Da Toto — Restaurant in Sydney

We were interested in trying Da Toto after reading many good reviews.

The service was good, no doubt. The food was just mediocre to us as we had a better Italian food experienced from other restaurants.

The eggplant parmigiana was flooded with tomato sauce, the taste of the eggplant has been submerged with the sauce. This was our first time having watery eggplant parmigiana. The bread that came with the parmigiana was a little hard to chew. Perhaps this made the parmigiana to be watery for us to dip into it!

The grilled octopus was just okay. A little tough to chew for us. It may be overcooked.

The entree we had so far was acceptable. After we finished our entree, we had too wait quite sometime to get our “Chef Special” pizza. All the tables that ordered after us had been served. We thought perhaps the pizza was special and needed to take time to be made, after all the lady that took our order mentioned that the topping would be Marinara Seafood, and of course Seafood will take time to cook we assume! We ordered “Chef Special” pizza because of the topping mentioned earlier that sounds delicious. But somehow, when the pizza came out, we were jaw dropped and confused, after a long wait, it was the most disappointing moment to find out that “Chef Special” pizza contains only Marinara sauce (just tomato sauce), few microscopic chopped garlic and few leaves on top of it. Not even a taste of cheese. The middle of the pizza dough was soggy with the tomato sauce. We were face palmed with the price we paid. It was superb expensive pizza ever that we had. A “Chef Special” pizza supposed to be special that worth the price, as it should be the best pizza produce by the Chef. If it’s just an ordinary tomato sauce pizza with no toppings, it should not be in the menu at all! This is a little shameful. Domino’s and Pizza Hut beats Da Toto when it comes to pizza!

But anyhow, the lady that took our orders apologised to us for her mistake for mentioning the seafood topping instead of just Marinara sauce. She compensated us with a tiramisu dessert. The lady that admitted her mistake is praiseworthy. Kudos to her.

I hope Da Toto can really improve their food and the pizza quality. Please don’t give customer pizza with just tomato sauce, few chopped microscopic garlic and leaves that doesn’t equal with the price, and named it “Chef Special” (the name suppose to symbolise something good). It’s good to just fix one special/ chef signature toppings instead of giving customer surprises. Customer service is good, keep it up! But the food and the pizza need more improvement if they want to sustain in the business in long run.

So 3 stars for the customer...

Buongiorno, si, andiamo, ciao. Let’s practice a few Italian words before walking into this Italian restaurant. Thrilled to make a long trip to the CFO’s suburb to meet this iconic Italian restaurant on Groupon terms. I don’t love ❤️ the CFO 🧑‍💼 but I do love ❤️ reaching out to different places for a beautiful 🤩 culinary experience. Here is the highlight. For as little as $39.95 you have the option of being pampered with a tantalizing three 3️⃣ course Italian meal 🥘 with a wine 🍷. Yes 🙌🏿 wine 🍷! All fairly authentic Italian. Always opt for a red wine 🍷 because it’s good 👍 for your heart ❤️ health provided it’s within the safe limits. Antipasto is fixed, which is good 👍 in a way. At least you don’t have to struggle which item to choose. A selection of cured meats, cheese, and grilled vegetables 🥗 - all too good 👍. The mozzarella and artichoke particularly make my heart melt. Move on to main for which you have the choice between a pizza 🍕 or pasta 🍝. Again I strongly suggest every one of you to choose pasta 🍝 due to its technicality. To me, pizza 🍕 is something that can be easily sorted out with Domino’s. So don’t waste your fine dining opportunity on a simple meal 🥘 like 👍 pizza 🍕. The size of the entree is so generous that it matches that of a main. Luckily I only had half a meal 🥘 before dinner 🥘 so I hopefully 🤞 still have room. Mmm 🤔 what maximizes my value? How about Ziti alla Genovese (GF available): Homemade short pasta in a white ragú sauce, made with slow-cooked onions, beef chop, and white wine 🍷? The word beef 🥩 chop immediately stands out because it represents very high protein and hence great 👍 value. What a delicious 🤤 and yummy 🤤 course! Italian source with Australian produce make a quality combination. Finish on a sweet note 🎵 with Torta Caprese. I suspect it originated from Capri. What a fond memory of my trip 3 months ago. What do I say? Clearly content and satisfied. Nice 👍food, generous size and caring service. What do I have to complain about? Saw a few waiters with Italian faces, which is a good thing. I bet you would expect to see faces like 👍 mine when you walk into a Chinese restaurant, wouldn’t you? Very nice 👍 experience and made my already great day even greater. Grazie - you’re testing my Italian...

We had a reservation for two tonight (Saturday, May 17) at 7pm. We arrived on time and found a long queue at the restaurant. The lady and her friends (group of 3) in front of me mentioned they had a reservation and were waiting to be looked after. In front of them was another group of 6 people who did not have a reservation.

We waited patiently in line for 10 minutes but were still not attended to. We could see that all the tables in the restaurant were fully occupied. Despite our efforts to get the staff's attention, they ignored us. After another few more minutes, my husband finally managed to approach a staff member and informed him that we had a reservation and that many others had been waiting in line for an extended period. The male staff member said he would check on the situation.

After waiting for at least another 10 minutes, we still had not been seated, and the staff continued to treat us as if we were invisible. The same male staff member, who my husband had spoken to, was wiping clean plates at the counter and did not provide us any updates about what was happening.

We asked another staff member about the delay, and she informed us that they were currently short-staffed. The lady and her friends in front of us eventually left, and the group of 6 who did not have a reservation was seated before us. It became clear that the restaurant had overbooked their reservations and do not know how to prioritise customers. People without reservations were served before those who did have reservations!

After waiting in line for half an hour without being served, my husband and I left the restaurant feeling disappointed. Customers should not be left waiting without any communication about what is happening. If I could give this review a zero-star...