Stella Restaurant — Restaurant in Adelaide

On Friday 4/11 we booked Stella for dinner for 6:30pm on 5/11. (Online)

I got a call on Saturday at 2pm asking us to come at 6pm because they had another booking on our table. I explained my dad had work and we would try to get there for 6:15pm but I couldn’t make any promises.

So unfortunately after looking for a park for 15minutes (Notorious Henley) Mum and dad went in at 6:28pm while I finished parking up. Mum said the booking name and time and was told “Hannah Said she would be here at 6:15pm” Mum said “Yes, but our booking is at 6:30pm and we’re here now” they responded with “You need to be gone by 8pm we have another booking.” We were compliant and said yeah that should be enough time. So we sat. (By this time, hubby and myself arrived) 6:33pm ish.

Didn’t get service until we asked for it a little after 6:45 and ordered drinks and starters. Drinks took a good 20 minutes to be delivered. We ordered mains at 7pm. Mains came at 7:15, no entrees, we said no please take the mains back we are still waiting on entrees.

Entrees finally came we ordered another round of drinks. (Beer, bottle of wine & Mojito) My husband had chicken skewers - cold Mum had mussels - cold

We complained about the mussels and asked for them to be taken back we didn’t bother about the chicken and husband was too hungry. 🙄 Our drinks came around 20mins later but the mojito my mum ordered ended up taking about 40 minutes in total!!!!

We were told that they had extended our time to 8:15 as they needed the table to which we responded, if our food isn’t here we won’t be leaving or rushing our food because you double booked the table.

Mains came and to be honest and fair, we couldn’t fault them! They were fantastic and hot, however they came at 8pm and dads pizza came at 8:09… so obviously we didn’t leave at 8:15 and weren’t asked to.

We received our bill and we’re charged twice for the mussels, so we explained they were a replacement and had that removed from the bill and the manager gave us a good will gesture of $25 for the inconvenience. I’m thankful for the goodwill gesture but the apology with the excuse of we were really busy tonight really made my blood boil…..

I believe on a Saturday night, in prime location, with numerous events and bookings you should have been staffed, rostered and organised accordingly! Rather than excusing the shocking service due to too many patrons or not enough staff.

The manager said his staff were in training and made many mistakes, to be honest they were the only people that were empathetic, apologetic and kept coming to check on us!

The restaurant accepted walk ins all night which I feel they should of had a cap on. They should have been focusing on their bookings and big tables rather than accepting walk ins with minimal staff.

We won’t...

This used to be one of my favourite restaurants but sadly it is no longer the same. Appears to have new management and staff and they all need a lesson in customer service.

Before I go on, I will state that the food is very good and I was pleasantly surprised by the value for money, however this was sadly overshadowed by the experience.

My wife and I visited on a Thursday night and the venue was absolutely jam packed. The wait staff were also setting up trestle tables wherever they could find room so clearly the policy is "jam as many in as possible."

We were barely spoken to by the maitre'd just ushered towards our table and gestured at to sit down. Unfortunately despite having a reservation, our table was not set or clean, so we had to stand there awkwardly while a waitress hurriedly wiped down the table.

After we finally were seated, and presented with a jug of warm tap water on a 30+ degree day, the same waitress interrupted us THREE times within the first 5 minutes of looking at the menus wanting to take our order. Have you not heard of giving people time?

Also when I enquired as to the specials, the waitress just shrugged and said "steak," then walked off. Absolutely rubbish service. When I dared to stand up to go find the specials board for myself, another waiter rushed over to ask what I needed, and then literally carried the whole (giant) specials board over to our table. Can none of your wait staff actually memorise the specials? There are only two things on the board for goodness' sake!

When the ordeal was over and we are served our food, the value for money was clearly visible. My wife had the porchetta which was great but needed more carrot puree for flavour and freshness. I had the Stella Salad which was huge; I would caution that there is a much higher proportion of lamb to salad, for those looking to keep consumption down. The lamb was also a littke dry, but seasoned beautifully, and overall the dish was very enjoyable.

Unfortunately I cannot recommend this restaurant any more. What used to be an authentic-feeling modern Italian restaurant, with a relaxed and friendly vibe, is now a machine-operated food factory, staffed by robots who clearly don't care to be in the hospitality industry.

The one saving grace is the kitchen staff, who deserve far better representation from front of house.

We...

Came here for my birthday and was really excited to have a nice meal. Unfortunately the excitement was quickly lost. First thing was we booked dinner for 6pm over a week beforehand. I get a call on the day saying it needed to be changed to 7pm to fit more guests in for the night.. So myself and 10 others had to change our plans to accommodate them. Then we got there it was nice inside. The waitresses seemed very bothered and pushy to get us to order as soon as we arrived. We had all ordered drinks and food together. Eventually, the food came out 1 by 1. Then it had been another 20 minutes and my meal was still missing, I asked a staff member where my food was and they went. I then had to ask someone else 5 minutes later and then she went and told the owner and obviously they had forgotten although they lied and said my meal takes longer to make then the rest. 15 minutes goes by and my meal comes out. Everyone else had by then finished. I ordered the "seafood pasta". It looked okay but thats where it ends. It was like a thai/indian noodle soup. The seafood was rubbery and the pasta was the same consistency as the tiny calamari rings which was like coles marinara mix. It was super spicy and had too much water and garlic I have never had to pull out the beard of a mussel in a past dish and have also never had only 2 prawns in a seafood meal. My inlaws had the Barramundi, and at almost $40 it was pathetic. Just a small palm sized frozen fillet with 2 potatoes cut into pieces with rocket and some strange dressing. I have eaten at many Italian restaurants around the country and this was the worst by far. To top things off the owner is a rude little man who would rather argue then fix an issue. We also had an entertainment voucher which is $30 but after putting his sneaky weekend surcharge ontop of the already overpriced food it means you save almost nothing. Btw Aminesh the surcharges you add must be written on the menu not on the desk when you go to pay. Typical sneaky behaviour. (Look it up) This place was good a while back but it looks like someone that knows nothing about Italian cuisine has come along flashed some cash and taken it over. This seems to be happening to all the places around Adelaide lately. It's a shame because it has so...