Cappello Ristorante & Pizzeria — Restaurant in Sydney

I love the pizza and atmosphere at Cappello so I chose to celebrate Christmas early with extended family. Unfortunately the warm friendly atmosphere disappeared the minute I walked in. I was promptly told a very confusing message by the waitress that I had too many people (11 adults plus 1 high chair) so we could not order individual meals, even though I had checked when booking if this was possible and then confirmed with the main waitress one week earlier. She mentioned that we needed to ‘share’ as the kitchen would not cope. I explained that this was not mentioned at all when I booked otherwise I would’ve selected a different venue. Unfortunately this continued downstairs with the owner (I assume) who defensively explained that my email mentioned a ‘set menu’ and that he had over 30 people eating lunch in the restaurant today so the kitchen would not cope. I literally had to open my emails in front of him to prove that I had not received an email at all about the lunch booking. This was humiliating and embarrassing as family had started entering the restaurant while all this sadly continued in front of guests downstairs who were eating. I have never been so embarrassed before in my whole entire life. Any misunderstanding and apology would’ve been fine but none was offered and I felt guilty for family ordering meals as the chef would not cope. It was so unprofessional and as a fellow Italian visiting an authentic Italian restaurant our Christmas lunch was spoilt as all the family felt the impact of what was happening. Unfortunately for this reason I will never be going back. The lovely girl waitressing served us well but I seriously thought a personal apology by the owner, on our way out (not just a glass of free wine)...

I strongly advise against going here. Had an awful experience and won’t be going back. Went here with a friend for NYE. We both ordered spaghetti and had a couple of wines. It was a long wait for the food but we weren’t worried about it as it was a hectic night for the staff and we were happy to wait knowing the circumstances. When the spaghetti came, my friend and I took a bite, the pasta was undercooked. That was also fine, we told a staff member and they took it back to the kitchen. When it came back out, they handed us the plates (who knows which one was which), and the pasta was still undercooked. It seemed they had just blasted it in the microwave to heat it up. So we decided that we wouldn’t eat the pasta and would find somewhere else to eat and told the staff we would just pay for the wines. These staff were really apologetic and lovely and said to come back another night and they would make it up to us, they handled the situation perfectly. However, when we went downstairs, the owner came out and started aggressively telling us we were wrong, the pasta was cooked, he had been doing this for 20 years, he had tried the pasta (hopefully not off our plates, eek!). We had to diffuse the situation. We were firm that we would pay for the wines but wouldn’t pay for the food as it was inedible and we didn’t eat it. He eventually calmed down but couldn’t refund us the additional amount on the night that my friend had to pay for a deposit and to come back another day. The way this was handled was disgusting. We were so polite about everything. They should have refused bookings if it was too much to handle. And if you can’t properly handle someone politely refusing to eat or pay for your undercooked food , don’t work in...

We ordered takeaway this evening and there was hair literally baked into the pizza dough and what looked like an eyelash on the calamari. We called to complain and were told that the “chef doesn’t have hair” and that we could come down and see this for ourselves. That was it. No apology and no offer to look at the photos we said we had, despite us suggesting that that might have been a more reasonable response.

Over $100 spent and meal uneaten. Gross!

These things do happen and we wouldn’t normally leave a review, but for the way we were spoken to when we called.

Update following response from owner: the reason we left a review is because you absolutely did not apologise to us. As my initial review says, the lady we spoke to was just very defensive that the chef doesn’t have long hair so it was impossible. Don’t worry - Uber refunded us, so you essentially have just passed on the...