Florentino — Restaurant in Melbourne

I reserved my birthday dinner on 27/06 here seeing the good reviews. However, my experience did not reflect any of the above. First of all, I am not allowed to bring my birthday cake in to share, which if fine and when I asked whether I can bring it in to take a photo, the lady over the phone was very hesitant so I just didn’t bring the cake at all. We were warmly greeted in the beginning and the nightmare begin when we started ordering. The restaurant light was very dim and it made us a bit difficult to see the menu, when the waitress in the black frame glasses, brown hair, ponytail came up was the real nightmare. My parents don’t speak or read English very well. Hence, my brothers and I are translating for them. It was a bit difficult for us to translate as the menu was hard to read with the lighting and with all the Italian words. The waitress came up and she was very impatient she sped read through the menu and the special menu and just took off. The restaurant was not the most quiet and with all the Italian mixed in her spiel it was very hard to follow. She left after she did her spiel we were there left dumbfounded. Afterwards we decided to ask her whether there is any recommendations so we can order according to that. Again she was very impatient and rude. She also asked previously whether there is any allergy and I advised her I was allergic to mango. However, my mum didn’t feel like seafood that day so she advised me before we asked for her recommendation. She was in a very condescending tone stating:” you should’ve told me before this is why I asked you if there is any allergies.” I was too shocked to reply as I felt like I was being scolded like a child. I didn’t know not feeling like seafood and allergic to seafood falls into the same category. However, I continue to let her recommend, she again spoke at a ultra fast speed and said all the none seafood is on the special menu. When I asked where is the special menu she said it’s in her head. I do recommend that there is a physical special menu as I cannot understand a single word coming out of her mouth. She also had quite an unpleasant breath, which really affected the experience. A gentle reminder about personal oral hygiene could really help maintain the restaurant’s excellent standards. After ordering I was left feeling really disgusted by her attitude. I can’t believe this is the service coming from a chef hat award restaurant. The first dish took forever to arrive. A simple lemon lime bitters took 20 minutes to service. The time in between each dish is way too long. The ravioli was quite salty and when I mentioned the food was alright to that same female staff she was unhappy with my response and again very rudely said, “ what’s wrong” I had to say the ravioli was quite salty and she seemed very upset about it. The final wagyu was too raw for my parents. I was never asked how we prefer the wagyu to be cooked. I’m not sure whether we are never asked or there was not preference for how the wagyu is cooked. The duck was quite dry and hard to chew. We were never offered the dessert menu as well. In addition, I personally thought she was just having a bad day hence the attitudes. However, she also served the table behind us and because the tables are very close and she is very loud I can hear her voice. I found out she is capable to being respectable and nice to the two caucasian lady sitting behind her which leaves me wonder why here attitude is like this with us? I do hope it is not because of a racial preference. On the contrary, all the other staff I have encountered in the restaurant are very nice, respectable and patient, that’s why I gave one star for service. Overall, it was a very unpleasant experience and it was the worst birthday dinner I’ve ever had. The service really makes up a big part of the experience. Overall I would not recommend to any of my Asian friends out there or friends who doesn’t understand Italian as it seems like it is a prerequisite to understand Italian to order otherwise you will be looked down by...

We attended Grossi Florentino on Wednesday night to celebrate our wedding anniversary. To be mild we were.. discontented. I will summarise the highlights here to save you reading the long rant: Almost every dish smelled and tasted rancid. The best dish (dessert) was below mediocre Rude and impatient service from one waitress -Incredibly long wait times between courses. Expect to sit here for at least three hours, hungry by then end. Asked us if we would like still or sparkling water, asked for still, they refilled our glasses all night while unbeknownst to us were billing $28 for what was two bottles of still water. towards the end of the night for whatever reason the waitress said “did you want to continue with the “mineral” water or would you like to switch to tap?” Tap wasn’t an option offered to us in the beginning. We said oh..tap? and then realised on the bill that our selection of “still water” was apparently a luxury. Felt pretty misled with this. More detailed review follows.

We were seated upstairs in the Mural room which was a quaint little dining area with paintings and ceiling work. A cosy atmosphere. The waitress walked us quickly through the specials, five minutes later we tried to order said specials to hear they were sold out. we asked if she could walk us through the menu, she was quite short with us and we got the feeling she was becoming irritated when we asked questions. She actually said “if you see the menu it says the dish name in Italian and then described in English..”

She also asked my husband if he would like a drink before our food arrived, walked away without looking at me, I called her back and said i would also like to order a drink. Pretty rude and well, just strange.

We selected the 7 course Gran Tour which was $210 pp. (it still says $180 pp online with different menu items listed). Suffice to say the portions were tiny (fine dining, sure) and were genuinely just of bad quality and taste (and smell). -Appetisers of mussels and scallops, (about 2-3 pieces each) and a single undercooked and very small king prawn each -Lobster risotto. barely touched, it smelled awful, had the appearance of baby-food slapped on a flat plate with the lack of concern for presentation consistent in every course, and tasted like overly salted mush. they realised we didn’t eat it so replaced this course with a seafood pasta, the smell of which immediately made us wince. it was a very undercooked, translucent and jiggly seafood with a super fishy broth base, spinach and an al dente triangular pasta that was more like rubber. needless to say this was mostly left too, although we didn’t want to complain of the replacement dish on top. -Then came the duck dumpling/pasta of sorts. Again, the smell. it was very hard to get past the smell to take a bite, which was gamey, with a fishy undertone. weird texture too. didn’t eat this either. -After a total seating time of about 2.5 hours came the wagyu which we were hoping would save the night. it was 3 lukewarm slivers of tasteless beef, some peas and gravy. it tasted like a microwave meal. At this point we were just tired and wanted to leave so put it aside and asked for the final course which was dessert. the dessert included was a souffle. we asked for a tiramisu in place of one of the portions so we could try one of each. this was requested prior to the booking. the souffle was a white airy/lemony eggwhite with a strange gooey white inside that just tasted like runny half cooked half raw egg white. untouched. the tiramisu was just mediocre. -end of the night we went to pay after over three hours of disappointment after disappointment, the bill totalled $522 for 2x gran tour, two drinks each and the best part was the $28 change for water. we actually laughed at this. we paid and left without expressing our dismay to maintain the integrity of our night. An unbelievable experience that has put us off of “fine dining” for good. It was a joke to be served such dishes and charged this price. The water was a hilarious touch. thanks guys,...

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Eatery of the Year 2011: Tao's (Bulleen) [RIP] Eatery of the Year 2016: Ladro (Prahran) [RIP] Eatery of the Year 2017: The European (CBD) Eatery of the Year 2022: Paris Go Bistro (Carlton) Eatery of the Year 2023:...