Impasto Forno Antico — Restaurant in Melbourne

Utterly disgusting experience, popped into impasto late in the day today to look for their baked pasta dish, as it’s one of my favourites. They were sold out, I decided to ask if I could order a tray, the lady was very helpful and polite she offered to enquire for me. As I was leaving the man behind the coffee machine his name “Michel” says to me why don’t you just make it!? I said “oh there’s something about the Italian sauce and the way it’s made I love”, he then proceeded to laugh and said it’s easy it’s just sauce and pasta, I said “I know..but” before I could finish he said “no, I don’t think you do know”. Clearly offended I said “well that’s rude and I left”. A few things here that really upset me, as a customer I should be allowed to enquire about ordering a tray of pasta that is beautifully made, without feeling guilty that I can’t/ or don’t know how to make it. Secondly belittling someone is not something that should be tolerated, I felt about the size of a grain of rice when he said that to me, as if I was pathetic to be ordering a tray of pasta. I rang the store after I left to get his name, he then rang me back to ask me why I asked for his name, I told him I was upset with the way I was treated, he apologised insincerely because I had told him I was to write a review, if he was sorry, when he made the comment you could clearly see I was offended I even told him that was rude, he should have apologised to my face instead he just laughed at me, yet when I’m on the phone he was trying to say sorry.

I word of advice Michel, you work a business that sells products, when a customer comes into buy a product even though they could make it themselves they are at that business for a reason, if someone orders a sandwich are you going to tell them they could make it themselves? Incredibly disappointed in this experience, such an amazing bakery. People like Michel...

UPDATED: 5th Nov 2021

Unfortunately, I had a not so good experience today from one of the lady staff behind the counter. I specifically ordered BAGUETTE rolls for the "Make your own" selection. I repeatedly mentioned "baguette" (at least 3-4 times) because that's what I ALWAYS order. I even gestured in my hand the elongated shape of the baguette. And yet the rolls that came back to my wife and I were Ciabatta. I just really prefer their baguettes coz it has a crunchy, yet soft texture than the Ciabatta.

I attempted to get them to correct the order, but instead of accepting her mistake, the lady told me off and said "I HEARD you said CIABATTA" in a very firm voice, as if I was the one who made the mistake!

Even with masks, "CIABATTA" and "BAGUETTE" sound totally DIFFERENT!

I insisted for them to correct my order but she was clearly annoyed (from her own mistake!), and luckily, one of the managers or maybe even one of the owners, IMMEDIATELY apologised to me and told me that my order will be corrected. He even offered me an extra free coffee for the trouble, to which I said no to.

So MASSIVE THANKS to the guy/manager who corrected the order, and apologised for the mistake, and even after I repeatedly said "no" to "extra freebies" he wanted to give us, he STILL gave us FREE sparkling mineral water.

THANK YOU SO MUCH! The service that that guy/manager provided was excellent, and should be the benchmark of service - hence I'm still giving 5 starts to Impasto.

Whilst I DONT believe that "Customers are always right", I do believe that every customer, specially those complaining should be heard and not made feel as if they are just there to cause trouble, because seriously, who wants to cause trouble??? People just wanna enjoy their coffee and food!

Food and coffee at Impasto are always excellent, and we will still come back, despite this unfortunate...

My partner and I come here every now and then (not very often). The food is pretty good but the service has always been quite average. None of the staff is overly friendly, but yesterday we came in around 2pm and had a below than average experience. We went in, decided to buy 2 pizzas, and then thought we should ask if they cut the pizzas into slices as we were going on a picnic and didn't have any knives on us. The woman serving us had already put them in a bag and responded to us with "you should've asked me 5 seconds ago". Mind you, when we entered Impasto, she didn't even greet us, just looked at us unimpressed. My partner immediately said "you can just keep the pizza" and we left. I will never be coming back here. My partner and I both work in customer service, and this was just not acceptable. Having spent a significant amount of time in Italy, and my partner being Italian himself (has only lived here for 4 years), this type of customer service is shameful to the Italian culture and everything...