Barbetta — Restaurant in Sydney

would give 0 stars if possible but i cannot so i give it a one.

the food was alright but the service was not it that it honestly ruined our day so much.

came with a friend after seeing it multiple times on tiktok so really had high hopes. my waiter barely smiled or look at us, and we noticed how differently we were treated compared to the customers next to us. never did she ask us if the food was good or how we were doing or offer water upon arrival.

most disappointingly we waited 40 minutes between our entree and main and look we wouldn’t mind if we noticed other people who came after us waiting just as long but no, everyone was served pretty fast from our observation as we had nothing to do and eat for 40mins.

it wasn’t till we ask a waiter on updates of our food that we saw the them ask the kitchen about our pasta (mind u we ordered probably most popular pastas). however it made us really sad we saw that many table that came after us was served with mains way before us and we noticed the table next to us (who ordered food items after us) was already up to dessert while we were still waiting for main.

also our table was empty with no plates for 30 mins, i would think if u see two girls looking around quite curiously, as a server (as we noticed that were many walking around us and some even was chatting) you would go check up if there is any updates with their food.

honestly was super disappointed and could tell our server probably didn’t even want us here as when we checked out she didn’t ask if the food was good or not, no questions just told us where the exit was when we walked to the ipad to pay the bill cause we just had the most awful experience at a restaurant and keep in mind i’m an australian sydney local.

anyways they probably know who we are and we don’t really care cause we will be never coming back and idk why we got treated this way? is it cause we were the only asians or maybe cause we look young but as someone who works in retail/customer service it is not hard to just smile.

update : i’ve reading ur apology and i don’t think you guys are able to understand my feeling and my emotions about the situation. Just cause you’re a FAMILY OWNED BUSINESS and u pride in diverse culture DOES NOT MEAN ur workers cannot be racist. as you mentioned your senior workers were not working over the weekend meaning other customers can/ might have experience what we did so in the future, so please retrain your workers to have better customer service. also from our observation we were the only two asian people in ur restaurant and we seemed to be ignored hence why i brought up race but for you to be so micro aggressive to me was very unnecessary. so please re-train ur workers to treat everyone kindly, as i noticed the DRASTIC difference in service compared the the table less than half a metre away from me. for example, she would be going up to them to ask them how the food was and using nice language and smiling to them but when it was us she seemed very impatient, so hence it seemed clear to us that we were being distracted. honestly hearing back from ur response makes me feel not supported at all for my experience at ur restaurant. i’ve been to many italian restaurants in my life and they all been wonderful and i feel like you guys are unwilling to take unaccountable for ur workers actions....

We have visited Barbetta for lunch. Loved the pastas. Both The Best Ever Lasagna and Spaghetti Con Gamberi were excellent! Staff were attentive, friendly and professional. Lovely Italian service but the noise was unbearable as they were full.

A few months after that we come for dinner. It was a week night and only half full. We did get a friendly welcome however once we were seated we were immediately being forgotten. Three staff were working tonight, they were all busy walking up and down bringing one item to a table then another item to another table. We waved to a waiter to ask for the menus. Then we tried very hard to get someone’s attention to take our orders as they just walk up and down and never look this way. Poor attention to details.

However, the he Beef Ravioli was excellent! The Tagliatelle with Mussels and Potatoes less so. Although it tasted good, we were disappointed that the mussels did not come in their shells. They were not “not fresh” but they were neither absolutely fresh. Just thought they could do better. It’s strange to add potato cubes to a pasta dish we were hoping that it’s something surprising. However the potato cubes were only half cooked, the texture quit firm and still crunchy, flavours disappointing. If anything it only did disservice to the dish unless you really like potatoes done this way. We much rather have the dish without the potatoes. 2/5 for this dish.

The restaurant was again really noisy even though...

this was honestly my worst dining experience i’ve ever had. the service and attitude of our waitress was extremely poor and the service was awful. after we finished our starters, we were left to wait for almost an hour whilst the tables around us, who ordered after us were served with their mains at which point, we asked if our mains were coming. once asked, our fries were served immediately, the fries were warm, as if they had been placed out for a while. after 10 more minutes, we were approached by the waitress and she unapologetically told us “your pastas are coming”. the waitress had a completely different attitude to the tables around us, often checking up on them whilst for our table, we were only served our mains when we inquired about our mains.

furthermore, the waitress seemed like she wanted us to leave as when we paid she didn’t how the food was and just directly told us where the exit was. she was extremely unwelcoming to us, her differing attitude and lack of smile towards us.

this was a very disappointing experience as i have heard great reviews of this place and i personally will never come back again. i would also definitely not recommend this place to anyone who wants to go. would give this place 0 stars...