bellaBAR — Restaurant in Northern Territory

I have only ever left reviews for restaraunts that deserve praise but tonight had me on tilt. Honestly this place is doing nothing right as a restaraunt/ bar with food options(case in point I don't even know what it is trying to be).

Workers were lovely and polite hence 2 stars for service, otherwise all round shocking. Any venue in this area serving food should not greet its patrons with a laminated piece of white paper with "take a seat, order at bar" written on it in Times New Roman (At 6pm on a friday night). It seemed like the staff were triple-hatting as waiters, bar staff and bus boys. Absolutely doing their best with the situation they are in, but management of this situation needs to be better.

The Brisket Ragu was the worst plate of pasta I have ever payed for! My partner and I thought it was akin to a microwave meal, we barely touched it. Serving size was huge, sure, but serving a larger amount of something I'd rather have none of is not a positive in my books. I mean it's pasta for Pete's sake, it isn't that complicated. And why are there plain steamed green beans in it, they are not a value add to this dish??? The carpaccio, pork belly bites (btw they are not pork belly bites more like slices/slabs) and truffle fries were all as average (being kind) as it gets.

The restaraunts identity/ atmosphere is in shambles (an absolute mess of decore and furniture). Also maybe don't water your pot plants before service, walking around a puddle of water just looks untidy. P.S. on this one, the terracotta pot jammed on top/in the plastic one is an eye sore, so is the big glowing BellaBar sign in the middle of the waterfront view.

The owner of this place has a lot of work to do before this is even close to being in the same league as the restaraunts either side of it. (Even just for drinks). Complete disappointment for a venue at the waterfront precinct.

Also, for 2 entrés, 2 mains, 1 side and a bottle of wine it was pushing $200 (the wine was around $60 I think so not a major cost contributor as far as wine at restaraunts goes) . Not super expensive but poor value due to quality of food and...

I was really looking forward to dining here, especially after seeing a post on voting for the laksa arancini balls for the upcoming laksa festival. (I love laksa)

This is one of the two worst meals I have ever had in my life and unfortunately I was sober for this one. I spoke to the manager upon leaving so they are fully aware of our experience.

We waited approx 15 minutes to be served upon sitting down and this was by flagging the attention of the inattentive servers. We watched people leave because there was no service. The restaurant was not busy at all…there were approx 4 tables.

The Laksa inspired Arancini balls were not freshly cooked. They were reheated and as dehydrated as the rocket placed underneath them. Nothing like the picture I had seen (see attached pics)

After waiting another 30 mins to try and get a server…no one came and asked us if we wanted drinks or order more food 🤦‍♀️

We finally placed an order with Roberto..he didn’t appreciate being flagged as he wasn’t supposed to be ‘working our side of the restaurant and blamed it on his coworker who ‘usually works the bar’.

We simply couldn’t eat the calamari, it was so disgusting…brown rings of filth and the Greek prawn skewers, seriously one cold prawn on a skewer on more dehydrated rocket. (4 small prawns in total). I wouldn’t call these small plates.

Roberto..slammed my drink down so hard it almost spilled and threw the cutlery into a container on the table. He took my plate away after asking if I was waiting for food after he had only just taken my order. Asked me if I wanted dessert! He was so arrogant, we felt really uncomfortable and just wanted to leave.

We have lived in Darwin for 9 mths but will never return here and do not recommend anyone eat here. None of the food we received was freshly cooked and all pre prepared. Maybe they don’t have chef’s/cooks on mid week?

The only positive thing I can say is the...

Nice location, but that's about all. Asked for a table and were given 2 menus for 8 people and told to take a seat and they'd come to take our order. We let them know in advance that we'd have more people coming and there was no issue raised, and there was only a couple of full tables.

20 mins later we had to ask to order drinks. The rest of the group arrived, and around 20 mins later we started going to the counter to order as no one was coming to take the food order. About half the group were able to place their orders, but the second half were told by a different staff member that we couldn't order there and needed to order at the table as they do table service. He assured us he'd come to take our order and did soon after. The drinks then started to arrive after sitting on the bar for a while, with 2 being incorrect. The daiquiris were half melted and tasted like water.

Some of the food arrived quicker but the ones who had to order at the table didn't receive theirs until well after the rest of the table were finished and ready to leave. We asked about it and were told they'd check. They then immediately bring out the remaining foot which was obviously sitting there ready for a while as it was completely cold.

The Arancini was meant to be laksa flavoured but had no laksa flavour (barely any flavour at all), and the pizzas were tiny with sparse toppings, and the 'basil' on the margarita was dried flakes from a supermarket.

Then when we tried to pay we were told multiple items were missing from the order, only to have them tell us afterwards that there were outstanding items that were unpaid, which were all the items we'd asked about or ones that were already paid.

Not worth the...