Marcellina Darlington — Restaurant in Adelaide

⭐☆☆☆☆ (If I could give negative stars, I would.) Don’t order online delivery.

If disappointment were a restaurant, this place would be the Marcellina Darlington. I would attach photos but I never received my food tonight.

I’ve ordered from here multiple times hoping—like a fool with hope syndrome—that they’d one day get my dessert order right. Spoiler alert: they never do. What I order and what I receive are always different. It’s like a dessert roulette, except all the slots are filled with things I didn’t ask for and don’t want.

But wait—it gets worse.

Most recently, I ordered a specific dessert (again), only to watch the Uber Eats driver vanish into the abyss without ever delivering it. I contacted the store, and they told me the food was delivered. Given that my lounge room is connected to the front door which was open for the most of the night I can guarantee you it was not. It would be pretty impossible for me to miss it when I’m literally staring at the door right next to the TV.

The staff then decided to gaslight me, insist it was delivered, and throw their hands in the air like it’s someone else’s problem. No apology, no accountability, no chocolate mousse cake.

Honestly, if you’re looking for a place that: • Gets your order wrong • Blames you for their mistake • And ruins your night with dessert-based betrayal

Then congratulations, you’ve found it.

Avoid at all costs. Unless you’re into chaos.

Update: Apparently, all his colleagues dissolved into thin air mid-phone call. First, he claimed to have spoken to a manager. Then he mentioned the delivery driver being right there. But suddenly? He’s tragically alone in the store, unable to help, because he’s “doing all the orders by himself.” I didn’t realize poor excuses could teleport.

Look, I’ve worked in customer service. I get that things go wrong. But when your solution is to lie badly and dodge responsibility while someone is literally out money and food? That’s not just bad service. That’s a masterclass in how to lose loyal customers.

Update 2

Your public response to my review conveniently fixates on Uber Eats and my alleged refusal to contact support — which is wildly inaccurate and entirely misses the point.

Let’s be clear: The issue wasn’t just with Uber Eats. The app glitched, yes — and I was actively trying to work through that. But the bigger problem is this: your delivery driver did not deliver the desserts to my home. I was watching. I was literally watching my door for 40 minutes, and no one came. Not a knock, not a ring, not a rustle of mousse in the breeze.

You write that the “items were sent out,” but curiously stop short of saying they were actually delivered. That’s not a helpful distinction when the end result is that I received nothing — and got gaslit in the process.

Let’s also not forget the dismissive attitude I encountered when I called the store. I was met with contradictions, vague excuses, and then a sudden claim of being “alone” in the store — despite the earlier mentions of a manager and a delivery driver being present. Convenient.

You may choose to ignore or downplay these facts, but your customers notice. I certainly did. And I’ll continue to share my experiences honestly so others can make...

Absolutely appalling service! Have ordered from here a few times over the last month, never any issues, until last night. Ordered a Lasagne and pasta at 12am (still an hour before they close), this is the same order we usually get. The lasagne seemed okay, however the pasta was absolutely inedible. The taste was disgusting and sour. I asked for the zingara pasta add rose sauce (same as usual order) whatever we received was not what we ordered. They either added curdled cream or some sort of carbonate sauce to the Neapolitana sauce, instead of just cooking normal cream into the napoli sauce. It was an oily, separated mess. The taste was sour and somehow chunky? And it left a strange film in my mouth. Got my partner to try it too, and he immediately said it was horrible and spat it out also. This is extremely disappointing, as ordering food at midnight is limited and once our order was wrong, it left us with no where else to get dinner from. I was worried about even eating the pasta, due to risk of food poisoning. We tried to do the right thing. We kept the pasta (didn't throw it out, incase the store wanted to see it). We called to complain and we didn't even ask for a refund at first, we simply asked if next time we if t would be happy to replace that one meal (as we were thinking surely they would understand our complaint and we could give them another shot to correct it). We were very mistaken! The worker my partner spoke to tonight whilst trying to complain was extremely rude, my partner got confused saying cream wasn't meant to be in it, but he called back immediately to explain that the cream was off. He offered to return the meal and all. The worker said no refund or no re make of the meal even. Only 25% of that one meal! That is a joke considering we would drive 20 minutes each way to collect our order. The least that could have done was honour the replacement of the original meal or even a refund for the one meal, especially since we were happy to return it!! Absolutely disgusting service!! And can now say food not up to standard too. It's very unfortunate, we did like their food before this issue and loved the convenience in being able to have a decent meal late at night. Sadly that will no longer be an option for us. Sad to see them not respect loyal customers, who genuinely tried to sort it out with them, before leaving a bad review. Such bad service and management. Extremely...

Worst customer service ever. Arrived at 12am it took 30 mimutes for a bruchetta and kilpatrik osyters as an entree.

The female waiter took over 30 minutes to bring out the entree and had a horrible attitude the entire time towards me and my partner despite being respectful.

Our mains were delivered 30 minutes or longer after the entrees. We weren't hungry at that point.

Our main courses tasted terrible along with the other food.

My marinara was full of oIl and the prawns weren't deshelled properly and my partners carbonra had hardly any bacon to give it flavor.

The waitress asked after our entrees if we wanted the main immedistely but we said 5 minutes more before you bring them out.

20 minutes later they began cooking them, The only compensation for the poor service was a can of drink.

Kilpatrik oysters never came with lemon and hardly a splash of worsteshere sauce, The bruchettas had 0 olive oil and were flavorless.

1/10 wouldnnot recommend again.

We were also sat in the coldest part of the restaurant as her recommendation we swapped to a...