Il Gambero — Restaurant in Melbourne

Terrible experience - SO terrible that we couldn't even sit down to place our order. Upon entering, I asked the owner if we could have a table for 2. He asked us very rudely if we had a reservation. I was taken aback, but I still replied to him - no.

He then pointed us to a very tiny table wedged between two bigger tables. We still proceeded to sit down, where we squished our bags onto the couch-ish seat with the back to the wall. Lo and behold - the owner comes charging aggressively to our table and proceeds to demand angrily that we place our bags on the floor (never have i ever come across any host behaving so badly). I replied to him politely that we'll remove our bags from the seats once the neighbouring party arrives. The owner very conveniently proceeded to ignore my very reasonable reply and continued yelling aggressively. By this point, I had had enough and proceeded to inform him of his arrogant, inhospitable and ridiculous attitude and stormed out of the restaurant - in search of a normal restaurant with a normal polite host.

Interestingly - the table next to ours had placed their bags on top of our seats, and not on the floor - but the owner did not seem to mind that at all!

Racist? Or just a terrible excuse for a courteous host? You pick.

Would've given negative stars if I could. Only go here if you want to spoil your evening.

Looking forward to the owner's replies to see how he chooses to lie his way through...

Our usual Thursday lunchtime place had a COVID case and so we searched for a place in Lygon Street a week ago. I picked Il Gambero because I had seen it on a discount voucher site and had walked past over the years. Lygon Street is not been busy at the moment and there was also a lot of street parking around which is unusual. We were delighted to see a wide range of options on the menu and wondered how they would turn out. That day, we had the risotto, spaghetti, garlic focaccia (recommended instead of the garlic bread), mussels, pork ribs and a nice bottle of rose. All of the food was tasty and the seafood was well cooked. On our return trip yesterday, we tried the scollopini, eye fillet, risotto and salad. We added cheese to our garlic focaccia and it was delicious. Bill, our host was delightful and remembered us from out previous visit. That is what you need to make you feel welcome at a good Italian restaurant. There are lower cost options on the menu (entrees can cost in the $17 range and mains can range from $26 up to $46). We got a nice 20% discount the first time from the food voucher offer but returned without using the voucher place and still got the discount when Bill remembered us. With wine, a two course meal (entree / main and main / dessert) plus coffee cost about $180 after discount for 4 people. It has made our...

Food was fairly good but service manners were a little lacking. We had the large 10 seater at the back with another 10 seater adjacent to us. Our booking was for 10 and we comfortably fit on the table, the adjacent booking was also for 10 which would have fit fine but the group decided to just bring along an extra 2 people. This resulted in two extra chairs being brought for their table and closing the gap and squeezing back onto the edge of our table and completely cutting any walkway out. Not to mention the table was being fairly rowdy which just added to the discomfort.

Upon making mention of this to the wait staff we were given a "what do you want me to do? Kick them out?" Of the spectrum of apologetic to understanding and through to combative he chose the more aggressive end. I would have been on board and quite appreciative if some semblance of understanding was shown but it was not. The adjacent table was overbooked and overbearing but we were made to feel in the wrong due to the tone of message and delivery they chose to use.

Further to this the rest of the interactions with the wait further with our group was quite terse and cagey.

I would recommend the food here but not the wait staff which ultimately means I will...