Il Duca — Restaurant in Melbourne

Tonight I probably had THE worst dining experience ever. I called to book a table and the person on the phone just seems to want to hang up. I let it go since we were going to a concert and needed to dine in close by. I got in a bit late and my partner was already there. I was shown to my table immediately, not even a welcome. We were told bread was coming to accompany our wine and it never did. We didn’t need the extra carb so didn’t follow up and the food came out quite quickly anyway. The food was out quickly and was good but the portion was quite small for the price. The staff kept hovering to clean up even though I was still halfway through my wine and was in the middle of an important conversation with my partner. Everything on our table was cleared immediately even though the other table finished most of their food and drinks and still had time to chill with all their empty plates and glasses. We felt like we were not welcome and were rushed out so I quickly finished my wine, paid and left. Almost 100 dollars for this much food and drinks when the experience was horrible. Here’s the thing: we are people of colour and the other people in the restaurants are not. I’ll just leave that there for your judgement. I’ll never come back here or recommend...

AVOID - poor service and rude staff. We were a group of 2 couples in for dinner before going to the MCG. We were handed menus and were asked rather rudely to order before we had even sat down. We had about an hour before the game so wasn’t in too much of a rush, the restaurant was not busy and we were told pizzas would only takes 15 minutes. I had to ask for a drinks menu but the waiter didn’t hang around to take our drinks order so we ended up having to wait to order AFTER our food came out as it was very difficult to catch anyone’s attention. There were about 6 waiters (no waitresses, which says lot to me) and only 4 tables eating, so no excuse for poor service. The food was fine, nothing special and came out quick which was appreciated. Even when handing over a card to pay all we got was a blunt “yes” as he held out his hand - no asking how our meal was, any kind of conversation or a thank you! Our whole group felt uncomfortable here and if we weren’t so hungry and had limited time (and options) before the football we would have just walked out and spent our...

We were in Melbourne for family visit, and one of my dear friends suggested that I try this little restaurant nestled in East Melbourne. So I made table reservations for Monday and waited to see what the menu was like. Well I must say that I was very impressed with all of the menu and the food was absolutely delicious and mouth watering, my wife who is a fussy eater wouldn’t even share her selection and my son was the same. So guess what we came back for another visit with more family members on the Thursday and boom another awesome array of food and wine was served.. These guys really know their stuff, and are only to happy to help with any questions that you might have. My favourite starter is the chicken livers in red wine sauce followed by the seafood marinara and mushrooms with nice bottle of wine finished off with chocolate crepes which were to die for. Thank you Dom and partners we...