Gelbison Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

We booked a table of 30 guests at Gelbisons. While the food wasnt too bad, the owner & staff were rude, unnatentive and unhelpful at the best of times.

Summary: Rude staff, terrible communication, misleading pricing

We were advised over the phone that there was minimum spend of $35.00 per head on food and drinks. Confirmed many times that the spend could be on food and drinks together as long as it came to over $35.00 no extra would be charged. Throughout the meal a waitress handed carelessly an almost boiling pasta dish to one of our guests and in doing so tipped half the bowl over her, then turned and walked away. No waiter came to help clean up and no apology was made.

At the end of the meal when we got the bill, we were charged $35.00 per/head with all drinks added on top. Everybody had ordered a main (around $20.00) and a few drinks to bring their spend above the $35.00 minimum, however at the end we were told it was $35.00 for food and drinks but not alcoholic drinks. Allthrough the owner agreed that he said over the phone "food and drinks" he advised that it was obvious that it didnt include alcoholic drinks (which is not the case). After explaining that i had relayed the information as it was given to me over the phone and i was now out of pocket for over $200 odd dollars no apology was made and no attempt to ease the monatery burden was made.

For a booking that came to almost $1300.00 we most definately didnt recieve our value for money. All 30 of us will never go back i'd advise taking your business to a venue that cares about their customers satisfaction instead of the money in...

Can i give less than 1?

Ordered through deliveroo at 6pm... 7pm was notified the delivery was picked up and heading to my place.

730pm no sign of it... i call up Gelbison to confirm it was actually picked up .. i was advised that my order was ready yet and will be pick up soon (90 mins after ordering, i get that it can be busy but this is pizza 90mins!! )

I call up deliveroo at 740pm to ask what was going on. How can it say it was picked up at 7pm. I was told the delivery person went to pick it up at 7pm but rejected the order because i live too far away (i live within a 20 min walk, neighbouring suburb.. how can that be rejected and if it was rejected why did it show that it was picked up and moved..?)

8pm i call Gelbison back.. i was told my order is ready and about to be picked up now. I asked is this fresh, when was this made, you told me it was ready 30 mins ago when i originally asked if it was fresh.. i was then told "if you get it and its cold you can complain then.." Well guess what??? it was cold and i am complaining.

Spoke to deliveroo and they apologised and refunded me.. but i do have to wonder why Gelbison would lie and not take ownership either the delivery person picked it up at 7pm and didnt deliver so they remade the order or the order just sat there.... either way poor customer service from Gelbison thankfully Deliveroo has some decency Gelbison does not.

2 hours for a pizza is not good service and telling someone to complain if it turns up shi*t and late when you get it is probably one of the worst responses i have ever...

This was a big disappointment. I think generally the food is high quality (from Olive oil to other ingredients), they just have got the crust wrong. It feels like I am biting on low carb crackers. Place got really bad acoustics as well, feels extremely uncomfortable and loud to enjoy food / company. Not a place where your taste buds would open up. Surprisingly crowded for quality...

PS: I keep reading all of the comments on pizza and I cant believe I am the only one dissatisfied with it. But that crust! - defo too much water in the dough.

Edit: decreasing from 2 to 1, after my comment was reported to Google as inappropriate. I think people deserve geniune and objective reviews of places - especially if this helps them not ruin their short visits to Bondi with average restaurants that high rankly ( I find it strange that majority of reviewers who rated this restaurant 5 stars is first time reviewers, and anytime ranking falls below 4, there is a flock of new 5s? I will watch this place closely. Everyone deserves to get what they expect when they are walking into a restaurant)

Edit 2: thanks for response - planning...