Sorrento Pizzeria Empire Bay — Restaurant in New South Wales

We travel the country attending car events. When staying on the Central Coast we were recommended to try Sorrentos Pizza. We arrived in a group of 5 a few weeks ago now. We were greeted by I assume was the owner. Instead of saying welcome, he immediately remarked that they were flat out. The restaurant was completely empty. Obviously they were making takeaway orders also. I said no worries and that we were happy to wait. We ordered multiple pizzas and starters, we had a few wines and other drinks also. From ordering, to receiving all our items was approximately 1.5 hours later. We ordered the garlic cheese pizza, the supreme style pizza, and a couple of others. We also had some of the salty caramel gelati. The gelati was the highlight of the night by far. The owner asked if we lived locally to which we answered no. I'm not sure why he asked that, but anyway. In between our tables conversation, I heard the owner speaking rudely to his staff, I also heard him treating customers rudely. When we gave feedback that one of the pizzas were burnt, he remarked that it wasn't burnt and that's how it's meant to be. Never been gaslighted by an arrogant restaurant owner before. So that was a first. If you read through the constructive reviews on Google, he's quick to externalise the blame. There's no mi culpa (my fault) reply, nor any offer to repair the business and customer relationship. I believe there's a fair bit of ego involved, with a dash of short man syndrome. Our advice is to head elsewhere, however if you are willing to eat a poorly cooked, and overpriced pizza, with a dash of ego driven poor customer service, then go your hardest.

We do honestly wish them all the best. They are 75% there, they just need to tweak a few things, find a different front of house manager, and work on time management. Then that business would go off. I'm sure old mate will pipe up and deflect blame off the back of this review, or deny deny deny. But it's this egotistical behaviour that I'm fully...

Customer service needs to be improved upon and pizzas on both occasions have a very burnt base similar to other reviews. We understand we had decided to dine in on a busy night (Saturday) and were happy to wait a little longer than usual, however no one came to take our order for a very long time and I had to go and order at the front but was 'not seen' by the one poor girl who was taking payments, taking phone calls, clearing tables and taking orders. I was then able to order and asked for the drink menu. She asked an older man (?owner) if there is one. He came up and said they dont have one but what would I like. I said I dont know what did they have. He said lots of things what do you want? I said what choices do I have? He again said lots of choice what do I want? I got turned off and said dont worry I wont have a drink and he said OK and walked off. I then sat back down. The order took an hour for one pizza. They were doing all the take away pizzas first and then when I saw a group of 4 sit next to us who ordered after receive the pizza before us I went up and asked where our pizza was? Only to be told by one girl that they are making it now, and then the same man answered behind me its in the oven. When we received the pizza, the base was burnt. The topping is great. The man (?owner) came out and gave us a complimentary cannoli and tried to make small talk however he never apologised for the service and asked for our feedback. If he did this and was genuine about it we would consider coming back. However, we will now go to Ettalong where there is plentiful places for woodfired authentic italian pizza. This place seemed to be about getting the most orders and do not care about their customers which is unfortunate because if the customer service was better and the pizza wasn't burnt it would be an amazing local place we would definitely be...

We ordered from Sorrento on Friday via Menulog and received a notification that the order is awaiting confirmation from the restaurant. We were then notified to ring the restaurant and check. I called in and was asked where is the delivery to. I was then told a couple times that they haven't received the order which we later found out was a lie. The receptionist at the phone (I am not sure if this was the owner) blamed Menulog for a technical issue and urged us to ring Menulog. I then called Menulog to find out that the owners received the order and cancelled it , while we were on the phone with Menulog, because they wouldn't deliver it to my area although it appeared they initially wanted to service my area which is why I was able to order in the first place.

What disappointed me most is not missing out on the pizzas which we were looking forward to and took us more than 30 minutes between them and Menulog on the phone, to sort, but the receptionist/ owner were not upfront and honest. We understand things can be busy with restrictions being lifted, but just wanted to say probably be honest and welcoming if you can't service, than lying at our face that it was someone else's fault.

Unfortunately we won't be going back and instead ordered from Samboy...