Origano — Local services in Gold Coast City

Oregano was our go to place when we craved Italian food. They had authentic Italian good homely rich flavour in their pasta, pizza and entrees that seem to be cooked by a good Italian grandmother with secret recipes. We were adamant it was the best Italian place in gold coast and we have been going there for over a year now. We were surprised that they changed their menus in our visit tonight. All pastas were taken off the menu and it is only left with the pizzas and some entrees. That should be a red flag to us but we proceeded with ordering assuming the pizza standard would still be the same. We ordered the entrees and pizza. It was a deep disappointment. The entrees felt like the frozen stuff bought from supermarket. The prawns on the pizza were not fresh, and tough. The pizza base was bland and no longer airy. The standard was the complete polar opposite from our previous visit over a month ago. In many ways, we were glad that we came tonight because we were planning to get our friends and parents to go to the restaurant for a gathering. It looks like we have to go look for another place, and we are going back to Balboa. Yes, previously, it was better than Balboa in terms of authentic homely Italian flavour, but not anymore. We were deeply disappointed with the recent changes in standard and...

Merrimac isn’t known as a great restaurant hub, but hopefully Antonio at Origano Italian will start a new trend. My family and I love eating at this little Italian restaurant. The pizza is fabulous. The pasta is delicious. And the alcoholic drinks are well priced if not a bargain.

The owner, Antonio, is always thinking of new ways to update the look and food selection. There’s even a deli where you can buy pasta sauces, biscotti, jams and other Euro delights.

He gives young people an opportunity to train as wait staff, and although they seem a little nervous or perhaps don’t have the experience of service veterans, the friendliness and ‘try to please’ attitude rivals that of my Canadian roots.

The large tavern next door seems to shadow his restaurant, drawing in more customers. But I guarantee that if they tried Origano, the tavern would be a far second in comparison. Better food and prices. (Check out the website for daily and ongoing deals).

I posted some 360 images on Google Street View for customers to get a sense of the restaurant layout. He’s since improved and made it look way better.

Support your local small hospitality businesses like Origano. These places are built on love for food and service. Not...

Really, really nice food. But the service was really terrible.

I believe it's mainly a lack of training and being young and/or new.

When ordering, she: Answered the phone and took the takeaway order in the middle of our table, placing our order, rather than putting them on hold or asking another staff member to take the phone. She was not knowledgeable of the names of the items on the menu or what they are. She made multiple mistakes on our order. I only caught one before finishing the order. Removing the olives. She sits not read out the order at the end. When the starters came to the table, I asked how much cheese they normally add to the Garlic Bread with Cheese, she stated she didn't know. When I pointed out there was no cheese at all, I believe she was embarrassed to admit it was ordered incorrectly, and didn't want to let the kitchen know. She did not attempt to fix the issue, either by offering a replacement, offering cheese on the side, or a refund for the extra. When delivering the meals, she did not bring cutlery, or napkins. But also didn't prompt us to collect any after we had ordered, causing us to have to go fetch it.

I don't think any of these issues can't be fixed through training...