La Spaghettata Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

Response to owner's reply on 9.12.21 - Of course you will defend your staff and make me out to be the aggressive one, but there are always two sides to a story (yelling and screaming was the owner's son, not me); reading through other recent reviews there are other complaints about the owner being rude and aggressive. As we left the restaurant, the nice member of staff apologised for the owner's son's behaviour and said he was ** crazy! Needless to say we did not receive the Melbourne Money cashback as expected, so I was right to question his adamance that the claim would go through - he did not like me questioning the fact that those scrappy receipts were NOT acceptable, when I had made claims before and knew what was acceptable and what was not. So contrary to what you said, he WAS in the wrong. May I also add that it is not acceptable to treat customers in such a disrespectful way, just because they request a till receipt. You should also review your COVID guidelines - we were not asked to check in and our vaccination status was not checked either - totally unacceptable and hefty fines could be received. We have been supporting this restaurant over the years and decided to go back this week, as part of the Melbourne Midweek Money to support the restaurant after lockdown and make a saving too; would not normally dine out midweek. Never again!!!! When we came to pay the bill, I asked for a till receipt to be able to claim the Melbourne Money and ended up being abused by the son of the owner. He gave me the scrappy piece of paper waiters write the order on and told me it was enough for my claim. He even took my phone and started to submit the claim. I knew that this was not an acceptable format as I had looked at the website and claimed before, but he kept insisting it was fine. The more I insisted it was not sufficient, the more rude he became, telling me that he thought it was rude that I was even debating this after they have been closed for 2 years. DON'T participate in a scheme if you can't satisfy the criteria - if we knew at the beginning, we would have gone elsewhere. In the end, knowing he was in the wrong and I was not going to accept his assurance, he came and slammed the amount I could have claimed back on the table for me and said ' are you happy now'? Frankly, yes, because my claim was not accepted, just as I expected. His behaviour was totally uncalled for when he was the one in the wrong, yet insisting that I was being the mistrusting one. Can see from reviews that others have also not received the cash back. Gave 3 stars as the guy at the front is friendly and the food was quite good, albeit on the expensive side. The bruschetta is not Italian at all, with a slice of bread, slice of tomato and unattractive dried herbs...

Melbourne needs you Gordon Ramsay, this is a KITCHEN NIGHTMARE on Lygon St!

I'm always very considered when giving reviews, and while I take no pleasure writing those that aren't positive, it is important to share with others, experiences that are genuinely substandard. Regrettably, this was one of them.

What started with the consummate "pushy" footpath approach, was followed by chaotic and slow service, horribly inferior food and drinks, and buyers remorse.

The fellow looking after us while pleasant enough, did not fill us with confidence, when he neither wrote our order, or could remember it (having to clarify with us on three separate occasions). Tables who arrived later than us, were served before us. We needed to prompt.

Our drinks were mediocre at best, including a lemon, lime, and bitters that left a strange, artificial aftertaste. This was followed by a bruschetta like none I've had before. Over cooked toast, overloaded with oil, accompanied with two lonely slices of insipid tomatoes, torn basil leaves, and no seasoning whatsoever.

Waiting around 40 minutes, again watching other later diners be served meals, we decided to leave if our meals hadn't been made. Miraculously, they arrived.

I am actually struggling to find words to aptly describe our meals. A calamari salad... a Coles mixed leaf bag, half a dozen frozen, fried calamari pieces, with a few whole cherry tomatoes, and olives, minus the promised balsamic dressing. An amatriciana pasta... no rich, spicy Pomodoro sauce, but packet pasta, paired with red, tasteless water, undercooked bacon, several tomato pieces, and 1 whole birdseye chilli.

Spending ~$100 on this was absolutely crazy. Based on this experience, I'm surprised what was obviously once a credible Italian establishment is still operating.

"The quintessential classic Italian restaurant, complete with an amazing atmosphere and kind staff." La Spahettata is neither quintessential nor classic. Doing business in hospitality is clearly hard work, but if you can't do the basics to at least a great standard, don't...

Tourist trap! Beware the 5 star pressure/bribery.

One of the worst fettuccine carbonaras I've ever had, and that's before we talk about the inexplicable fluoro green pasta. Food dye? My partner's meal was oily. Neither had flavour and both were lukewarm. The bruschetta was super oily. Our friends entree never arrived - they were just told they'd run out at the time ours was served - no solutions offered. Awkward.

I've had tastier Italian experiences using those sachets in the supermarket and at the pub down the road. If this place is authentic Italian I'm glad I've never taken a trip to Italy.

The often described "older man" ordered the guys beers as we sat down. 30mins later, no drinks, and we finally chase someone down. They take our drinks order and come back another 10 mins later and say they're out of stock. We order a bottle of wine, and they bring the wrong one. By this stage it's well established that this place is like Fawlty Towers and we're unlikely to have this problem fixed either way, so we decide to just drink it and hope to get out alive.

Service is impossible to find when you need anything - to report a problem, to ask for some water, to follow up on missing items. As soon as you finish eating though, they're constantly at your table, trying to hassle you out the door while you're still drinking wine - and it wasn't busy!

They are very pushy about trying to get people to give a 5 star review... but only those they've done a reasonable job with. We weren't stopped at the door and forced to do it like it looked like some other customers were asked to do, but they'd already done such a poor job...