LiTO — Restaurant in Gold Coast City

Would have given atmosphere an extra star but we were steered away from the table we wanted with the comfy tub chairs as were told 2 large tables were coming and and it would be a problem- the 2 tables were of about 8 pax and no where near the ones we wanted. She seemed to be the manageress as she was dressed differently. She sat us down without a drink menu. Overall the service showed inexperience at its VERY best - starting with the woman we believed to be the manageress. Then the first waiter wasn’t sure about the wine I ordered so decided to write the whole name out on his docket because he said “there are just too many on the list”. I did tell him there are only 3 whites by the glass. We asked a waitress for lots of lime for our water and received 2 small pieces. I then asked another waitress for extra lime for our waters and received 1 small piece!! We ordered 3 entrees. The octopus was lovely and full of taste and presented well. The heirloom salad was constructed with 50% soggy mushy tomatoes and it was obvious the tiny bit of dressing had not been mixed throughout the salad. We caught the attention of waitress and she agreed and said she would tell the chef…….and…….we never saw her again so we ate mushy undressed tomatoes. The original waiter arrived to ask if we wanted to order mains and we said we hadn’t received our third entree yet. It was fritto misto and had been over fried so much that it was like chewing on the sole of a shoe and the whitebait just cracked in half when we tried to pick it up with a fork and some pieces were soooo hard it crunched like a hard nut in our mouths. I wish I had taken a photo of all the round hard bits in the plate. We had to eat it slowly as it truly was inedible but we knew that complaining wasn’t going to help. As we were chatting and eating the male waiter appeared and cleaned up all the dishes on the table including my husband’s plate and cutlery which were on the sides of his plate as he was still eating—-leaving the fritto misto and my dish and cutlery only. We were so shocked; we didn’t even speak. Elevated Dining you say????? Ummm not at our table. We actually laughed as we felt we were in an episode of Faulty Towers. Obviously we decided to just have one main to share as we weren’t expecting much and we were RIGHT. The pasta with fennel sausage didn’t have any fennel taste and the sausage wasn’t broken down. It was large hard chunks like when someone is in a hurry. The waitress put it in the middle of the table so we asked for a spoon so we could dish it up and she returned and put the spoon in my plate!!! I ordered a second glass of wine and that came with ease. The main was cleared and 20 minutes passed and no one came near us so we have to assume they don’t offer desserts. We decided to have dessert and coffee elsewhere and asked for the bill. I went to the bathroom and returned and then my husband went to the bathroom and returned and then he asked for the bill again. We both agreed we could have left the restaurant and no one would have been the wiser. Guess the Sunday surcharge means they don’t have to follow through on service. Overall the wait staff starting from the head needs training in Elevated Dining and then practice in service for this type of restaurant and the chefs need to be sourced from high end establishments so they know how to cook and present. When dining at “An Elevated Dining Restaurant “a guest expects dishes that are pretty flawless and service to complement. We waited till now to try this restaurant purposefully so that the glitches were ironed out but they...

I’ll start by saying our food was excellent. We kept to the classic Italian selections. Burrata (although I didn’t realise it was served bizarrely with ROCKMELON that my partner and I both didn’t touch), focaccia, lamb ragu pasta, clam pasta, and the tiramisu.

There were red flags in the management and serving staff before we got to the restaurant. We were actually called the day of our booking asking if we were ok to change our date to the next night. When my fiancée politely reminded them our booking was flagged as our 5 year anniversary dinner, so you know, it’s that night, they quickly changed tune and told us it was totally fine and they weren’t actually going to change our night!

Our initial greeting by the floor manager was great. Then we were taken to a table served by someone else. They gave our menus and then we never saw them again. Someone else took our orders for drinks first before we decided on entrees. Our first drinks which were cocktails arrived after our entrees. Then another server said we couldn’t keep our drinks menu as they needed it for another table but took it before I could protest which I thought was a bit funny for an upper class dining experience! Waived another server down (who looked extremely stressed and had to circle back to us a few minutes later) and dropped us another drinks menu. We ordered a bottle of wine. A DIFFERENT server came over and I was expecting to taste the wine. No he just silently poured two glasses without talking or making eye contact with us and then ran off as well. We also were left a wine bucket which I hadn’t expected. Too short staffed to serve our wine? Only cost us $100 for the wine but ok! Afterwards our food was served in a timely manner but I don’t think a place like this should feel rushed and it certainly shouldn’t have sweaty servers running off their feet. Why aren’t there enough drinks menus? Why are there not enough staff? Seems like a few small changes would elevate this to a much more pleasant...

we visited Lito for a birthday dinner. there’s no signage for the restaurant however it was relatively easy to find. the space is quite packed and loud and we found ourselves having to repeat ourselves frequently. the waiters and maitre'd were quite polite contrary to other reviews however it was very difficult to flag down anyone for anything. they gave us one drinks menu for a table of 7 which made it very difficult to decide on anything in a timely manner. the food itself was mediocre. we were told that the dishes were all share style when we ordered so we ordered a good selection of everything. the chicken was dry and the skin was burnt. it had very little flavour without the sauce and you had to rip it apart yourself. the steak was also dry and quite thin which is not what you would expect from a $88 ribeye. you get exactly 6 pieces of pumpkin and ricotta cappellacci which set us back about $5 a piece. the ragu came to us lukewarm. the caesar salad croutons were stale but the overall flavour was good. the meatballs were mediocre and dry (again). the bite of the night would definitely be the potato al forno; they were perfectly crunchy and well seasoned. one issue that occurred over and over again was being brought the wrong food or drinks. it happened several times over the night which was annoying. it also took almost an hour for our mains to come out. the table near us ordered later but received their food before us. (they ordered some of the same things as us) the wine list was extensive and had a good selection at a fairish price for a glass. the cocktails were good but not show stopping enough to pay $25 for one. the espresso martini did not taste like it was made from real espresso which was unfortunate given Lito is a cafe during the day. i will cut Lito some slack for being new however at the price we paid (almost $500 including drinks) i would expect a little more sophistication and for the food to...