La Piazza — Restaurant in Sydney

Italian restaurant located in the Bankstown sports club. Parking is available under the club and you'll have to be a member or be with a member in order to enter. The entrance is fairly scenic and they're clearly going for an little Italy aesthetic which is largely achieved. This is the second time I had taken my family here and we previously had a decent time so had I reviewed it then, I'd have likely updated it tonight.

The food was like before, all delicious; I had the grigliata mista di mare which was essentially a seafood platter main which I really enjoyed. My partner had the scotch fillet which was perfectly seared and my family had various creamy seafood pastas all of which I highly recommend.

'If the food was so great, why am I only giving two stars?' and my response is probably not what you'd expect. Our waiter was.. very distracted. While we were taking our order, the whole time he was staring at some other table and my whole family was confused as to what he was looking at. Then while we were still taking our order he then takes off and my family member then informs me that he's talking to a woman around the corner. My family and I just looked at each other completely bewildered, I didn't know if he was coming back or if I needed to call another waiter. We decide to wait. Five or so minutes later he then comes back and we have to go through what I had already ordered because I'm not sure if he noted everything down or not. We notice that there were numerous errors; he put down an extra dish somehow(?), didn't write one of the sauces, and omitted a dish altogether. No clue how he managed this, he was likely distracted by the woman who he talking to.

The order somehow still comes out wrong🤦‍♂️. He had asked whether we wanted a specific dish as an entree or main and we replied main, only for it to be served as an entree anyway. There's like two options and you still managed to get it wrong, like why even ask lmao. Additional sauces and sides were missing entirely even though we went over it twice. We had to spend time chasing other waiters just to get the items that were missing which I find frankly disappointing. Our night would've turned out a little better if we didn't have to waste time both confused and chasing missing items because our waiter is trying to get lucky.

Guilio, brother, I completely understand if you meet this great woman and you gotta chase her, but it needs to be said. Compounding the fact you messed up our orders even though we went over it twice, you running off to talk to another woman while we were ordering was confusing, unprofessional and rude.

I'm still rooting for you I guess Guilio, someone's night should...

The decor of this place is really nice, reminds me of a street in Italy, I wish the top floors were inhabited with hotel rooms, it would bring the ambient atmosphere up even more, but even as it stands it's amazing.

My experience was fairly ordinary.

I didn't really like the waiters, the seating arrangements, the way you pay for your meal, the separation for payment between drinks and food, and established in house rules. Firstly in order to pay you have to stand up, go to the front pizza section to order your food, the waiters won't take your order at the table, and they will only bring your food but they won't bring your drinks, for the most part they are mainly there for decoration. Then if you happen to want drinks (and I'm sure you will) you have to get up again and go to the bar (another section) and buy them and bring them yourself to the table, the staff outright refused to do it. Finally you have to know the number at which you are seated at, what exact number, so that they have to bring the order to you. They don't issue you with a table number and serve you. If you happen to get to the counter and happen to forget which number you're seated on, or simply didn't pay any attention in the first place, it will present for a slightly awkward experience.

The waiters were unhelpful in every way, I don't get why they are even there. They added to the extra clutter in the narrowly seated tables as is. Their attitude was really poor, they stand around and do absolutely nothing aside from stare are you when you eat your food, what's their purpose exactly? They don't seat customers down when they enter the venue, no one is really polite, or even smiling, the best they can do is deliver things or direct you to where you need to get up and pay.

Now the food. The Pizzas weren't something to write home about but they weren't bad, I enjoyed mine for what it was, however the salad was drenched in so much balsamic vinegar that it was laughable, it felt like no one had a clue how to cut or dress a small salad. There was no love in any of the food preparation and that's why it only gets an average rating by me.

Overall, it's not a bad place to visit, for that one time that you want to show off the venues decor, but they need to make changes to a lot of things, the way they deliver the food for example is also very awkward they have these annoying Pizza stands that do more harm than good. The metal elevations take away from the room on the table, not contribute to it. The tables are really small, and if you're not a retired pensioner then knowing all the "purchasing rules" of the venue will come to bit of an...

This is usually a good go to place for large groups and my family have regularly come here for birthdays.

If it were not for the ability to cater to large groups I would not personally return there after tonight's experience.

A basic miscommunication and error in order that was input by a staff member lead to a child's meal not being brought out. Unfortunately the way in which it was handled was severely poor. It felt as though we were being accused of trying to gain a free child's meal.

Rather than asking what had happened - it was a very direct and forceful way of handling the issue. They did provide the meal however it was not smooth and was dealt with such an attitude that it was almost dealt with such disrespect.

Second poor customer service was when ordering coffees; now it does get difficult to hear due to the restaurant and amount of conversations in the establishment. The inability to hear someone who is not able to carry their own voice becomes harder. I can only apologise for the inability to hear what this poor girl said. however to receive attitude about a table number infuriates me. There was no sense of manners or a simple "im sorry but i need your table number first" - just "your table number" and a look of frustration from the staff member. If you honestly do not want to be at your job that you are paid to do - then quit as you do not do yourself justice nor the restaurant you work for.

To be fair i have experienced service from a few staff members (this is very slim if you consider the ratio of employees there) whom are actually lovely and willing to help. Unfortunately, due to today's experience - our family will no longer eat here. This was the last straw with this over priced pizzeria. - it could make sense for the price if there was a customer service bench mark or perhaps outstanding meals.

Truth be told you could have an amazing time or a horrible time here. Fair to make your own decision - I wanted to post this so that maybe the owner/s will read some of the comments made about their business. Perhaps the consideration of customer service experiences could be highlighted when training...