Ella Bar Grigliata Pasta — Restaurant in Melbourne

My family and visited here a couple of weeks ago, very keen to try out and support a new restaurant in Richmond. As soon as we arrived, I was struck by the lack of staff on the ground. Two people serving all tables (admittedly it wasn’t full) and they both looked stretched. The manager on the night took a while to get us seated; we had to stand at the door for a little too long, and the greeting wasn’t warm either; no smile. Once seated, we wanted to order a round of cocktails as we could see it was a full service bar. However, no cocktail list! After around 20 minutes of waiting to be served, we asked if we could order and fortunately we were told we could order any International cocktails (martini, negroni etc) which suited us fine. After some time, we eventually got our drinks and ordered the food and wine. The cocktails were actually very good so I do hope there’s a cocktail list soon! Our meals arrived haphazardly; my mother had to wait another 10 minutes for her main dish to arrive after the rest of the table. However, once the meals did arrive, the food was actually very tasty. The Ragu was, according to my mum, the best she’d ever eaten. My orecchiette was delicious. Serving sizes for mains were very generous too. All things considered, we had a pleasant meal. The decor/ fit out is stylish and comfortable, especially the booths (love booths), however the wall mural - is it supposed to be Ella Fitzgerald? I think she’d turn in her grave. It’s a bit on the scary side (something to to with the mouth and teeth…). And the menu - there’s a number of typos that need to be fixed. I know I sound picky, but I really want this restaurant to survive as I can see a lot of investment has gone into it. I’m sure it’s just some teething issues that can be...

30 March Review Sadly we won’t be back. We were a table of 7 and had requested a table as opposed to a booth and were given a booth. Asked to move and we were given a table with 7 settings and four glasses. The person who waited on us seemed completely disinterested, had to ask for additional glasses. The barman had to give us the specials as the other person didn’t bother. Food was okay but calamari was very salty and we were given extra bowl of chips and charged for it even though I pointed out we hadn’t ordered them. When second drink orders were being taken Dave interrupted me to speak to people who had just walked in. There were 4 tables in total, so not busy. Dave also took water carafes away and didn’t return them. I really wanted this venue to succeed but it won’t with such poor service. It was our 3rd visit and sadly the last.

February Review Our group of 5 visited on 3 Feb for lunch and we loved it, tried a selection of cocktails, wine, beer and digestives and a large selection of food, oysters, calamari, cerviche and arancini for entrees and fish of the day which I loved - blue eye cod with kipfler potatoes, asparagus and a herb salad, ox cheek ragu, spaghetti pescatora, octopus and smoked eggplant croquettes, 2 friends managed to squeeze in a cannoli each, how I’ll never know but it looked delicious and they didn’t leave a crumb. It’s a shame it’s been quiet both times we’ve visited but we had fun anyway, go and eat folks, let’s not have another empty building...

I came here to support the new local business in Richmond, and also because I heard the food was great!

In that department, that's true! The food is delicious, perhaps one of the best Italian food I've been served in a while.... However it was pretty dampened by the service.

I note that there were maybe two to three people on the floor. My waiter was nice, but there were times where I felt my table was forgotten. However, he was very attentive and friendly when he got to us which was good, but I did wait for a while to actually have my tables order taken.

The food was amazing. The wait time for the food was a bit too long. I found myself eating alone after the rest of the table ate their dishes, which didn't make for a good experience. I wish I could have dined with them, rather than having them watching me eat.

We also ordered a couple of desserts after, which I thought would have taken maybe 15 minutes especially with us being the last few people in the restaurant, but I think it took 25 to thirty minutes which felt too long all considering.

I want to say that the food is worth the wait, but I really don't like to wait for my food for too long... Staff could be trained to just check in and assure us and acknowledge the wait to ease this.

Ella bar, I want you to succeed! Please just look into improving serving all the mains in quick succession, and to improve on staffs...