Luigi Delicatessen — Restaurant in Adelaide

I’ve given this a lot of thought, and after reflecting on my experience, I felt compelled to revise my review. I don't want others to go through the same disappointment we did, and it's still frustrating me weeks later.

We visited the Franklin Street location and, unfortunately, the menu prices listed online were completely inaccurate. Once we arrived, we were only given a verbal menu—no printed prices were available to us. We assumed the prices would align with what we had seen online, which ranged from $22-25, but that wasn’t the case. Our meal, which included one entree, two pasta dishes (gnocchi and spaghetti), a can of soft drink, a beer, and two coffees, came to more than $150—significantly higher than the $100 total we expected based on the online menu.

If we had known the true prices, we would’ve left immediately, as we don’t typically spend $45 on a single pasta dish.

While the unexpected addition of a talented pianist playing mid-meal was a pleasant surprise and the music selection was great, it doesn’t make up for the disappointment we felt over the price discrepancy.

My reply to your response: We reached out to you the very next morning through Messenger and also spoke with Nick. After reading through your ‘lowest rating reviews’, it's clear that this issue is a recurring one. Many customers are consistently pointing out the shock they feel when presented with prices much higher than those listed online—sometimes more than double what they were expecting based on the Google menu.

It’s concerning that, despite numerous customers voicing similar feedback, there’s been no apparent solution. You’ve responded to these reviews, so you’re clearly aware of the ongoing issue. However, despite the fair and reasonable concerns being raised, you continue to dismiss or argue with customers who are simply trying to offer constructive criticism.

This situation is a missed opportunity for you to take responsibility and make your pricing more transparent, which would prevent others from feeling deceived or disappointed in the future. In today’s economic climate, especially with the rising cost of living, a lack of transparency feels particularly irresponsible.

I’m not questioning whether your prices should be this high. What I’m concerned about is that you're actively ignoring clear and reasonable feedback from your customers, who are leaving feeling unsatisfied and ripped off. This lack of transparency and communication is unprofessional. It’s not just about the prices; it’s about respecting your customers and making sure they don’t feel blindsided by...

It kills me to write a bad review, as the owner is so incredibly nice - I originally came on here to simply delete my previous raving 5 star review, but google won't let me delete it, so I'll have to edit it after such a big let let down and embarrassing experience we had today. So after my first experience (original review below) I could not wait to bring my whole family here. We booked and came for breakfast (8 adults and 1 baby) we were not given any menu option for breakfast, just told that we had to have a platter (we did see other tables were getting individual plates of food, so it is obviously possible?) The only question we were asked was if we had dietary requirements - the answer - one is vegetarian and one other cannot eat dairy. Due to these two, they brought out two platters, one without any dairy - meaning half of us had to eat to their requirements (why not just bring a special serving for that individual?) and the other platter with the meat on a plate instead of it being mixed on the platter, but nothing extra for the vegetarian in our group to eat 😳 the boards were not very impressive. With not enough of each thing for us to have one each - cheap things, like 3 pieces of asparagus for 4 people and a small bunch of spinach, enough only for 2 servings, maybe! And 1 yes ONE tiny pastry meant for all 8 of us 🥴 With us all trying to be polite, none of us ate enough to fill us for a proper breakfast. As there's no menu, you have no idea how much things cost or if you got what you were supposed to get. We were horrified when the bill came out and just the platter alone cost a whopping $272 😯 We also ordered a plain scrambled egg - just one egg without anything, for our 13 month old. They charged us $7.50 for that alone. As we weren't told what was on the board, or asked if we would like it, the boards came with a bunch of poached eggs - not all of us like poached - we could at least have been asked how we would like our eggs and we easily could have had one of them scrambled instead of poached for our baby. I was so embarrassed to have brought my family here and would never recommend it for breakfast. Polar opposite experience from my lunch with my partner.

Both the $272 platter and lunch on our first experience pictured.

*My original review - One word - Amazing 👌 Very authentic Italian food, with warm and welcoming staff and a beautiful atmosphere. It doesn't get better than this! We can't wait...

I emailed the restaurant directly to let them know of our experience but got no response so I will let others know of our experience so they can decide if they want to come here. As the restaurant obviously doesn’t care about their customer’s experience.

Myself and 5 friends dined at Luigi’s for my birthday. There was a few things that we were disappointed about on the evening. When we ordered a coke and a bottle of water right at the start of that night we had to ask for it 3 times and they still hadn’t come. I saw the coke and water finally sitting at the bar for a further 5min before going up to collect it myself.

I ordered a cocktail a Pinacolada before dinner. After we had completely finished dinner I was still waiting on the cocktail so I went to the bar again to find out where it was. The bar tender said “oh we don’t have coconut milk so we won’t be able to make it for you, the waiter should have told you that.” I was very disappointed it would have been nice to of been told as it was a birthday present from my friends.

One of the dishes that came out for our table was the risotto. It was way too salty and none of the 6 of us could eat it. We told the waitress who just seemed dismissive. She could have asked to remake the dish or offer us something else which is pretty standard in restaurants. We also found the chicken over cooked.

We were very upset when we got our bill and were charged $5 per bottle of tap water without being told there was a charge for it. If we had been told we wouldn’t have minded as we would have had the knowledge. When a bottle of water with a cap comes to the table I understand the charge but not when it’s coming from the tap. This should definitely be told to customers.

They don’t offer a menu with prices. They tell you dishes they have on for the evening and just ask what you would like. I thought this was very sneaky as they can just charge what ever they want. We were very shocked when we got the bill and saw how expensive the food was for not amazing stand out food. Very overpriced for what we paid.

We just expected more from a multi award winning restaurant which is what brought us to dine with them on this special occasion.

With the lack of response from the management we will not return or recommend Luigi’s to our friends or family...