Hotel Il Castello Borghese

I’ve never stayed at the hotel, so I can only speak about the restaurant. We keep coming back to Castello Borghese for the pasta and the pleasant atmosphere. They serve bread with the meal, and the staff are very friendly.

Our team lunch at Castello Borghese went badly. It took an hour and ten minutes for our pizzas and pasta to arrive, and tables that came in after us were served first. Nobody acknowledged the delay or apologized. We had just 15 minutes left to eat before going back to work, and the pizzas were very average. August or not, the food and service should still be up to standard. When it was time to pay, there was no apology or gesture, just a lollypop offered to make the wait easier. That felt disrespectful. We hadn’t even complained, only pointed out how long it was taking. That’s no way to treat customers.

The chef came to our table to understand my husband’s gluten intolerance and lactose allergy and suggest what he could eat. She spoke only French, and we knew basic French, but the English-speaking host helped us work out a meal for him. My son had the Veal Cordon Bleu, I ordered the beef stroganoff, both local specialties, and everything was superb. My husband’s fillet was cooked perfectly. We were a family of three stopping for dinner after touring the Bastogne area. The atmosphere was quiet, though the restaurant filled up quickly. I highly recommend it.

For the price, the hotel was okay, and the room had what I needed. The blinds made it nice and dark, though it was noisy at night even with earplugs. Breakfast was very lackluster, even by European hotel standards: bread, one slice of ham, and cheese. I missed having yogurt or a cooked egg, and had better breakfasts at other hotels on this trip. Booking.com listed check-in as 5pm, already a bit late, but the kitchen staff told me it was 5:30pm when I arrived. Since I’d prepaid, the check-in itself was easy.