La Porchetta Restaurant Sydenham — Restaurant in Melbourne

How this place is so highly rated is absolutely beyond me. Some of the most abysmally poor Italian I have ever had, and that would include that one time I accidentally ordered carbonara from Domino's pizza, and I would still say that that was better than this absolute Tosh.

For starters, we had the cheesy garlic bread and a serving of Arancini. The bread was actually pretty good, but the Arancini was still borderline frozen in the middle. Even after complaining about them and getting a replacement serving, they were still lukewarm at best. Idk, maybe their microwave wasn't working or something.

And then we get onto the pasta, what an absolute travesty.

I ordered the mushroom pasta, which beyond overcooked, to the point where the penne was practically falling apart whenever you put the fork anywhere near it, almost like it had been cooked through, and then just allowed to sit in the water until it was needed. Also, whoever cooked it must have been allergic to herbs and spices, because it was about as bland as the cardboard box I'm sure it came in.

My partner had the lasagna, which she initially said was pretty good, but later admitted when we were in the car that it was actually pretty subpar.

And our two friends both ordered the chicken avocado with fettuccine, both said that it was....okay, but upon leaving the restaurant both bowls were still more than halfway full, so make of that what you will.

The icing on top of all of this, a surcharge of 1.9%, I think it was, to pay via card. What an absolute disgrace.

The only halfway redeemable aspect of this entire situation was the lovely waitress that tried her absolute best throughout our experience to rectify our issues, and obviously none of the blame is attached to her, or any of the serving staff.

Overall, a pretty laughably poor experience. Probably partially my fault for expecting quality from an Italian franchise that has become a bit of a meme for poor pasta, but even still. At the prices they're asking, which aren't exactly cheap, I would expect something halfway edible, and there wasn't much we were served...

I work in surgery all week after very long day of surgery and trauma all o wanted to do was sit with my son and hubby for dinner after very long day mind you still in my scrub pants , this was so stressful first the new waitress told me to look at her screen show her where tortellini was I said I don’t know please get some one else I’m here for dinner , then she kept touching my husband arms constantly, we are in a pandemic, then she asked will you leave a review by now I’m fed up said exuse me why , she said it’s what people do I said look I’m exhausted I just finished work in surgery I’m tired I just want dinner and nice night out with my husband and my son , then I asked her leave the garlic bread she took it so I said oh ok then , my husband literally just finished eating his salad just used napkin she swept plate up straight away, when family’s dine out it’s nice to be left yo enjoy the night with our family , do not touch people this can be classed as harassment and also please don’t beg for reviews , customers leave a review if they want to do not hound us to leave a review . Can we just enjoy the evening with out a new waitress constantly at the table asking questions, extremely unprofessional, we won’t be back extremely dry pasta I left feeling sick and unwell . Upon leaving the chef was ours side roller door up with apron on smoking seriously I bet you don’t wash your hands either then new apron this place is dangerous for health...

We decided to try this La Porchetta with our young family and were quite underwhelmed by the food quality. We usually eat at the Caroline Springs La Porchetta which has better quality food than what we were dished up on this occasion. The older waitress who worked here was very friendly and kind - always checking on our entree which took a while to get to the table. The real disappointment was when my 9 year old son wanted to swap a 10 dollar note for some change to use the toy vending machines. He approached the young waitress at the counter and to my shock, he was brushed off quite abruptly and told there was no change. I wouldn't have a problem if this was genuine and he was told in a compassionate manner. However, it was evident that there was a unofficial no change policy. The owner of the establishment was standing right next to the waitress when this occurred. When we went to pay for our meals, the same waitress was ripping $2 coins out of a brand new coin roll and clunking them into the till. Because of this my husband asked if we could change a note and she still proceeded to tell us they had no change for the machine. Quite disappointing after we just paid for quite a bit of food. My son left very upset - we won't be back. Caroline Springs La Porchetta is the more...