La Panchina — Restaurant in Sydney

Recently came here for our fourth visit. This was to be our last visit here ever. The pizzas are amazing, but the service leaves much to be desired. We didn’t notice anything on our first visit, we were just very happy to have found an authentic Italian pizza restaurant. On our second visit, my husband, and I took my father-in-law here (a man in his mid 70s). We were given the tiniest table for the three of us. The food came out in quick succession. Again, no negative feedback on the actual taste and quality of this. However, we did feel somewhat rushed. On our third visit, we decided to take two friends of ours and had a table outside. The older waiter, who we assume is the owner as per many of the other comments in other reviews, seemed to be trying to impress us, a table of four guys, with what can only be described as macho behaviour towards girls at another table. Oblivious to the fact that we were not at all impressed. After this visit, I had made my mind up, not to return. However, a few months later, after an afternoon at the Carrington pub across the road with my husband and two mates we were feeling for some good pizza and decided to give La Panchina another go. The same older waiter/owner was extremely rude throughout our time spent there and initially try to charge us for extra shots of alcohol when we mentioned politely that the drinks were weak (I overheard him, telling the other waiter in Italian), but when challenged, he played dumb. we finished our meals and were chatting whilst finishing our wine, when the bill was put on our table without asking for it. We had literally been there for just an hour, so it wasn’t like we were overstaying our welcome. This was the final nail in the coffin for me. Yes, the pizza is great. But service goes a long long way. I would urge anyone looking for authentic Italian pizza to look elsewhere. La Vacanza a bit further up Bourke Street serves pizza of the same, if not better quality and the service is always warm, welcoming and friendly. Via Napoli on Crown Street also serves amazing pizzas. Having lived in Italy for two years, we have experienced Italian hospitality. This is not it. Read the reviews and don’t waste your time...

The rudest waiter (who I actually think was the owner) would not recommend at all. The waiter called over a local guy walking past for a drink, and when the local guy told him he wasn’t drinking, told the guy to leave. We thought we wouldn’t get involved, however when he came out and was rude and snappy with us, I wasn’t interested in staying. We had ordered wine and put some money on the table to pay for that and then leave. He asked what was happening and when called out on how rude he was, he swore, told us not to come back and said he didn’t want our money. Can’t comment on the food unfortunately, as we left before that came. Had really been looking forward to trying this local venue which was then completely ruined by the attitude shown. Don’t know if he was just in a bad mood tonight or if this is a regular thing, however we were told he was always rude by the guy told to leave.

Edit to respond to owners comment:

I wish that it had just been a misunderstanding, that wasn’t the case unfortunately and the whole interaction was completely unnecessary, especially as it wasn’t just between friends it was also directed towards us. Thank you for the response though, even though you aren’t really taking ownership of...

We came for dinner and were seated by a guy who seem to be the owner straight to a dirty table, no apology, no explanation, nothing. We waited for a while to see if he was gonna come back to clean, but he did not.

We waited and waited until a lovely Italian waiter came (sorry forgot to ask his name, but he was very friendly, lovely, professional, and polite even though he did not speak English fluently, he just worked there for 2 weeks!). He asked us if we had enjoyed our dinner. Then we explained that we just came and it is a dirty table from previous guest, he apologized and finally cleaned our table and offered menu.

We ordered 4 pizzas from the owner and it came quite fast, generous toppings too. The taste was alright. 1 of us mentioned to remove olives from his pizza when ordering (like 2-3 times) yet the pizza still came with olives on it.

The plates was not the cleanest, and we also got dirty water cups.

The worst part for me was seeing a large cockroach crawling on the wall next to our table. I know it is summer and of course it is going to be everywhere but I just lost my appetite.

Overall, not the best experience. Hope they can do better with hygiene and...