Monelli Burns Beach — Restaurant in Burns Beach

The restaurant itself is beautifully designed. It’s elegant and chic, with a clean and light aesthetic. The only downside is that it’s facing the wrong way! Instead of looking out towards the sea, the front door and outside seating area is overlooking a road and just metres away from a children’s park. We arrived for an earlier seating of 6:30pm, so there were still kids playing loudly next to us. As you can imagine this didn’t really fit the vibe.

I’m going to be really critical here, as the menu promises finer dining that most places in the area..

focaccia - the bread was well made, light and fluffy on the inside with a good crisp crumb. Although, it lacked flavour.. a little sea salt on the top before baking would have really improved it. Stracciatella - a simple dish but the quality of the cheese was great and the mix with the citrus fruits made it feel light and not overly rich. The dill oil and chilli/garlic honey was very sparse so I didn’t notice it until I got a small piece of chilli.. which was delightful but more was definitely needed. Tiger Prawns - the prawns were a great size, very meaty and cooked to perfection. The spicy butter was a bit of a let down, lacking its namesake - spice. Its texture was slightly watery, not exactly what I’d imagine from a butter based sauce. The cannellini beans paired nicely with the dish. Oysters with Campari & orange granita - what can go wrong here? Oysters tasted fresh, the granita was zesty, cooling and a wonderful palate cleanser. Cacio e Pepe - the star of the table. The tortellini was Al dente and not too thin nor thick. The filling was creamy and umptious, the sauce tangy with pecorino, the guanciale salty and fatty. Of all the dishes, it was the only one seasoned perfectly. Cavaletti & crab - plated elegantly, with a wonderful rich orange colour from the capsicum. The cavatelli was cooked exactly as it should be, nice and al dente. Unfortunately, it lacked seasoning and was on the sweeter side of things. Sweet crab with sweet capsicum, it needed something a little umami or zesty to balance it. Speaking of zest, it was supposed to have something limey about it, it didn’t. Brussel sprouts, whipped goats cheese & orange vinaigrette - I was really looking forward to this side dish, unfortunately the sprouts were overcooked and barely warm, resulting in a pool of sprout water forming at the bottom of the bowl. I couldn’t taste the vinaigrette. The whipped goats cheese was wonderfully salty and had the sprouts been crispy and hot it would have been a delight to eat. Twice cooked potatoes - standard new potatoes, on the harder side of the scale. They seemed more par-boiled than twice cooked. Tasty because well, potatoes are always tasty, but lacking that comforting feeling a well cooked ‘crisp-on-the-outside, fluffy-on-the-inside’ potato brings. They redeemed themselves when dipped into the whipped goats cheese though! Baked Gelato - although feeling quite full we decided we had to try this dish. It sounded light and refreshing. Sadly, however, it appeared that the Italian meringue had been over-whipped. Resulting in a split and lumpy texture, covering a watery and melted bowl of sloppy strawberry compote and what used to be a lemon sorbet. The flavours were all there but it hadn’t been executed as we’d hoped.

The menu is exciting, full of promise with a host of luxurious ingredients but perhaps we came on an off day as I was expecting more from the food.

The service was good and food and drinks arrived promptly. We will certainly be back again to see what else Monelli has in store! It has so much...

The night started out great, as you walk through the door you are greeted by the friendly staff and guided to your table, although with what we had in mind I probably should have asked for a bigger table to start with as me and my lady friend like to try lots of different food, yet the table we were assigned was a little too small. Still or sparkling was the choice of table water, which in some establishments don't even offer these. Not 2 minutes later another staff member had come to take our drink order; negroni classico for myself and my lady friend asked for a spiced rum and coke with only a few cubes of ice. 10 min later we were approached again to take our meal orders which is ample time for us to have made a decision by then, kudos for timing! The charcuterie board along with the beef tonnato was to start our appetites off. Charcuterie board: 3 out of 5 Beef tonnato: 5 out of 5 (note*)

Next were the mains, I myself ordered the parpadelle all ragù alla genovese, which i have tried in the past in other Italian restaurants. Thinking to go with something I knew and was a safe option trying a new establishment. My lady friend ordered the risotto di topinumbar, which off the page sounds delicious. Sadly this is where the night took a sour turn. The ragù hadnt been cooked for long enough as the gristle within the Chuck portion of beef hadn't broken down in the length of time they had cooked it and was quite chewy, almost elastic. No smell or taste of thyme could be picked up let alone the mirepoix that was used in the stock, all of these components were what I believe to be masked by the overzealous amount of parmigiano reggiano that the chef thought would be adequate to use. The parpadelle was cooked perfectly though so not all bad.

The Risotto was the worst of it all though, bland in flavourings, so much that you couldnt even taste the artichokes which were meant to be the star of the dish as well as the Risotto. We couldn't even taste the spring onion sauce, nor a hint of wine in the dish as well. Lacking would be good description. Oh and to mention there was raw garlic that was found in this dish too, this wasn't part of the dish's explanation.Although once again Risotto was cooked perfectly.

When we sent the food back i could see the reaction of the chef's face in the reflection of the doors and what i seen proved what i thought. Denial from the chef that all the food that was cooked was exactly how it was meant to be. The fact of there being raw garlic within the Risotto and denying that it was meant to be in there and that it was cooked, goes to show that the establisment could do with performance reviews of the chefs instead of treating customers like they dont know nothing, especially when that one person is a chef of 20 years. just own up to the mistakes guys, we are human after all. Myself and my friend will not be returning to this place. Final overall review in our opinion is 2...

I wanted to give some feedback as I understand you are a new establishment but I feel like there are some simple things that need improving for long term success.

Negative Experience: We waited Approx. 25 minutes after being seated to be seen and order drinks No hello or greeting, the man who served us just approached the table and said "have been told what we don't have yet" not ideal for first impressions or upselling No Non-alcoholic beverage menu (both of us don't drink alcohol so this felt like you excluded this market a bit) Had to ask for table water as nothing was offered No apologies were made for being left unattended for so long we just had the server say "you weren't forgotten about we are just busy". We wouldn't have cared if there was a wait if the people were nice about it. Had to ask for napkins, other tables around us had fabric napkins, when I asked for some I was handed a pile of paper napkins. No one checked on us during or after we finished our entre, and we waited for ages after we finished our drinks and food. When someone finally approached our table we wanted to order one main to share, we were then told it would be another 30 minute wait for a single main. The price and atmosphere reflect fine dinging but the service doesn't reflect this We decided to leave after entre, and when we approached the till we were both told "we make everything fresh so that's why it takes so long" very passive aggressively which made us feel uncomfortable while paying. Again, very passive aggressive, we didn't even complain at the venue. Like bro yore a restaurant, one dish shouldn't take that long. I also feel the responses to reviews online very defensive, you are a brand new venue trying to create a reputation. Just say sorry and move on. Don't claim you'll pull up time stamps to prove a customer wrong. wrong approach. The service we experienced felt like no one wanted to be there and that it was a hassle to do things for customers... Hospitality revolves around serving and being hospitable to customers... you might be in the wrong industry if this is your first week and no love or passion can be felt coming from you or your staff.

Positives: The venue is absolutely gorgeous, I love the interior design, the tables and decor look beautiful.

We wish we could have tried more of the menu, however we were put off buy the whole experience. I truly wish success for your business but I just wanted to let you know some of the issues we experienced with the sequence of service, from two people who have worked in hospitality for many many years.

Wishing you all the best in the...