Lorena Pizzeria Locale — Restaurant in Melbourne

I had specifically placed an order with a clear precise instruction that I have NUTS allergy and for pizza NOT to be cut. Yet, despite a clear instruction given, the pizza was CUT.

The reason for pizza not to be cut is to minimise cross contamination risk, as there is pesto on one of their menus.

When customers with allergy bring the food safety concern to the attention, their instructions must be strictly followed!!!

Anaphalaxis is a serious health and food safety concern. People could die from it!!!

I rang the restaurant back to inform them of their mistake — instruction being overlooked. The restaurateurs were rude and ignorant to my concern on food safety. The lady did not even say sorry and acknowledged their erroneous food safety awareness. There was no attempt to rectify their erroneous mistake in whatever form.

Food safety is serious. Their attitude towards it, is questionable whether it is worth your health. There are other restaurants who can provide good food with safety awareness plus good customer service.

If I could give it a minus one star, I would. Does your health worth the risk?

NB: Now — read the answer from the restaurant, it clearly portrays their attitude towards acknowledgment of their mistake in not following instructions. Not a word of sorry, still. Yet, blaming customer for calling out their own mistake on them not following the clear instruction given!

Are they trying to say that customers with anaphylaxis are at fault upon taking precautionary steps in preventing anaphylaxis?

The focal point of this review, is that the restaurant NOT following instruction of customer with anaphylaxis. Whether the pesto indeed has pine nuts in it or not is irrelevant and secondary.

To the best of luck, that it did not contain pine nuts, otherwise, by that pizza being cut, a customer with anaphylaxis can end up in the ICU! Rather than being sensitive to a life threatening food allergy concern, this restaurant is still blaming customer on raising the point of restaurant not following the instruction.

Who was the one not carefully reading the instruction and ignoring it?

Who should be the one taking responsibility to this negligence?

Who was the one mishandled customer concern on food safety?

Who was the one twisting the word of being assertive to abusing?

The owner’s reply on their confusion on how the pizza being cut is related to food allergy amplifies an alarming concern of this restaurant food safety awareness.

My second paragraph clearly stated the reason why the request of the pizza being cut would pose a risk of cross contamination.

My point of concern on food safety should not even have to be pointed out, they should already be aware of it without my having to write about it.

This lack of cross contamination awareness is a SERIOUS CONCERN for customer with FOOD ALLERGY!!

Should this restaurant owner pretends to be not knowing about this serious health risk, I would publicly enlighten this owner. Any utensil used could not be cross-contaminated - pizza cutter is included.

The request and instructions had been placed for a specific reason.

I wonder if the owner pretends to not being aware of the cross contamination or trying to avoid admitting the error made by the restaurant on google?

If the owner being lack of knowledge on cross contamination, then how did they have passed the food handling certificate? What about other food handlers in this restaurant? If the owner being confused about how food allergy and cross contamination link, how can a customer totally trust their food? This confusion on cross contamination is a serious concern.

Taking pride in food is understandable, but being adamant on blaming customer on your mistake is not! Try being apologetic and taking responsibility for your own mistake will be a reasonable approach. Don’t blame others for your mistake.

This restaurant needs to think about food safety and allergy more seriously.

For potential customers with food allergy, please reconsider going to this restaurant despite their good...

EVERYONE PLEASE REQUEST TO SEE THE LOW RATING REVIEWS AS WELL, AS THIS PLACE NEEDS IMPROVEMENT IN THEIR SERVICE AND HOW THEY DEAL WITH CUSTOMERS WITH CONSIDERATION AND PATIENCE EVEN ON A BUSY HECTIC DAY. I am very supportive of local restaurants and business and will put the extra effort to put a great review if they are deserving. I would not have put a disappointing review if the owner had not passed a comment totally unnecessary !! If one has opened a business , please learn how to run it with patience and respect for your customers. Service does matter not just providing food.

Now my experience: Found this restaurant when I was around the area for a hair cut and since I love wood fired pizzas decided to visit and try out with family to celebrate an ocassion. I am not sure what is special in their pizzas, I just found it too cheesy and soggy which was disappointing given the great reviews from ppl. Probably ppl have not tried wood fired pizzas from Gradi and Captain of Aireys.

Also , though I had a booking , neither I saw a table reserved for us nor any staff had the table set or even respond to me when I mentioned that I have a booking which I noticed seemed the norm as hardly any staff came out to set or check on customers except for owner doing the rounds of serving and probably attending when he saw there was a need. Probably one of their busy days !! Luckily I found a table of 4 outside.

Now please pay attention to the below 👇 I had gone there for dinner with my kids and my kids were starting to get hungry hence went into the restaurant after waiting 15 mins or so just to ask how far was our order and if possible to send one of the pizzas if ready. I was being polite and only requesting. Now to this , he looked for our order and for a min he could not find it which got me concerned then after 30 secs or so he found it and confirmed its already in the oven cooking to which I responded “great , thanks”

Now the comment by the male owner which was totally unnecessary “you just waited 16mins and you are complaining “ and he said it in the most disrespectful and mean way which made other customers waiting look at me. I was shocked to hear such a rude comment to a customer who has come out for dinner with her family.

I was just checking to see how far was our order since my kids were hungry , how can one make such an insensitive comment.

Anyways , good luck with your restaurant as you might have demand given you are the only one in that area , if you had competition you would not probably run for long with this kind of service and attitude.

Also , your response to another customer around contaminating the pizzas with nuts was so insensitive. You really need to learn how to acknowledge your mistakes and find out how you can improve rather showing arrogance and ego given you are running a business in...

If you're thinking of going here, stop reading this review and just go you won't regret it. If you want to know more read on.

Wow just wow first time going here but it certainly won't be the last. By far the best pizzas I have ever had in my life and I've been to plenty of pizza places. (It was so good I even forgot to take photos). Ordered the Bonnie and the Ortolana.

Service was exceptional and personal, I was greeted as soon as I walked in and the owners remembered my name after just saying it once. They even asked if I had a dog and they gave me a box of food for my dog. Such a lovely gesture that goes a long way

The pizzas were absolutely loaded with toppings and bursting with flavour, the cheese was super stretchy and had the perfect amount of oil on top to add to the flavour but not make it greasy

Bonnie: Very high quality salami on top of and in between the cheese, perfectly salted and balanced with a hint of chilli.

Ortolana: Absolute ton of toppings on this pizza all cooked to perfection. The artichokes really added a wonderful element to the pizza. This combined with the marinated peppers and eggplant all came together to produce a pizza that was pure perfection

It's true that the owners are really passionate and care about their business as not only was the food perfect but the restaurant itself was immaculate, even though I only ordered takeaway there was not an ounce of dirt or grime anywhere.

Looking forward to my next visit, so you should definitely make your...