Cugini's Fitzroy — Restaurant in Melbourne

When we arrived at the restaurant, we were quickly acknowledged and then seated at our preferred table. Unfortunately, this is where the good things stop. We soon realised there was only one staff member covering all tables, and at the time of visiting there were approximately 30 guests (including my group of 4). It took her around 20 minutes before even giving us the menu, and straight away we were advised that the "Mains" dishes were not available this evening as there was an 'apprentice chef' working tonight - a very big disappointment, as the mains items were actually not bad by the description. Why would you open the whole restaurant just for pastas and pizzas, ignoring the mains? Anyway, another 20 minutes passes before she comes around again to take our orders - `1 pizza to share at first, then 4 pastas. Pizza came out promptly, within 10 minutes say, and was okay for us. But the wait time for the mains to come out was well over 30 minutes. Querying where our order was, we got 2 of the 4 mains on the table. Soon after, a chap emerged from the kitchen and advised me that my selected dish was not available - waiting nearly an hour for this news, and the chap then had the cheek to say "should I grab the menu again?" !! At this point I was ready to just walk up and leave, but didn't on the encouragement of those I'd come with. The remaining third dish was another 5 minutes away, and I had to be the loser this evening by getting a little bit from each person's plate - what a life. The food itself, aside from the noticeably substandard service, was unfortunately just as bad. Basically, each separate dish followed the same format - bland pasta, some of it undercooked, mixed with tomato sauce. That is it. No more. We also ordered a side of spinach, silverbeet and garlic, and got exactly two spoonfuls - hardly worth the $9. But at the end of the day, the taste is always subjective, however the service alone is incredibly disappointing. And it is even sadder to see places like this still on TheFork for unsuspecting diners to book through. Please...

I came here because of eat club and I was happy with the experience. I like what they’ve done to the interior of the restaurant and I have seen this building vacant in the area for a long time so I was happy to see a restaurant pop-up here. The bar staff were very nice and the service was good and it was easy to get a table. The first thing we ordered were drinks and I asked them if I could have a sip of the Chianti, because they sell it by the glass and, to be honest was not very good and I was glad that I asked for a sip because it then pushed me to order an entire bottle of Nero Devola which was very nice. The bruschetta was very garlicy which is good for me because I really like garlic and I was here with my long-term girlfriend but for people who have a low tolerance to garlic I would steer away from it or if you’re on a first date, i probably wouldn’t order it (game is game). I had the Osso Bucco parpadelli it was super delicious. You could tell the pasta was home made which is always a nice touch and the sauce was very flavourful. My partner got the Divalo? Pizza? I can’t remember but it was pretty good but I didn’t like capsicum so I didn’t like it but I can appreciate that it was probably good. Finally, we had the tiramisu which was okay but to be honest, it was really wet. I know that it’s biscuits soaked in liquid and covered in cream and cheese and stuff but the biscuits were just so wet like I’ve never had such a wet tiramisu. Don’t get me wrong I liked it but it was soaking. It wasn’t like a drink but It wasn’t like pudding....

Truly the most awful dining experience I've ever had. Hate leaving negative reviews but don't want other people to waste their money at this place. Was drawn in by the incredible reviews (which are clearly fake).

The list goes on and on, so will stick to key gripes:

Waiter took about 25 min to give us drinks menus, then it took about that long for the drinks to be brought out. Waited more than two hours for food. We had a buzzer at our table to request service (weird) and were told multiple different reasons for the delay when asking how far off our food would be. Table next to us arrived 30 min after and had all of their food before we'd had any. Our pizza was cancelled because the chef 'ruined it' and it had a 'vortex like thing' in the middle. Didn't have ingredients to make another one. Was given a 'free' pasta in place of it which they added to the bill at the end of the night anyway. Waiter sat down at our table to take our order - super unprofessional and uncomfortable.

We went for a friend's going away and were all very flat after such a poor dining experience. Food was fine but not worth the appalling service and atmosphere. Please don't...