Seasons Provedore — Restaurant in Melbourne

Visited 22/02/2024 My friend and I were looking for a pasta meal. We were pressured into the restaurant from the street, with the hostess following us down the street several metres. We understand getting business is important but both my friend and I felt really awkward and uncomfortable. We ended up sitting down as the reviews were high and showed great value. We were greatly disappointed. The first red flag should have been that the place was empty and they were offering free soft drink. I ordered gnocchi with napoli sauce - the gnocchi was overcooked and mushy with a strange wet flour after taste with a completely average tasting sauce. it was inedible and only ate a third of it. For $23, there was no texture in the sauce and tasted very much like someone had seasoned tomato sauce. The meal made me feel ill to be honest.

My friend ordered the Margherita pizza - it tasted just like a cheap homebrand frozen pizza from Coles. The only taste was the dough. You could not taste any tomato or cheese. The dough was doughy, dry and had a yeasty aftertaste. The pizza cheese was not even melted properly and instead had a pool of oil.

The only saviour to this meal was the garlic bread with no cheese. We thoroughly enjoyed it. It showed a promising start to the meal, leaving us excited for food but were incredibly let down by the standard of the main course.

The whole meal was tasteless and disappointing. What a waste of money.

The staff were pushy, watched us eat our meal like hawks. we felt like we couldn't speak with one another which was frustrating. We could not even comment on our meal without having them float nearer. The servers snickered and kept glancing our way whilst we were trying to eat.

The whole meal left us with a funny taste in our mouth, disappointed and feeling like we completely wasted our time and hard earned money - especially as broke university students. I have never written a review before but this place needed it. We chose not to complain as the servers were intimidating, judgemental and frankly not worth the hassle of explaining why and asking for a recooked meal. Instead, we don't want anyone to come away disappointed...

Walking along Lygon, a young man outside Seasons Provedore alerted us to the fact that their restaurant had been awarded “something or other” from the Italian government. With our interest piqued, eyes soon turned to the owner making fresh pasta in the window, with strands of spaghetti hung drying above beautifully shaped gnocchi below. The theatre of it all convinced us. Let’s give it a shot.

The bruschetta as a quick starter was gorgeous, with lush drizzles of balsamic glaze, thin shaves of Parmesan, fresh rocket and of course, carefully diced tomato - served on springy thick-cut slices of crispy sourdough.

The spaghetti carbonara with its overly generous serves of pancetta, velvety cream sauce (without too much cream, but just enough to coat the pasta so that the spaghetti remained the star of the show - this is how the original recipe was), and a driving layer of pepe to add some sharp spice, all adds up to the most spectacular plate of pasta I have ever eaten (my sincerest apologies to my friends in Rome’s Trastevere). This was a carbonara of truly biblical proportions. I was clueless that carbonara could be this indulgent.

The Margherita Pizza was very good but the thin crust isn’t my preferred base for pizza, I’m more a fan of the Napoli style of puffy salty dough. Nonetheless, the tomato base was satisfying and certainly worthy of praise because we kept remarking how good it was.

Service was attentive and very friendly, we chatted with the wonderful owner afterwards and her passion for her restaurants’s food is obvious. This is how a restaurant experience should be - surprises, warmth, smiles, laughter and a hearty sense of being privileged enough to have experienced a master at work. My only regret is the fact I live in Sydney and can’t visit often enough to try everything on the menu.

Hai messo calore nei nostri...

Premise: I did not dine in, so I cannot comment on the food quality. My review pertains to the management of the Seasons Provedore.

We were right at the front of a line and we waited 10 minutes before someone came in to apologise for the delay we were experienced whilst we were in line. After aplogising, the waitress went back again to continue serving tables.

We were disgusted to see how this place has both an indoor and an outdoor area with ONE waitress to manage both areas and to act as a WAITRESS and as a BARISTA. This lady was taking orders, serving food and also making beverages. Within that time, she was smiling to customers and displayed a caring demeanour. This lady was clearly giving 110% with zero support from management. This is NOT okay. We were disgusted by this kind of exploitation and left. From a consumer perspective, she could be paid $50 per hour (she clearly isn't - hospitality award), and it still would not be enough to justify the stress she was forced to undergo.

We were really excited to try this handmade pasta place, as you could see from the glass cabinet that pasta is made fresh in the restaurant. Please, hire more staff to ensure that your workers can work profusely, whilst feeling respected. It is unacceptable to think that a place which prides itself of winning TripAdvisor Excellence certificates for almost a decade could be so understaffed and could disregard the working conditions of its staff.

Best of luck to the place and I sincerely hope that the owner will improve the working conditions of...