La Superba - GENOVA

We liked the fact that local office workers were lunching at this bar. We had the fixed menu for €10: primo, secondo and acqua. The spaghetti al limone was a good option for a hot day, as was the arrosto with salsa verde.

We came 3 of us, ordering one negroni, one vodkatini and one hemingway. After some minutes of panic consultations between the waiter and barman and their mobile phones, the waiter comes, telling they don't have the hemingway...ok, we ask for two vodkatini. Understood they might not be at the point, begging pardon I ask the barman twice to please not let the martini in the vodka, and please use a Russian vodka, if any. We got two cups of white martini with a doubtfully skyy vodka, no lemon twist. Not to mention the service, atmosphere, wobbly tables, A place to forget.

When I first moved to Genoa, I used to really love this bar. My husband and I came here for apericena. It is like aperativo, but is strictly for dinner. You buy one drink and have access to a buffet. The first few times that we went were great. The only complaint that I had was that they did not serve the warm food properly. If you are wondering what I mean, it is that they will store stuff like warm rice on regular serving plates and not in the aluminum serving pans with the burners below them. The problem with serving food on a regular serving dish is that the food gets ice cold in seconds and that really affects the taste. Imagine eating ice cold french fries. I noticed that this happens in all Italy so it wasn 't too much of an issue. The problems started after my first few visits. When we first started going, the staff was very friendly and welcoming. After that, they became very cold. They began to treat us as if they are doing US favor for allowing us to honor to eat at their establishment. The service became really slow. Once the quality of service dipped so low, then the other problems with how the food is served became a problem. I went back a few more times hoping that the quality of service would improve, but it didn 't. So I stopped going and I never take any of my friends there. The one positive thing I can say is that the one time I went there for lunch, the service was much better, but I don 't think I will ever go there again.

Lovely place, on our first visit we popped in for an early evening drink and saw the great looking variety of focaccias. Ended up staying to eat, and had one of their evening offers: 8 euros each that included a drink, a selection of focaccias (2 plates worth, each plate had 3 varieties), then a pasta primi and meat secondo, and a help yourself buffet with salads, bean dishes and other bits and pieces. Really unbelievable value, and the food was really good quality. Pasta and meat dishes were modest sizes, but very tasty, and the focaccia in particular were excellent (we tried many in Genova, these were among the best). When we came to pay we thought we had misunderstood for this amount of food and for the high quality, how could this be 8 euros each? But it was! Came back for several breakfasts (coffee and good selection of pastries), also got some take away focaccia from them. Great place, amazing value, and good central location.

Recommended by hotel staff for great food and cheap prices. They were right, had great drinks, pizza and desserts. Yummy, would have gone back again if I had more time in Genoa. Eat a Pistachio Croissant for me, best one I ate in Europe.