Just Italy - Mentone — Restaurant in Melbourne

Very Disappointed! Wish I had of read the recent reviews before dining at Just Italy Mentone. (that the business had recently been sold and the new owners have not kept up the same service) We dined tonight with my family to celebrate a milestone birthday after driving past and admiring the restaturant from the street. Wish we had never walked in. We were seated quick;ly and then forgotten about, ater and menus were on the table and then no staff came back to take drink orders or ask if were wanted in assistacne, We waved a staff member over to take our drink order and we ordered our meals at the same time given that we had so much time to look the menu. Our wine glasses arrived empty, but no bottle of wine, (we had ordered a $100 bottle of wine!) our entree and appertizers arrived, still no wine, when we asked they said it was coming.... we waited entrees had finished and it felt that staff were avoiding our table, we called staff over who then said we have lost the cork screw... we are looking for it!!!! No offer did we want something else, no apology. We then see and hear staff standing around whilst asking another to go run down to the super market and buy one, as we had a window seat we watched this drama unfold, poor waitress was ordered to run to supermarket returned with no corkscrew was then told to go the other direction somewhere else, returned again still no corkscrew, meanwhile we still have 2 empty wine glasses!!! Eventually a corkscrew is located and wine is brought to the table, no apology!!! Poured glasses and left, meals we brought out and again they avoided us all together, in particular the senior wait staff. There was no follow up or offer of anythign else, we ate our meals which were nice but nothing special, we ordered dessert and coffee and again disappointed, coffee arrived and drank before dessert was on the table, mind you dessert was a pre made dessert nothing we had to wait for. The pastry was so hard ot felt like it was a week old and the custard was so dry definitely no freshly whipped as the waitress said when I complained at the end of the night. After providng my feedback to the senior waitress at the checkout there was a I'm sorry about that, (with no care really, just said to be said) but expectation to pay the enitre bill, after again saying how disappointed and saying that it would be nice to have had better service and maybe some compensation for our bad dining experience. $20 was taken off the bill with much reluctance and a manger who didnt want to talk to me and gave message to her staff. Needless to say we won't be back, it's just a shame that this restaurant is still trading under what appears to be a reperable name. I thin k La Porchetta may have been a better pick, may be not as fancy looking but as the saying goes, dont't judge a book by it's cover. Disappointed that our expectaions of a nice dining experience were not met on such a special occasion....

Warning, Do not go to this place as it has changed owner. Absolute garbage now. Have eaten there with previous owner a few times and was great. If you still want good service, I recommend going to the Oakleigh establishment still with original owner and staff. The food is now either burnt or under cooked and the worst thing is the service there. The service has deteriorated badly. An example, walked in and waited to be seated whilst the young girl was on her mobile phone taking an obvious social phone call. Was totally oblivious to us being there. Finally got of the phone and didn't walk us to the table but pointed to where we were to be seated. The restaurant was very quiet..... I wonder why. This was obviously not a one off, because more of our friends walked in and had the same girl talking on her phone whilst they waited. Then the service was slow and the pizzas burnt. Not very good for a place that wasn't even busy. I would hate to see the service and food if it was busy. That is obviously why it is not busy. New owner equals terrible restaurant. Like I said, never had a bad meal with the previous owner. Go to Oakleigh if you want to experience the original quality Just Italy.

REPLY TO RESPONSE FROM OBLIVIOUS OWNER.

You must be confusing my review for someone else that you also obviously had complaints from. My issue wasn't even about vaccination status. So you obviously have had other problems from other customers. And how dare you deny that I did not eat there and am making false reviews. I most certainly am not making false reviews and did not even complain about the food or service on the day i attended your establishment. I asked for the owner when there and was told youn were not in the establishment, so I thought I just will not bother eating there again. You were not even there at that time we attended. I was there a few weeks ago now. And as I said, food bad, service bad and now being called a liar by the owner. Great business you are creating. Will never ever come back again and will most definitely stop anyone I know from attending. Great...

Tonight, one of our (disability) clients chose this place for a dinner, a group of 7 of us. Table service was pretty good, wasn't a fan of my pizza but I'm fussy. It was authentic italian. Clients enjoyed their meals. Unfortunately when we went to pay they told us we couldn't split bills. This is how we always pay at restaurants and most places make the exception without fuss. However, the woman who I spoke to was not happy at all. I tried to pay on our staff card but there wasn't enough on there to cover all meals. She just stood and glared at me giving a big shrug. I explained to her we didn't have any cards that would cover the whole meal. She finally let us split the bill but it was a very stressful experience. She said it was because it took too much time but spent a good amount of time giving attitude about it and they also weren't actually that busy... It was a disaapointing end to the night. Usually we encourage our clients to all pay for themselves and use their cards and ask for receipts and speak directly to the server but due to this woman's attitude, unfortunately, i had to take all of their cards and quickly tap for them. I also needed a receipt for the staff meals and was denied one. When we got home, one of our clients said she had really enjoyed the meal and could we go back there... Unfortunately, we won't be able to take our clients back to this place as it's a requirement of our work place to split bills and to let our clients be included in the payment process to encourage their independence. I can understand if the place was very busy but it wasn't. Also perhaps let people know at the beginning of the meal that you do not split bills rather than at the end.

in short; it's not just that they didn't split bills but the attitude we received in response to this in our specific situation. Our clients go out every weekend and we've never had this...