400 Gradi - Essendon — Restaurant in Melbourne

This is a hard review to write both personally but also as the acting manager did help us out...in the end. I booked 400 Gradi for as my son's communion celebration but also as his older brother's halfway through chemotherapy for leukaemia and he was at last able to go to public places and both boys love pizza. Where better to book than a restaurant literally around the corner from us. I specifically entered both details into the text of the booking hoping that the restaurant would make the evening special. I was so disappointed. The waitress was obviously new and took her time getting the order right, she asked if we wanted entrees first and I said yes. I remarked to my husband that she was not confident so we spoke slowly for her and she reiterated the order to us correctly. It started well the polpette, focaccia and arancini all arrived quickly and were nice especially the polpette. Before the entrees were finished 2 mains arrived, a special lamb ragu. My husband and daughter tried to make them last waiting for us but after 25-30 mins they were finished and no sign of our 3 main courses. We called the waitress, complained and asked her to hurry through the pizzas and last pasta. She came back and said the kitchen was extremely busy and we would have to wait. I said but we are now over 30 mins and 2 mains are completely finished you need to prioritise our table. We still waited.... My husband then spoke to the acting manager Esir who said he would 'do something'. There was a 50 min wait in total. The pizzas went down well but the second pasta was a dry and cold take on a carbonara called 'mezze maniche carciofi e pancetta', I make my own carbonara and this was not good. I've worked hospitality as a younger person and have always been told that customers complain for mostly valid reasons, and they deserve have a proper explanation and/or simply a rush on their remaining dishes. When paying we spoke to Esir, he explained that the 2 special pastas were put through as entrees as he could see it in the system. He apologised and gave us a decent discount on the meal which we were grateful for and the only salvation for the meal. He did a good job and acknowledged that he had read the special requirements of the booking but our meal was not what we had wished and we really wanted dessert but were not willing to wait and pay for it so the kids went home with no dessert. This is not just a local cheap and cheerful, the meal is expensive and customers should expect to be treated well and get a decent service. The restaurant staff appeared very young, and the wait staff were doing a lot of standing around waiting to work but the meals were slow coming out. The kitchen simply did not have enough people. Simple things like waitresses cutting the pizzas might have just hurried the service along. This place is too expensive to feel like this after a meal that was supposed...

400 Gradi is one of those unique mid to high-end restaurants where the extravagant price tag is justified by the quality of their food, but yet when it comes time to pay the bill, you still somehow feel like you've been shortchanged.

For further context, I had the Mushroom Risotto and my partner had the Lasagna.

Let me first start by saying that the quality of both dishes was absolutely superb. If I was rating this restaurant on the quality of their food alone, it would be a five-star review, no doubt about it.

But I think I would be remiss if I didn't echo the sentiments of a lot of other reviews that have come before me: Yes, the quality is fantastic, I don't think many people are going to refute that. But for the vast majority of dishes on their menu, you're paying upwards of $35+, and the serving size you get for that is less than adequate, and that's putting it nicely.

I definitely get that it's a trend for high-end restaurants to charge high-end prices for small servings, and then justify that with the 'quality that they're providing'. But whether 400 Gradi can be considered 'upmarket' enough to be able to use that as an excuse, I'm just not sure.

Let's be fair here, they're definitely a step up from the fish and chip shop that sells pasta on the side, they're probably even another step up once again from a good portion of the Italian restaurants on Lygon Street. But it's also not Dinner By Heston, Vue De Monde or even Florentino. And the unfortunate reality for 400 Gradi is that there are plenty of Italian restaurants in Melbourne that serve similar quality food to what they do, and at a quarter of the price.

And now we get to the reason why this is a 3-star review and not a 4-star review: The 1.5% fee that is added to ALL efpos transactions.

Absolutely unacceptable sorry. I understand, as a business owner myself, that it costs you guys to have that Epos terminal, and that it's a business expense that you incur to maintain that service. But when you're asking the kind of prices on your menu that you're asking, I think you can incur the $1 or $2 extra, and just chalk it up to the price of doing business.

Ordinarily, this would have been a standard 4-star review, great food, small portion sizes, excessive prices. You're not the first restaurant in Melbourne to which that descriptor applies to, and you're not going to be the last. But it's just that little extra cherry on top of an already excessively expensive cake.

Would definitely go back for the food, but probably only at the end of the month when you were having a half-off sale. 3...

The food was far Too expensive for the quality & quantity received! Service by the waitresses was shocking. Waitresses not bringing the drinks ordered for over 30min until reminded by guests on our table. Waitresses confused by the other waitresses who had already taken our drinks orders! The prices of the drinks far too expensive Shocking responses given by 1 of the waitresses serving our table...

Q.s asked to the waitress; "how long will our food take, we have been waiting over 1/2 an hour plus"?

Waitress response; "I don't know"?

2nd Q.s to waitress; "can you go and ask please"

Waitress response; she shrugged her shoulders screwed up her face giving a facial expression that implied "whatever"😒

Response to waitress by daughter nlaw asking the Q.s; "don't look at me like that, you only needed to go and ask how much longer our meals will be, no need to make that face at me the way you have...that is so RUDE"!!!😡

Sadly I witnessed this conversation taking place between my sons partner (who has eaten there before, but had no problems) and the waitress serving us. I had read the reviews prior (good & bad)...but as it turned out, we ended up with the same bad service as given by other reviewers... Our night out celebrating a b'day, was affected by rude a waitress & her mannerism, confused waitresses over drinks ordered, over priced drinks, and sadly, the quality of the food not matching the prices or flavors My family loves food, but the quality, quantity, prices & service, wasn't great, and yes, we could've got better food for what we paid, elsewhere! An expensive lesson learnt

The only person who had a great friendly attitude, was the manager on the floor who in turn gave us discount when I queried the bill. I must say, he was the "only" friendliest person at that restaurant Sadly, this restaurant will not be in future plans, of a place we will take our celebrations too, because of our experience there I'm assuming the waitresses & the chefs, cant handle large group orders..or if anything, may need separate chef's specifically doing the Entrees & 2 others doing Mains, including waitresses specifically serving drinks only, and the others on meals (just a suggestion) May others going here, have a better...