Piccolino Restaurant — Restaurant in Melbourne

I dined at this establishment 2 weeks ago on a Saturday. I've had to think long and hard how to word this review without complete outrage and anger at the service experienced during our outing.

I'm still having a hard time coming to terms with the service at this restaurant but I'll lay it out from beginning to end.

My partner and I had a booking for 8.30pm on a Saturday. We've been wanting to go for months but have either been busy or left booking too late. Luckily we got a booking but it seems like it was for the last seating.

We arrived and waited for someone to come and seat us, as per the sign. It seems the staff were busy elsewhere so we went and found someone who showed us to our table. 10 minutes go by and our waitress comes to take our order. The chefs specials look amazing tonight so I decide to treat myself to some Morton Bay 'Bug Tails' but unfortunately the waitress informs me that there are no chefs specials on for the night. Disappointed, we order drinks but ask for a few more minutes to figure out a new order. 5 minutes later we place our food order and go back to our drinks.

At 9.05 our meals come out. The meals were nice but nothing to go crazy about. We had a market price steak and salt and pepper squid. We weren't provided with cutlery so I go the the bar and the staff head to the cutlery station

10 minutes into consuming our mains the waitress comes over and informs us the kitchen is about to close and asked if we would like some dessert. A bit taken aback as we're only half way through mains but we take a look at the menu and decline any dessert but ask for another round of drinks.

30 seconds later the waitress returns and informs us the bar is now closed and we cannot get anything further. To clarify, it is 9.15pm on a Saturday night.

With this new information I ask the waitress for our bill immediately. Said waitress goes to the counter and prints out our bill, puts it in the book and...leaves. Does not bring the bill over but grabs her bag, walks out the front door and drives away. At this point I walk up to the counter, pay the bill and leave, still in complete shock over this dining experience.

Piccolino markets itself as an upper class Italian restaurant in the suburbs. This is not the experience I had dining at this establishment. The staff obviously wanted to get out ASAP and didn't give a stuff about their job or the customers.

I left extremely disappointed and bewildered by the whole experience. Luckily they shut everything down so early I had time to go to the supermarket and get the ingredients for the cocktails we intended to consume at Piccolino; the only silver lining of this craptastic restaurant.

I feel if we had a 6.30-7pm booking that our dinner would have been a different experience. I suggest if you're taking bookings for 8.30pm tell the customers to load up all they want for the evening by 9pm otherwise you'll get shafted by...

I had been looking forward to dining at this restaurant for a long time, and I even drove from Brighton specifically to try it out. My conclusion: this restaurant is all show and no substance. Apart from the decor, there’s nothing noteworthy about it. It seems the management is exceedingly arrogant and certainly displays racist tendencies.

To start with the relatively less problematic aspect—the food. The quality and taste were acceptable, but considering the restaurant’s pricing, the food was decidedly overhyped and not worth the cost.

Now, onto the service, which was atrocious. After placing our order, it took them nearly half an hour to start serving the dishes, and one dish never arrived. Additionally, the drinks we ordered never came at all, despite waiting over 20 minutes. When I asked for water after ordering, it was only brought out after the food arrived. My wife is currently pregnant, and after ordering, I specifically emphasized that apart from the oysters, which my wife does not eat, all other dishes should be fully cooked. Despite this, the duck we ordered was served medium/medium rare. This clearly shows that the waitresses completely disregarded our specific requests and didn’t listen to what we said at all.

The most infuriating aspect, however, was the blatant racism in the service. As Asian customers with a reservation who arrived five minutes early, we watched as a group of white patrons waiting before us were promptly seated while we were ignored. Even when the hostess was conversing with the white customers, she didn’t bother to acknowledge us with a simple “please wait a moment.” The white customers themselves appeared embarrassed by this oversight. For a restaurant of this supposed caliber and price point, this behavior is unacceptable. The subsequent delay in our food and drink service only reinforced the impression of discriminatory treatment, as we observed that the white patrons around us received prompt and orderly service.

We were seated at a table next to the bar, where several idle waitresses were present, yet none attended to our needs. A person who appeared to be the manager also showed no concern for our situation, failing to apologize for the missing dish and drinks.

I will certainly never return to this restaurant and will caution all my friends, particularly those of Asian descent, to avoid this restaurant to prevent experiencing similar...

First the positives. All of the staff we dealt with were extremely friendly, helpful and efficient. Secondly, I really liked the interior fitout and atmosphere of the restaurant.

The problem I had was with most of the food. To be fair we did not have any pizza and from what I could see the pizzas that were being served at other tables looked very appetising. The problem can be summarised as the unecessary addition of sweetish gloop to many of the dishes. For example, a side dish advertised as broccolini, garlic and parmesan was served in a pool of sweetish gloop. Why? What was it? It wasn't garlic or parmesan, at least not in their original form, and these ingredients were nowhere to be seen in the dish. Next example, a seafood pasta (pescatore) was advertised as containing cherry tomato olive oil and chili. Again, whilst the seafood was nicely cooked and generous (as it should be for $40) it was served in a sweetish gloop. The chilli appeared absent, the tomato flavour was very subdued and muffled by sweetness and something of a mayionnaise consistency like the broccolini. Again, why? What were the incredients that were not advertised? The calamari was also afflicted by sweet gloop, advertised as n'juya mayo but in reality oversweet with no discernible spicy or salty flavour that would come from n'juda, or acidty to balance the sweetness. We also had the quail special. Whilst this was spared the gloop, there was a berry sauce (which to be fair was advertised) that was oversweet and not balanced with any acidity as it clearly should have been. Our companions had two gnocci dishes which also looked to have gloop in addition to or instead of the advertised incredients but to be fair I did not try them so I can't be sure.

It may be that the use of bland, sweet emulsions in place of fresh ingredients appeals to a certain clientele, however it did not appeal to me and my partner and I am guessing it would not appeal to many people who like authentic Italian food. I'm sure the food could be terrific if you just stuck to fresh ingredients, and dial up the salt, spice and acidity in place of the sugar.

I can see that management are consciously reading and commenting on these reviews (which is commendable). I would really like to know the answer to my questions...