I really wanted to like this place and give them a fair go, but they couldn't get the basics right. Felt like opening night, rather than somewhere that's been open for 5 months.
Arrived at 6.15pm, ordered food about 10 minutes later. About 30 minutes later, one of the waitresses asked us if we wanted to order (not a good sign considering we had ordered already). Another 30 minutes went by and we asked what was happening with our food given it was now approaching one hour. The manager came out and told us that it would be two minutes and was ready. Clearly not true, and another 10 minutes passed, and our food finally arrived, but with no sign of our starter. We questioned where it was, and the manager apologised again and suggested she give us our starter as a takeaway for us to take home after the meal. We politely declined, and she said she'd get back to us. She didn't get back to us, or come to check on us at any point to confirm meals were ok and we didn't see her come back out again for the rest of our meal. It was clear our original order had not been put through (Be truthful with patrons if that occurs).
Pizza ordered for my son and myself was awful. The base was badly burned and inedible. We ended up leaving a fair bit of it and for the bits we did eat, we scraped the burnt sections off with a knife. Meanwhile we couldn't get a hold of any waiting staff to point it out as they were only serving the first 3/4 tables near the entrance, our section at the Pilate shop was ignored most of the evening.
The other dishes weren't great. The Ragu pasta was apparently overdone, and the prawn pasta was very bland. We had to go inside to chase some salt/pepper to add some flavour, given lack of service to our table.
At the end we eventually managed to get a hold of one of the young girls serving, (short black hair). She was lovely and very apologetic. She was far better than the manager, who just seemed to hide away in the back and never came back out as promised to follow up after our initial order issues.
The only saving grace was the 50% off our bill when we complained, but the meal was a write off at that point, and I'd have rather paid the full price for a good meal with good service. By the time we did leave it had taken 1hr 45mins for 1 course, which isn't ideal with a 10 month old baby and 6 year old child.
The table next to us, got served food before their drinks, and then eventually got their drinks about 30 minutes after the drinks order. The table before them were also unhappy. The restaurant wasn't very busy, and we saw at least 4 different waiting staff during our meal including the manager. As a local we desperately want places like this to succeed . It's possible the owners don't realise how badly it is being run in their absence. They need to get in an experienced venue manager immediately to organise, train and manage staff and kitchen. Current one seemed inexperienced and not cut out for the demands and responsibilities of the role.
Edited 27/3 based on restaurant reply to my review
Seems fairly obvious how a review like this assists. It details exactly where you need to work on to improve the experience to ensure locals keep returning for years to come. I can see 2 other reviews in past month that had similar experiences with slow service and inattentive waiting staff, so it should be a quick and easy fix.
Reading other bad reviews here and at Lava Ristorante, you do come across as getting overly sensitive and defensive to poor feedback in your replies to google reviews. Use the feedback as it is intended, and don't get sarcastic or defensive in replies to people that have taken time out of their day to offer honest feedback on their experience. It makes you look...
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