Sardo Sorrento — Restaurant in Melbourne

Waste of money, go elsewhere

Coming from an Italian background, being to countless Italian restaurants both in Australia and Italy, this was easily one of the worst italian restaurants I have ever walked into. If La Porchetta had a restaurant on Main Street I would walk into La Porchetta better yet the old Fasta Pasta chains before going back to this joint again.

DRINKS As we first arrived, we kindly were asked for beverages to which we ordered 4 Birra Moretti’s on tap which come at a delicious $18 a pop. Now being on holidays, money for me is not too much of a fuss but when they come back and one of the beers are only filled half way due to the keg running out, logic would tell you that you’d only pay for half right? Wrong. If you want to order an espresso martini, please bare in mind that it’s possibly been done with Nescafé Blend43. Also the Daiquiri’s we’re about as exciting as the cliff hangers on days of our lives. Wine pretty good but expect to cop $70-$90 for a good drop.

FOOD For entree’s we ordered the oysters and kingfish, the oysters borderline felt as if they’d been sitting in the sun, whilst the kingfish had about as much flavour as a rubber tyre. The pasta dish we got was quite nice as was the veal schnitzel, nothing spectacular though.

SERVICE Credit to the bald guy who was the only good bloke with good service and quite friendly however the night took a sour turn when the bloke who has 8 different Ralph Lauren shirts sowed together decided to come over and tell us “time out” before saying hello or asking how our night was. By “timeout” he meant he needed our table and that we needed to get a move on. Now I’m a reasonable man, I understand the pressures the hospitality industry is currently under and would of been happy to leave even given we were only 90 minutes into our 2 hour booking. However the rudeness and way in which this bloke came over and rushed his new guests over was disgusting, appalling and against common decency given we’d just dropped $600 on dinner. To add salt into the wound, when I’d gone to pay the bill he actually continued to try argue with me, explain that I was wrong about our booking time until he saw that he did actually just kick us out early and made a mistake. Add him asking if I wanted to give them a tip, you’ve got the cherry on top of a beautiful night out at Sardo (lucky we skipped dessert).

This will be the last time I ever set foot into Sardo. if I was a new comer going to Sorrento, Italico has far better food for much reasonable prices and there’s a great chance you won’t be rushed out the door, if I was the owner at Sardo I’d suggest having a word with old mate about how to best use...

One of the rudest staff members I’ve ever encountered.

Had enjoyed a great day on the Mornington Peninsula until our experience at Sardo Sorrento. Upon approaching the restaurant with my girlfriend and dog I inquired about the availability for outdoor seating as we wanted a good meal. The waiter that attended to us was a rude, bald male who did not even want to entertain us eating outside. When I asked for directions to the laneway where outdoor seating was present, I had to deal with his sarcastic tone three times as I asked for more specific directions on how to get to the back part of the restaurant whilst he painstakingly made sure to suggest that we could not go through as his clients would be offended by the presence of our puppy.

We never asked to move through the restaurant or eat inside. The man could not have been more rude in his directions or his attitude. When directing us after I asked three times for him to be bothered showing us, he told us to "turn right at the skip". Was clearly not interested in our business and was dismissive that we even wanted to sit outside.

Rather than turning right at the large rubbish bin and giving money to someone that couldn't be bothered to be polite, give directions or seek to make us feel accommodated, we left. After looking at other comments made of late by people, it's clear that there is an air of fake superiority, racism and discrimination endemic at this restaurant and someone deserves to be fired.

If you're not a white Australian, if you have a puppy with you or if you do not suit their basic entourage of clientele you are not welcome at this restaurant. My partner and I left and spent our $300 on dinner elsewhere sitting comfortably outside, eating well and continuing on with a good evening.

You would think that after months of lockdown, people would be happy for business. We will not be returning and will be imploring our friends and family in and around the peninsula to not...

Two friends and I had dinner here on the Saturday night of the Australia Day long weekend. The dishes were expensive however of good quality.

However we had an exceptionally bad experience with the service from specifically the owner of the restaurant. Everyone else was lovely to deal with.

We arrived at 5:30pm as a walk in, wanting to make a reservation for 6pm when our other friend arrived. We were told by the owner that we could only dine if we sat immediately. Therefore we did this and ordered a drink with the understanding that our friend would arrive at 6pm. Upon our final guest arriving we ordered entrees mains and sides and an additional drink.

The quality of the meal was good however 5 minutes after we’d completed our meals the owner came over to the table and in very arrogant and rude manner he said ‘ok boys we’re gonna need the table back yeah’, essentially ushering us to leave immediately like we were cattle being herded in and out of the restaurant. I was quite take a back by the manner in which this information was delivered, however not surprised. Right from the moment we entered the premises I sensed an arrogance by the owner and the final interaction confirmed it. I understand that restaurants have a seating time limit however we hadn’t been there even close to 2 hours, and were in no way over extending our stay.

I’m always happy to pay good money for a good meal and good service, however with service like this I will not be supporting this restaurant again. The way we were ordered to sit immediately, and then again ‘rudely’ ordered to leave as soon as we were finished our meal did not sit well with me at all. Sardo, if you want to provide service like this, change your name to LaPorchetta and charge a quarter of what you do. No one should have to put up with being treated like a pleb, when they are paying good money. Next time I’ll take my money and patronage to one of the many other restaurants...