Tono on Borsari — Restaurant in Melbourne

I am not one to leave reviews usually however on this occasion I am left with no choice. Firstly this place doesn’t even deserve the one star however googles makes you select at least one star!! The experience we had here was absolutely ridiculous and not in a good way! It was my mistake not to check the reviews online prior to entering this joke of an establishment they call an “Italian restaurant” … To begin there is some random lady at the front that pretty much gets in your way as your walking along lygon street and trys her hardest to get you to go in the place. She’s in your face and talks loudly confronting you to go inside to sit at a table and order. Not that we fell for it but we thought to try someone new, as our usual spot at ginos was full.

Oh my gosh, the waiters were all new to their jobs and had no idea on questions about the food and menu, the food was overpriced like extremely !! We waited over one hour for our disastrous food. The food was very very cold. My kids ordered an extremely simple dish, which was the snitzel and chips, the chicken was so over cooked it was like a rock and that’s not exaggerating!! The chips were so hard they would almost pass for 4 inch nails you nail into timber! The bolognese was so damn dry with no sauce just dry and bland! The pizza was very average and it was a basic vegetarian! The lasagna was so damn cold and salty !!! The service was pathetic to say the least! We asked to speak to a manager 4-5 times and they never came the same waiter kept coming back saying his busy!!! The place had an unpleasant vibe about it unlike all other neighbouring Italian restaurants ..

We should have known better seeing the place empty! And all other places full around it. We thought how bad could it be it’s on lygon street! Well dear me did we receive a shock!! If you value your hard earned money and value a great meal, please do your self and friends and family a favour and don’t go to this joke of a joint! Ginos is like 2 minutes walk up the road and so many other better places go there instead!! Worst experience of a restaurant I’ve ever been to hands down! First time ever I have felt hungry leaving a restaurant and my kids too!

Shame on you guys for calling this joke of a joint an Italian restaurant with those high price tags to go with it! Never ever ever again! Also a mention about the putrid toilets which had urine all over the floor and toilets and even in the outside section of the bathroom where the sink was to wash your hands. You couldn’t even step inside the toilets due to all the disgusting urine all over the place! Toilet paper on the floor and all sorts of stuff laying around! It’s as if they are never cleaned!

The manager was in complete denial about the food his rancid chefs dished out to us, as if we were lying! He even had the nerve to say please come back we will try harder next time! We laughed at him and walked out to never return! Good ridden! Stay away you have...

Tono on Borsari is a restaurant which is a bit confused: For over three years I have observed the dapper suited man standing outside Tono, adjacent to the window where the pasta chef hand rolls and stuffs the home made pasta. The quiet understated dignity of the greeter is a positive contrast to the intrusive and loud hustlers who stand guard outside other Lygon Street eateries. So after more than three years, I took a seat for dinner this evening. The waitstaff were an interesting mix of suitably attentive and up-in-your-grille-eager-beaver. Watching the gentleman on the pasta station was quite an amusing thing- over a protracted period he seemed to spend around half of his time searching for something under, behind, or to the sides of the pasta station. It became somewhat disconcerting seeing this happen for so long. When he was making pasta, it was quite lovely and reassuring to have the presence of someone calmly making and shaping the various pastas on offer. Our first course this evening was a garlic pizza. It arrived in good time, but was disappointing as the garlic was concentrated toward the centre of the pizza with wide crust “borders”, worse the edges and underside of the base of pizza were burned black and this intruded on the taste. Considering the $10 price for a small size, I rate this garlic pizza 4/10 Next our mains arrived: we each ordered from the specials menu, gnocchi in Gorgonzola, and spinach and ricotta ravioli in pink sauce. The gnocchi was a perfect hit: the Gorgonzola was strong but not overpowering the gently chewy potato pasta. The serving size was generous, but not overdone. The dish easily ranks 9/10. The first dish or Ravioli arrived smothered in too much pink sauce, and the pasta itself was excessively soft, watery, and bland. After bringing this disappointing state of affairs to the attention of the waitstaff, the dish was replaced. The fresh dish of Ravioli delivered everything the restaurant promised: lovely al-dente consistency, beautifully balanced flavours, with the pink sauce carrying just a hint of sharpness offsetting the cheese in the pasta. It was just a joy to eat. Another 9/10 (but rescued from a 2/10. The difference between the two plates of food was night and day. I couldn’t believe they had each come from the same kitchen) The hit-and-miss experience of this restaurant continued when a visit to the tastefully renovated bathrooms presented toilet cubicles which have doors which can’t easily be opened or closed while in the cubicles.

This stalwart of Lygon street has been operating since 1989. Yet Tono on Borsari wants consistency in what they do: around half of the experience of one evening dining there was quite poor, but when they performed well, they were truly the epitome...

My recent dining experience at this restaurant was unfortunately quite unpleasant.

Upon arriving at the venue, my family and I were met by the woman at the front who insisted we must sit outside. We kindly refused and made it clear we wanted to sit inside, in which she became incredibly persistent with suggesting the outside table was the best. We had to be quite thorough with requesting to sit inside, leading us to feel rather uncomfortable. Nonetheless, we decided to still dine at the restaurant and give it a chance.

We ordered a margherita pizza to share, which was absolutely lovely, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. However, our main dishes were incredibly disappointing.

I ordered the chicken and mushroom fettuccine pasta, which was thick and gluggy with an overwhelming taste of flour, and there was quite an off taste to the cream.

One family member had ordered the chicken parmigiana, which had a rubbery taste to it, and it was evident the chicken was not fresh. The crumbing had a chemical taste to it, which was extremely concerning, so they refused to eat it.

We were also told we had to order an extra bowl of chips, as we were told the parmigiana came with very few chips on the side and would not be enough, which was completely false. We felt very forced into that decision despite kindly declining the extra bowl.

When the waiter came to take our plates, she asked if something was wrong with the parmigiana dish, in which we kindly explained that the quality was unfortunately not of an edible standard, to which she dismissed our feedback. There was no apology or action initiated to rectify that, and we still paid for the meal despite it being inedible.

The restaurant has a lot of potential and could do with some revamping; however, this will unfortunately not be a venue we will be dining at...