Italian Street Kitchen Penrith — Restaurant in Sydney

**I'll upload photos once they transfer from the work phone to the personal.

So, the thing is, I want businesses to succeed. I want tasty places to exist. I want to support those places.

I want this place to do better.

Atmosphere is what you'd expect for any large hotel work a number of restaurants.... but actually nicer than most of the others at this location as the lighting doesn't remind you of shopping in Target.

Food was tasty and appropriately priced. Personally, I found the dough had an odd taste upon first touch (like, of my tongue onto the base or crust... kinda metallic? It was odd but whatever, different strokes etc). Salad was good, but again, not special (but nice to have fresh greens as an option).

Service. Oh dear. I mean, at least there's room from improvement, eh? Whilst checking out the menu outside, I see the host literally doing laps around the table at the front because it was slow. Not dead, there were probably 10 tables occupied with 3-6 patrons per table at various stages in their dining experience. But not busy. No wait for a table, at all. Like, tables ready for the next group (no dishes to clear, cutlery set).

I asked if they did take away, they do. I order take away bc busy day at work, don't want to sit around eating when I can get back to the hotel room and take my shoes off etc.

"How long?" 15 minutes.

Cool, I have a drink at the bar just outside. Come back 20 minutes later.

No line.

Still not busy.

Still ready to seat more folks whenever they show up.

No acknowledgement, no recollection (I get it, we all have such days).

I can't make eye contact (like, I know they see me but avoiding eye contact) so lean towards host and raise my hand as they walk past.

"Any idea when my order will be ready?" 'No idea.' "It's been 30 minutes." 'I can't control the kitchen.' As walking away.

And not just like, fun/calm "oh yeah, sorry mate, no idea, can't control that kitchen" but flippant. More "why are you talking to me, I've already taken your money, go away."

Asked to speak to the manager. They don't care maybe they half pretend to care, offer me table water. 🙄 great, let's do exactly what I don't want to do but whatever, at this point, who knows how long I'll be waiting.

Food gets to me. Pizza box is hot, not sitting under a warmer hot, but just out of the oven hot. Salad is in a bag on top. 35+ minutes later. Head back to my room.

Pizza not quite what I ordered but close enough.

Salad.... pasta salad?? Pasta looks amazing. But I need vegetables. Back to the restaurant.

Got my salad. No apology to me but there was an acknowledgement of grabbing the wrong item.

Dude, pasta was piping hot. Salad, nope. So the manager either didn't read the order or again, was just having one of those days.

I suspect the pizza was part of the other order.... hopefully that patron is OK with whatever is missing from their pizza.

I tend to give places that are mediocre a second go because again, we all have those days.

That said, those 'days' look to be a cultural institution for this joint and life is too short to subject yourself to knowingly toxic situations. Might as well go to hungry jacks to be ignored and given flippant comments and the wrong order.

Anyhow, it's not worth the disappointment under...

Firstly, let me start by saying that this is the first review I have written for a restaurant. Ever.. And I have eaten out four nights a week for the past 12 years.

Honestly one of the best Italian dining experiences I have had. I have eaten at a lot of places, many fine dining places as well. The service was on par with a fine dining establishment. The first sign that the staff are well trained is when we were seated, they immediately asked what kind of water we wanted and if we wanted drinks. From there it just got better, the waiter (I can't remember his name) was courteous, friendly, and knew the menu well. As if he had dined here many times. The food was served within 10-15 minutes of ordering. Everything tasted amazing. The arancini was hot, fresh and well seasoned. The sauce for the arancini was perfectly balanced, not too acidic. My friend had the seafood fregula. I was amazed at how well the pasta was prepared and cooked. Almost as if we were in Sardinia. The seafood was perfectly cooked and the sauce brought the whole dish together perfectly. I had the prosciutto tortellini, which was to die for. The tortellini was al-dente, and I mean the real al-dente (slightly hard on the tooth) . So it was perfect. There was the right amount of sauce (which is not too much if you are an Italian cooking purest). The parmesan used was definitely off a larger block of parmigiano reggiano, I could tell as the taste as it added the final bit of salt taste to the dish and the flavour was that of real parmigiano from Reggio Emilia. For dessert we had the tiramisu, this knocked our socks off! The waiter brought out a large bowl of it and served it at our table. It was as good as my mother used to make. We then opted for a couple of cannoli - this again, was as if I was in Sicily where cannoli originate from. I have travelled many places and even here in Australia been to many Italian restaurants, both causal and fine dining, but this is by far the...

My partner and I had high hopes for this restaurant, but unfortunately, we left very disappointed.

When we arrived, we asked if there was availability for two, but were told nothing was available until 8:30pm. Oddly enough, when we checked online, there was a 7:45pm booking available—so we made that and waited. We returned early at 7:35pm to be polite and prompt, but were rudely told by (what seemed to be the manager) to “wait outside,” while other guests were invited to sit and wait for their tables inside.

When our booking time came, the same man simply pointed at us to come over, no greeting or friendliness, no effort to make us feel welcome. He asked if we wanted table water but never brought it—and no one else followed up.

We waited around 20 minutes before we even managed to get the attention of a waiter to place our order. Thankfully, the young waitress who served us was lovely, polite and helpful—but that was the only positive part of the night.

We ordered two entrees and two mains, expecting the entrees to come first (as you would at any decent restaurant) but instead everything arrived all at once, about 30 minutes later. The food was barely warm, didn’t taste fresh, and while it was okay, it definitely didn’t feel worth the price or the wait.

No staff member came to check on us during the meal, ask if we needed anything, or see if the food was okay. The whole experience felt careless and unprofessional.

Such a shame—poor service, average food, and an uncomfortable atmosphere. We won’t...