Lalla Rookh — Restaurant in Perth

We were recommended Lalla Rookh as a wine store by a local and excellent sommelier, and this is what drew our attention to the restaurant. Based on the quality and price range of the wine, as well as the quality of the menu, we had assumed that Lalla Rookh would be, if not a fine dining experience, at least a fairly sophisticated and discerning (and romantic) place to celebrate my wife’s birthday. The food at Lalla Rookh is excellent, and I understand that both the past and current head chefs come with a huge amount of respect from the restaurant and reviewer community. Likewise, the wine list in fantastic – we were pleased with the recommendations provided by both our waiter and the sommelier – both of whom were also lovely to be served by. The reason for my mediocre impression of the restaurant is largely informed by the aesthetic and the ambience we experienced. Perhaps this is influenced significantly by having spent the last 5 years living in Melbourne. The general aesthetic of the restaurant really lacks something – this is something hard for me to put my finger on – it doesn’t lack ‘design’ but it does lack character. The colour and features are too reminiscent of a coffee lounge or an appendage to a gaming lounge. But the most troubling aspect of our experience was being placed right next to a crowd of 10 or so people who, even as we arrived, were already fairly boisterous and became increasingly so. In fact this didn’t really impact on us until perhaps an hour and a half later, by which time they were well inebriated, yelling and laughing very loudly. At this stage I asked the maitre d' to intervene, however he suggested that the table wasn’t bad enough to justify intervention and clarified to me that this wasn’t a ‘fine dining’ restaurant. He returned not long after and asked us if we wanted to move. I didn’t really feel like I wanted to take responsibility for the situation and visibly and awkwardly remove ourselves to another part of the restaurant, when all I thought it took was for the table to be asked to be a bit more mindful of the rest of the diners, so I declined. We did eventually move, and as was predicted, a woman from the table came up to us and made a rude comment. My impression: whether it’s a fine dining restaurant or just a reasonably expensive one, diners should be able to dine in relative peace rather than accept that they’re just in a glorified pub; don’t seat a couple out for a romantic evening right next to an already boisterous table when other tables in the room are going to be empty for the rest of the evening as I noted; and please show a bit more enthusiasm when you’re told that it’s a customer’s birthday. Will we back? Probably – maybe we’ll go for the wine cellar next door for better ambience and aesthetics. But I have to say, very disappointed – if this is Lalla Rookh’s aspirations for where it positions itself, it’s setting...

I would like to note that I have not written a negative review in the past, but there's a first for everything. I made a booking through Zomato for 3 people at 630pm on a Saturday night. Judging on the reviews on Zomato, the food and ambiance was rated highly. We went for the Il Capo, 6 courses of the chef's selection for $65 each. The courses came out in a quick succession, with plates whisked away and the next course served instantly. We felt a little rushed and requested the waitress to give us a few minutes between courses but we were told that there is a thirty second timer between the courses. Towards the end our dinner, we were asked to leave as it was a 2 hour booking. As I had made the booking earlier in the week, I expressed that I didn't realise it was a 2 hour booking. As an example, I made a booking on my phone with the waiter to show that when you book on Zomato, it doesn't state that it's a 2 hour booking. 'Well it is a 2 hour booking' was the response we received. I stated that 'I realise you're a restaurant and you're busy but as guests we're not informed of that'. His response was that he was one of the owners and that it was a 2 hour booking through dimmi and he was sorry. As we paid for our bill and were wrapping up our conversation, he came back shortly after and stated that he still needed the table.

As a regular diner in Perth restaurants and internationally, what I love about dining out is the great food, atmosphere and company. I appreciate that 2 hours sittings occur in some restaurants for a higher turn over to generate more revenue. When this is the case, the consumers are able to make an informed decision to go ahead with the booking.

Whilst the 2 hour booking was not the issue, nor that it didn't appear on the booking, my 1.0 rating was simply the way the situation was handled. There was no sincere apology, no acknowledgment that the booking system did not inform guests at the time of booking so that I was unaware this was the case. I felt there was a lack of professionalism, customer service or any value in the guest at all. This could have been easily handled with an offer of finishing our drinks in their courtyard, bar or lounge for which there was ample capacity. As it was also my birthday, we walked out feeling disappointed, will not be returning and also will recommend...

Umm well this wasn’t great! We were really excited after finding them recommended on Perths List of Italian restaurants and it was… well it tasted like I’d ordered Italian from a street cart in S.E.Asia.

The Tuscan Chicken was tasteless, arancini just tasted like table salt. Then for our mains we had the rigatoni which was actually Cannelloni pasta (any one else mind blown they used the wrong pasta in an Italian restaurant?!) which tasted just like tinned spaghetti although the sauce was much more watery. The Ghnocci was inedible after a few mouthfuls it was wayyy too salty (and I love salty, bold flavours) again watery sauce. There was no pepper in their Cacio e pepe?! But that doesn’t matter because we couldn’t even finish the dish. We left super unsatisfied and feeling off due to the obvious way overuse of salt in an attempt to give the dishes some flavour. The only good part was the wine and that wasn’t made in-house. Although we did get entertained when the waiter spilt it all over the table when pouring it and walked off.

All in all a poor attempt at Italian Cuisine and super disappointing. Ambience in the space is inauthentic and cold.

Would NOT recommend as it was a very expensive, super disappointing dining experience.

The last waiter who offered us dessert and then gave us the bill was lovely though shout out to you as your co workers that were taking care of us before hand could barely crack a smile or an...