted and confused. The owner (we think it was the owner who acting as maitre’d) was only haughty and only slightly apologetic. We left without leaving any additional tip. Clearly, this place has survived on some sort of neighbourhood reputation which is no longer deserved. Given the fight in the kitchen, it sounds like a case of dire «Restaurant Makeover» need right out of a TV show!