Settimo by Guy Grossi — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Enjoyed our anniversary dinner here on a Saturday night. Greeted nicely and seated promptly close to the open kitchen which was a delight to see the team working cohesively and view a range of dishes going out over the pass. A glass of rose to start along with the Mt Zero olives with the bride choosing a limoncello spritz. Nice way to whet the whistle, I found the olives a little small and bitter having been warmed nearby in a pot on an element, maybe the rosemary and garlic had gone too far but my guest is an olive queen and really enjoyed them – a solid portion which lasted out the evening. Time to order mains from our friendly waitress in their now familiar sage coloured traditional Italian style dress. The blokes looked suave also jackets and some sporting venetian style gondola pilot hats. I was looking forward to the Italian Truffle Special ‘available until the end of Winter’, and still being spruiked on the website to be advised they had run out of truffles for the foreseeable future, which was a little disappointing… Fish of the day it was then and is offered in both 200g or 400g variants which I thought was great and tonight’s offering was coral trout or swordfish, both served with grilled artichoke. I went with the 200g trout to ensure room was left for the famous tira with beauty opting for the beef onion ragout which on this occasion came with large rigatoni pasta, sharing the beans with burrata as a side. Fish was perfectly cooked, ragout was a fine deep rich stew and pasta perfectly al dente. The beans were just cooked with a bit of crunch still and the warm burrata a great match. A negroni was a splendid accompaniment delivered exceptionally being poured at the table over a sphere of ice in a classic old fashioned providing a little theatre. Speaking of a display, here came the tiramisu individually served from a large dessert bowl at your table again, we even received a larger portion for the special occasion, or to finalise the bowl to crack open a new one – either way, one of the better versions I’ve had with one recently at a high-profile joint on the Gold Coast being made obviously and mostly of canned whipped cream… A ration each of limoncello in equally ornate vessels ended the evening appropriately in this Amalfi inspired setting. Overall impressed but there is one other Italian restaurant I will keep returning to for fine dining – this was good, a bit pricey and more of that ‘bistro/ upscale' feel than fine...

I had a very unfortunate experience yesterday evening.

I had been looking forward to dining at Settimo ever since they opened and have been saving for a special occasion. I booked to have my birthday dinner catchup with some friends, some who had to travel from interstate to be with me tonight.

We were warmly greeted by one of the staff and shown our table. Soon after, we placed our order for starters and mains and within 10mins our starters had arrived.

We had the Crudo Di Pesce which was well presented but lacked flavour, the Ostriche (strange combination of flavours) and the Fritto Misto di Mare which was absolutely fantastic.

We were all having a lovely time and were lost in conversation when one of us noticed that it had been over 45mins since our starters were cleared and mains had not arrived. We politely asked for the waiter to follow up on the delay and patiently waited for an update. Unfortunately we didn’t hear back from him so I waited another 10mins and politely asked another staff member. Five minutes later, a different staff member informed us that the meal was being prepared and after another 5 minutes the mains started arriving.

It took over an hour for mains to be served.

Who I assumed was the manager (staff wearing blazer), served us the mains and I politely asked her why there was such a huge delay between starters and mains, she just said that they were serving a large group. She didn’t acknowledge the long amount of time we waited or even offer a small gesture of appreciation of us being patient and just walked away.

After waiting so long, we had all lost our appetite but really wanted to enjoy our time together. Unfortunately the taste and quality of the food was a let down.

I had a lovely time with my friends and wouldn’t mind a bit of a delay between courses if we were kept informed by the staff. Unfortunately we all felt that our table of 4 was less important than the larger group who was also dining at the same time.

Based on tonight’s lack of service and average quality of food, I won’t be dining at...

Average, Tuesday night dinner absolute flop. Overly priced food for what it was and expensive wine/drinks list. Clearly none of the front staff wanted to be there and everyone seemed unhappy. The host/manager was impolite let alone any hospitable. He wasn’t accepting my ID from a different country while it is in English and I use it everywhere since last 5 years, but somehow he did accept my friend’s ID which was ALSO from a different county And then lectured me for 5 mins straight about the rules and regulations very impolitely too. I don’t think he knew what he was doing or maybe just wanted to take out his frustration; For some reason he was being very nice to other table but us. He didn’t know how to pour wine either: gave me a sample of the bottle we bought on one side of the table, then started pouring big glasses from the OTHER end of the table ~ resulting in the end I only received probably less than 75mls glass; while everyone else were having massive glasses. he then goes to ask if we would like another bottle to fill up my glass like come on.

Waters not topped up regularly, dietaries not asked/ confirmed, Empty glasses not cleared, many instances the staff was just not present on the floor for service.

Food was just pretty bland even though it seemed of great quality and I’m sure it was too but still bland.

Good salumi, pizza fritti, potatoes. pasta e limone was good after some salt and pepper and maybe the pasta could’ve been cooked better, gnocchi was good but a bit strong flavour for me. Couldn’t understand the linkage between beans and Burrata, while it tasted only just fine because it was literally beans and cheese individually. lamb was alright; still a bit bland and small portion not enough for sharing. The pork sausage had pretty strong flavour and it was just like eating mush chunky meat and nothing of “$28 authentic Italian dish”.

Will I visit again? Definitely not, recommend? Absolutely not, I think they are yet to understand what “hospitality” and being “hospitable” means to...