Di Stasio Carlton — Restaurant in Melbourne

1 star feels generous! Not usually one to write reviews, but my experience here was so shocking that I feel compelled to.

To start off, we'd been sitting for 30 minutes before our drink orders were taken. A flimsy paper cocktail list was placed before each of us, and no price OR ingredients were next to each cocktail. I understand there's no need to list the ingredients for a classic cocktail like a martini or negroni, but they had their own made up cocktails on there - how do we know what we're even ordering? By the way, the martini was $27 and smaller than your average martini size. A total rip.

We ordered one cocktail named 'The Pinka Drinka' and another called 'Pistachio Dream.' Both were undrinkable. Later when the waitress took my half finished pistachio nightmare away, I mentioned that I didn't like it very much. She said 'I don't like it either.' Interesting service.

The service was incredibly slow. The restaurant wasn't full and they were clearly not understaffed, either. Getting the attention of our waitress was more difficult than trying to hail a taxi in peak hour traffic in the CBD.

When it finally came time to order our food, the waitress told us with confidence that all the pasta was freshly made egg pasta. I thought okay, well if I'm going to spend $45 on pasta, surely it's house made. The two different types of pasta our table had were very clearly NOT house made egg pasta. It looked and tasted like undercooked Barilla pasta from Coles. So, not only did our waitress lie to us and have no idea what she was talking about, but the quality of it was very poor. It was easily one of the most underwhelming pastas I've eaten.

At this point the four of us were laughing because the whole experience and every aspect of it was so appalling, it was comical. If Kramer from Seinfeld ran a restaurant, this would be it.

We ordered a size of eggplant chips which was about $13. The portion was so small, roughly a handful. We also ordered arancini, which were smaller than a ping pong ball. The portion sizes were comically small!

We also ordered a bottle of Chardonnay for $80, which tasted like Jacob's Creek. The kind of cheap wine that gives you a headache as soon as you sip it.

I don't mind splashing out on dining experiences, but this just felt criminal!

When we were finished with our meals, it took 40 minutes for our plates to be cleared. When the waitress asked us how everything was, my friend said that it wasn't very good. She immediately got the manager, who said 'I've never had this kind of feedback' - he clearly hasn't checked the Google reviews because a lot of people feel very ripped off and underwhelmed!

Don't...

What a farce! This restaurant is a joke. We booked 3 months in advance for a wedding anniversary yet when we got there they did not have our booking. Before we sat down I was asked Still or Sparkling water to which I replied still. I didn't think the man was a waiter as he had on a dirty green t-shirt and jeans, he was quite scruffy and unkept but he ended up being our waiter. A bottle of still mineral water appeared, when we said we meant still as in tap water the waiter replied You asked for still, that is still pointing to the bottle. He indicated that he would take care of it and pulled out his tablet and typed into it. I suspect that the water was tap water placed into the bottle as it didn't have any mineral water taste and he didn't open the bottle in front of us. Luke warm may I add.

I was tossing up between 2 types of pizza and asked for the waiters suggestions to which he suggested that I should try the one without the sausage as he quipped you probably always eat pepperoni pizzas so try something different, have the vegetable one. I obliged after feeling quite belittled. When the pizza arrived, it was the sausage one. I just thought Oh well, he made a mistake and just ate it, as I don’t want to be one of those customers. It was quite good but very expensive for what it was.

Just as we finished our pizzas the waiter came around and asked to take our dessert order, my wife asked for a little longer to make up our minds and have a pause. Sulky waiter walked off. He came back in a little while and asked what we would like. My wife asked for the tart and before I could say anything the waiter turned his back and walked off. I called to him and then said I would like the chocolate mousse. Not even an acknowledgment.

At the end the bill was thrown onto our table however not once we either of us rude or pushy as we probably should have been, we just wanted a nice night out but the waiter from start to finish was rude, condescending and completely unprofessional. I was waiting for candid camera to come out as it seemed like a fawlty towers episode where at ever point they mucked something up. What should have been a special night for us descended to the worst dining experience we have ever had. It seemed that we were an inconvenience to them.

The food was nice but completely overpriced, the service shockingly bad the whole experience terrible, needless to say we won't be going back. I would give zero stars if I could. Don’t waste your time or money at this place, Oh by the way, we were charged $15 for the...

I am still absolutely appalled at the service that I encountered here years ago, to the point that today I decided to finally write a review to hopefully erase it from my memory. I came here 2 years ago after calling in to enquire about a group booking for a surprise birthday lunch for my partner- to which they said there was no minimum spend or requirement for groups to get the set menu. I had spent the past week or so calling in across many restaurants in Melbourne to hopefully book a lunch that could cater to groups of over 10 that didn’t require us getting the set menu as as I was still a student and couldn’t afford to spend over $1k for a birthday dinner- but still wanted my partner to spend the day with friends and have a nice meal. Nothing too luxurious- just something a little on the nicer side. The restaurant happily took my call and told me that there was absolutely no requirement to get the set menu and that they would take my group of 15 in. As soon as I got there and we started ordering- I was met with the rudest manager that treated me with the poorest attitude I have ever encountered in my years of restaurant reviewing. He laughed at my face after hearing my order and told me that I had to order way more than that. I asked him why- he said that everyone had a required minimum spend of at least $75 or something close to that range. I looked at him in shock and confusion as I told him I called in the restaurant earlier and none of this was mentioned. He told me yes we weren’t expected to get the set menu but of course we had to spend over $75 per person- or he wouldn’t make a profit. He laughed at me as he said all of this. The rest of the lunch I couldn’t even eat in peace knowing that the bill would come to over $1000. The manager kept coming over with new wine bottles and pouring it in our glasses to increase the bill. I was absolutely gobsmacked. Could he not see that I was still a student? Did he have any compassion or try to negotiate with me at all? He didn’t even try to discuss further with me after he told me he wouldn’t be making a profit if we didn’t spend over $75 per person. Safe to say, I will not be coming back- and to this day I still think about that bill that came out of that day. I may be living comfortably now and making enough to support myself, but I’ll never forget the disrespect I...