Gatto Bello

Gatto Bello ist one of Jena's larger restaurants and bars. Situated right at the beginning of infamous Wagnergasse, it has a nice terrace overlooking Johannisplatz. Unlike its Italian name suggests, it basically offers international cuisine.

We had two soups for starters (Mango and Curry) which were reasonably good but not as savoury as you would expect from such exotic varieties. For the main course, we ordered two steaks as well as a local Thuringian dish called "Würzfleisch" (literally: spiced meat). Würzfleisch is a kind of pork stew with cheese on top. It was tasty, filling despite its small size and came at a decent price of about 5 Euro. However, the two steak dishes were disappointing. The waitress failed to asked how we wanted the beef to be prepared. The steaks arrived more than medium rare, almost bloody. To our disappointment, they were quite hard and dry - anything but "Argentinian beef" as announced in the menu. To be fair, the drinks and cocktails (strawberry daiquiri) were good.

Gatto Bello proves that the preparation of steaks is a litmus test for what really makes a good restaurant. Unfortunaly, Gatto Bello did not pass. Another flaw was the fact that you cannot pay with credit/debit card. Although paying in cash is still more common in Germany, larger restaurants should offer card payment.

Our verdict: Get your steaks somewhere else...

2.5 Jena Towers out of 5