LOMBRA — Restaurant in Adelaide

Not impressed. Went on a Saturday night in a party of 10. When we arrived we were told that we had to order a set menu/ banquet as there were more than 7 of us. We offered to order immediately as the restaurant was not yet full if we could order the dishes we wanted, but no, we were told that they could not do that and a banquet was our only option. Lombra offers only 2 types of banquets and so we chose the Amalfi option. As the menu stated that banquets needed min 3 people we believed this meant that with our party of 10 (split into 3x3 + 1)we could order 2 types of antipasto, 3 types of pizza, 3 types of pasta and 3 types of dessert. Not so. We were told, we would have a choice of 2 types of antipasto for the whole table, but then we HAD to choose only 1 type of pizza, 1 type of pasta and 1 type of dessert for the whole table. When we heard how incredibly restricted our options were, we were VERY UNHAPPY. So unhappy we sent the waitress away while we debated leaving the restaurant and finding our way to another restaurant that actually cared about their customer's desires and preferences over their own rigid and unnecessarily strict rules. While we were still debating if we should all collectively get up and walk out, the waitress came back and said they would relax their rigid stance slightly by offering to allow us to choose 2 types of pizza's, 2 types of pasta, and also 2 types of dessert. As we were already at the table and had been there for 20 minutes, we decided to go ahead with the meal, and select the options that the manager had so graciously allowed his customers. We ordered the antipasto, the pizza's, and the 2 pasta dishes. We were told that we could order our 2 selections of desserts after we had eaten the other food. The food came out in good time, there was plenty of food and it was quite good. When we went to order our 2 desserts, we were told by a different waitress that we could only order 1 dessert option for the table, even though the original waitress had assured us we could get 2 different options. This was not satisfactory, and we made our displeasure known. We ended up ordering 1 type of dessert, and our coffees, and had almost finished eating the dessert when again the waitress returned and advised the chef was cooking our 2nd selection of dessert after all. At this point we didn't really want it but did end up eating it as it was very good. The banquet was very reasonably priced at $45 and the food was plentiful and we were not kept waiting for the food to be delivered, but I will never return to Lombra unless I go in a party of less than 4. If you force your customers to have a 'banquet' because they are a larger number, at least given them options of more than 1 for the pizza, pasta and dessert. The ridiculous rules and strictness and late change of the rules spoiled what should have been a nice meal to entertain guests from out of state. Be warned anyone wanting to book a table for 7+ people on a...

I was absolutely disgusted in the customer service that was recieved by Alicia. My mum had emailed previously before making a booking for 9 people, to which they have a banquet menu for 8 or more people. Upon emailing and communicating with the manager, they had honoured for us to order off the al a carte menu as one of the guests was a child and the other guest has recently had weight loss surgery to which was emailed in what you would think would be confidential information.

As we sat down we were greeted with Alicia who then said in quite loud voice right ok so we have one person not eating and the other is a child so we are doing a banquet. I replied with well we are all eating and I believe we aren’t doing a banquet, Alicia then replied with well one person isn’t eating because they have had gastric surgery if I’m correct? I said well that’s really not for you to actually mention and said you can speak to my mum regarding the banquet. My mum replied with we spoke in email advising you would honour us ordering off the menu rather than a banquet, to which then Alicia rolled her eyes and said I guess I’ll check the email then and walked away. For the rest of the night she dismissed our table and did not give us any eye contact, nor did she actually follow it up with my mum because it seemed like she couldn’t be bothered. The other wait staff were lovely however I felt we were rushed out towards the end of the night to hurry up and get out. When we went to leave we thanked the staff and Alicia could not even look at us in the eye that she basically snubbed us off. The sad part was is I was actually really looking forward to a beautiful dinner with friends to celebrate a milestone birthday, as I had heard great things about Lombra, but instead It ruined my entire experience and I was left feeling so embarrassed that I had to explain to guests that I had weightloss surgery. I won’t return or recommend people to dine there. You could spruce up with customer service more Alicia and maybe keep personal details as such to yourself. In the end you ended up making more on our bill than if we were to have a banquet anyway, there are many other delicious and more friendlier places...

Very disappointed after visiting Lombra for the first time this morning for brunch. When we arrived there were only 2 other tables, so not overly busy. Aesthetics were nice but that was about the extent of it. Our order was taken, coffees first then waitress came back to collect food orders, fairly straight forward order. We received 2/3 breakfast dishes about 25 mins later with no coffees anywhere to be seen. By then maybe 7 tables in total. Given, the waitress did notice we were without coffees, she came over & apologised, said “we’re having some difficulties with our system today” but we then still waited another 20 mins for our coffees, meanwhile many takeaways & other tables were prepared before ours. This is just not okay - if you are aware people have already been waiting & are almost finished their meals, you get cracking to make the coffees & rectify the issue!! Along with this our kids breakfast which was simply poached eggs on toast never came, trying to get the waitress’ attention was impossible so we had to directly ask the chef ourself, his response “sorry wasn’t on the docket” and quickly made them. When they were brought to our table we got the same generic excuse as before “we’re having some difficulty with our system today”. We never received salt & pepper, or sugar with our coffee.. just more annoying things we had to get out of our seat for. Food was average, our big Brekky had mostly cold components & the ricotta pancakes were dry & underwhelming. I understand this is a new business & I really wanted to like it, but when raising my concerns at the end when settling my bill, once again I got excuses “we weren’t expecting it to be this busy today” (it’s a public holiday???) and “someone called in sick”. Rule 1 in customer service; own your mistakes & simply apologise. When there are hundreds of other fantastic brunch spots in the western suburbs, you really need to...