Tinto — Restaurant in Melbourne

TLDR: savoury dishes fine, dessert bad, service levels poor, nice ambience

Full review: work team dinner event so we were on the set menu. The wait staff kept track of my allergy well though they kept losing track of who the vegetarians were. Everyone except me enjoyed their entrees and main. The vegetarian dishes were apparently also good. I just got different types of fried meat and potatoes for both entree and main, and usually without any sauce or flavouring so it was quite plain and boring. This brought the restaurant to 3 stars to me but this wasn't the issue that brought them down to 2 stars.

Biggest blunders both happened to be related to service...

The set menu did not quite provide enough food per person. When the director went to order additional dishes, he was told by the wait staff he wasn't allowed to. This was even after the director clarified he intended to pay for the extra food. It took a while, and some arguing, before management clarified with the waiter that we're allowed to order extra dishes on top of the set menu

When the mains came out, the waiter uncannily placed the meatballs in front each of the vegetarians. When we told him that they were vegetarians, he said that the meatballs were share dishes. It was only when he was challenged on this that he went to check and came back to tell us they were mains per person.

The churros were also a disappointment to everyone who selected it from the set menu. They weren't quite crispy on the outside and the dough on the inside wasn't quite cooked through. There was also barely any cinnamon and sugar on them. The accompanying chocolate sauce was fine though. No one commented...

I have been here many years ago and had an amazing experience. To say my most recent visit was disappointing is an understatement. Tried to book online for 7.30. There were no tables available so reluctantly booked for 6.30. Food was very slow to come out so at 8.10 when paella came out at I was so anxious we would be asked to leave at 8.30. Much to my surprise I was shocked when we were offered dessert menus at 8.35. I then turned to see that the restaurant had emptied out. Why could I not book for a later time? Atmosphere was lacking. A waitress repeatedly walked through the restaurant taking a video. It was unsettling and made me question the professionalism of staff and care of the customer experience. The music was too loud and generic (Spanish music at the right volume would have been amazing). Serving sizes are way too small. The size of the croquettes was shockingly small (especially for the price). The salad (Racione) was served in what looked like a saucer - it was so small. The dishes were slow to come out and came one at a time. The octopus was excellent. The paella was difficult to order as the menu was incorrect (as told by waitress). The seafood paella came out luke warm (the pan was cool enough to touch). It did not seem to have all of the promised ingredients (definitely no prawns), but it was very tasty, but no crust on the bottom. The basque cheesecake was amazing but the accompanying pear (tiny tiny cubes of pear) was very small and with a hard texture was quite unpleasant to eat. The service was aggressively attentive.

This could be so much better with very...

Such a disappointment. it started well, with good atmosphere, cozy dining setting and friendly staff, but we must have come on of those nights when the kitchen was overflowed with dockets.

We ordered entree of mussels and duck-fat coated bread, and a main of the paella with a side of cauliflower. The mussels were a bit small, and the soup tasted like brining liquid.

The biggest disappointment though was the paella. When it did finally arrive after 1.5 hours of wait, there was none of the vibrancy and the aroma you would come to expect of a well-cooked paella.

Instead it was a soggy bowl of rice with heavy doses of salt crystal and vinegar unevenly doused over the plate and some limp looking seafood slices on top.

Worst of all, when we made the staff aware of our wait time, he retorted that it was 1 hour and 20 minutes instead of 1 hour and half as we suggested.

I don't doubt that this place has good food by the amount of good reviews and the delicate-looking tapas that were sent to other tables around us, but for such a highly rated place, i felt hugely disappointed with the restaurant's inability to manage the kitchen on a busy night and the poor quality of the food we received after...