90 Secondi — Restaurant in Melbourne

Very good pizza, the sister restaurant of 400 Gradi in Brunswick East, 90 Secondi is a fairly recent addition to the Docklands restaurant scene. Located on a prime corner of the new NAB building near entrance 3 of Ethihad stadium this modern Italian pizza restaurant is in a prime spot to draw in the crowds attending events as well as those working in the neighbourhood. The concept of both restaurants is around cranking up the heat in their pizza ovens and cooking the pizza for a brief 90 seconds. This is how it should be done in the true Napoli style apparently.

I booked a table for a number of friends and on arrival were shown to our table promptly. The table we were given was upstairs.

Our food order was taken promptly after our drinks arrived. We were just settling into our drink and pre dinner conversations when... dinner arrived. Not much more than 90 seconds (well probably a little longer but only just haha). The pizza was fabulous and fresh with very simple but flavoursome toppings. The base was really one of the nicest I think I have had in Melbourne all wood fired toastie yet with some spring in its bite. We were very satisfied with the meal. The only drawback was that while we enjoyed our meal it almost arrived too quickly.

There was no settling in or time for conversation and before you know it we were at the other end of the meal being asked if we wanted coffee and dessert, which looked good btw.

Probably the first time ever I've complained about prompt service. This place would be perfect for a quick office lunch but I guess I was wanting more of a...

We went to this restaurant to have a nice family dinner before the football. We arrived over two hours before the game started yet we didn’t get our meals until two hours later despite them knowing that we were going to the football and that’s why we had booked!

The meals came out at all different times which was ridiculous and made the experience very awkward. The gnocchi came out more like a soup. There was barely any gnocchi in it, I like they ran out! We were told we couldn’t have pizzas because the oven wasn’t working. The salad was just a bag of lettuce with literally one piece of tomato on the top and nothing else. The seafood pasta was bland, oily and uninviting. The meatballs were cold and swimming in sauce. The dish was supposed to come with some beautiful bread but it tasted awful. It was not well toasted and wasn’t much of it for the amount of sauce. The bruschetta we ordered was the same the breads and had no effort and no flavour. This meal was over $350 and was not worth a quarter of that price!

Drink service was slow and annoying. The tables were crammed together so that you feel like a sardine ruining the whole ambience.

Overall it was a disappointing experience. We paid a lot for our football tickets and ended up missing at least half of the first quarter. We arrived, annoyed, and feeling ill from having to eat our food so fast as it arrives so late. Not a good experience would...

The service was quite slow but I presume that was because of the event that was on that we did attend. The food was nice. I do however think for a child’s meal the price needs to be revalued.

I would also like to make comment from the review from last night from Sonya. I watched the managers behaviour first interacting with his staff and he was very rude and at one point was raising his voice very loudly at one of them and throwing his hands up in the air. Obviously due to the pressure of the demand in the restaurant. But if customers are noticing this type of behaviour it makes for an uncomfortable atmosphere.

Secondly, as the couple walked out the manager was right up in front of the man’s face which imagine would have been quite confronting. I think you have to realise after waiting for a meal of 45mins plus to then get the wrong order it’s understandably going to put the wrong taste in people’s mouths. And yes, I will acknowledge the manager apologised and did offer to fix the meal but you have to understand at this point customers won’t be happy and will not want to pay and leave. Adding to this the atmosphere was made to feel hostile and on edge.

I would recommend communicating the service time prior to customers ordering so then they can make there choice if they wish to stay or leave prior to ordering.

Overall our meals were fine but as the saying goes “the customer is...