Osteria 20 — Restaurant in Melbourne

When Osteria celebrated its second birthday last Wednesday – having survived its troubled infancy to make it clear to one and all that it was here for the long haul – maître d’ Giuseppe and his savvy sommelier Frank decided it was time to pop a few corks. In the event, they didn’t confine themselves to opening the odd magnum of champagne. For this night, wining and dining meant opening their spacious function room to specially invited guests, most of them valued regulars, for an occasion to remember – or, if you drank everything placed in front of you, to forget. In any case, to savour.

This night the vintages were provided by a prize-winning South Australian winemaker, Riposte (with a swordsman on the label sticking it to an invisible foe). To educate our palates, Tim Knappstein and his wife, Dale – the vintner’s general manager – had come all the way from the Adelaide Hills to give us all some of the background to each of the samples laid before us.

I’m happy to say it wasn’t a long time between drinks (hic!), as each of the six food courses arrived with timing that felt like clockwork but could only have been achieved with attentive human orchestration.

As we all sat down to table after introducing ourselves over an introductory ‘Scimitar’ riesling -each vintage being named after a different type of sword – hands appeared in everyone’s peripheral vision and deposited a salad appetiser – beetroot carpaccio, shaved fennel, truffle and pine mushrooms.

There followed a ‘Stiletto’ pinot gris. Conversations (and not just conversations) began to flow; and, before we knew it, a perfectly prepared pithivier – a chicken pie that has its origins in France’s Loire Valley – made its appearance.

If I had taken the wise advice to deposit any “undrunk wine” in a large jug just out of easy reach, you might have had a more detailed description of the later stages of the evening, but I was well brought up (to eat and drink whatever was put in front of me) so, where memory fails, I am now turning to the tasting notes on the assumption there were no last-minute ‘ring-ins’.

Wait a minute … no, somewhere between my saturated trace memories of the award-winning 2014 Halberd (a white co-ferment, Frank assures me – 70 per cent chardonnay, 30 per cent voignier) and 2018 Dagger pinot noir (or was it the 2016 Sabre pinot noir?), my taste buds insist we did indeed enjoy a poached turbot followed by slow-roasted beef fillet, with barley risotto.

It’s amazing how much brain and tongue memory endures after a cognitive collapse – but part of the reason was the faultless service and attention to detail. Both chefs made well-received speeches that earned rounds of applause from satisfied customers in all parts of the room.

One reason for the kudos is that they confided an ambition to make this the first of many wining-and-dining nights. To judge by the success of its second-birthday party, Osteria20 – like any lusty two-year-old with a healthy appetite – can look forward to ever more enjoyable anniversaries ahead as it grows from strength...

A Disastrous New Year’s Eve at Osteria

If you’re looking for an evening of chaos and disappointment, Osteria might just be your ideal spot. We booked a table here for New Year's Eve expecting a memorable night, but what we experienced instead was a complete debacle that left us frustrated and fuming.

Upon arrival, we were greeted (or rather, not greeted) by a tall Asian man at the reception who, after confirming our booking, vanished for 15 minutes, leaving us awkwardly stranded in the middle of the walkway. It took a kind woman stepping in—who, even while juggling a phone call, managed to do what he could not—to finally escort us to our table. But that was only the beginning of the nightmare.

We were abandoned at our table for 30 whole minutes. Waiters floated by us repeatedly, ignoring us as though we were invisible. It was infuriating. Just as we decided to leave and salvage what was left of the night elsewhere, a waiter finally acknowledged us. Against my better judgment, my partner insisted we stay, and we ordered. Moments later, another waiter informed me that my dish, the Lamb Rigatoni, was unavailable. Seriously?

As if things couldn’t get worse, two separate waiters delivered incorrect orders to our table on two occasions—first two portions of fries, then some entrée we didn’t even order. This wasn’t just bad service; it was pure incompetence.

Despite having at least five waiters in a half-empty restaurant, there was zero organization. It felt like we had every single staff member randomly attending to us at some point, but none of them actually managed to provide proper service. At this rate, even a busy McDonald's down the road would have treated us like royalty compared to this disaster.

Osteria may look the part of a premium dining experience, but the service is an absolute joke. Charging those prices for this level of chaos is insulting. Rococo’s up the street—despite often being packed—manages to deliver flawless service every time. As for Osteria?...

Honestly the food was 5 stars but the service was 0 stars. A man who seemed to be the server in charge served us and was honestly horrific to us. We were excited to have a nice dinner and the food was exactly that but our server made us feel unwelcome and uncomfortable and we left as soon as we had eaten because of it. He was not only rude but seemed to have friends dining that he continually went to chat to after serving us and was seen multiple times looking pointedly in our direction and laughing. There was not other tables near us and it was not at all behaviour that was potentially just a misunderstanding as he was rude to us directly too. The real nail in the coffin was him coming over and asking if we were done or "still nibbling" when we still had 2 whole pieces of our pizza left that we had gotten very recently. He made it very clear the whole time we were there that he wanted us to leave and there was no reason, as we ordered promptly, we ordered a decent amount and the place was almost empty. When we paid he skipped over the tip himself and this very much seemed to confirm that he was aware he had been rude and unpleasant. None of his behaviour was at all accidental and it made us both feel horrible. We've both been at other times and when he was working have found he is rude but luckily at other times it was busy enough that we mostly got other servers. The food is lovely and well priced but I can not go back if I will be served by this man. I'm sorry that the chefs have such a horrible staff member who ruins their delicious food. Order this food delivery, don't subject yourself...