Maranello's Concord — Restaurant in Sydney

We had a table booked for 6.30pm for 6 people; aside from our table, there was only one other table of six when we made our order, though they had already made their order. I ordered a main dish for each person, as well as a few side dishes and drinks; one of the dishes I specifically ordered to exclude cheese, and asked for all the foods to come together. As the waiter spoke English as a second language, I took great care to speak slowly and clearly and repeated our order several times to ensure it would have been received correctly. The garlic bread and pizza was served as an entree, which was frustrating but we didn't let it affect our mood. However, when the mains came out we realised they didn't bring my husband's main so I waved down the waiter  when she did not return, so as to remind them that we were waiting on his meal. She assured us it was on the way so the rest of us waited for the missing main to be served. It was evident that they forgot to place the order with the  kitchen as it took well over 15 mins for them to bring the dish - which then arrived WITH cheese, and by which time, the rest of our meals had gone cold. At this point, my husband was turned off eating at all, so he told them politely that we had asked for the dish to be served without cheese, and to not bother with a replacement as the rest of the table cannot wait any longer for the dish to arrive. Despite this, they returned with his main within 10 mins and when my husband expressed his frustration at the lack of communication, the waitress mentioned it was "on the house". My husband was offended as it had nothing to to do with the money, but rather that no acknowledgement or genuine apology was made, not to mention that there really was no excuse for the mistake to occur in the first place as it wasn't busy. Not once did the manager check in to diffuse the situation or to apologise for the error. When we went to pay, my husband relayed the story the manager only for him to brush it off with a half-assed apology. It is really disappointing that we were treated with such lack of empathy, because for those of us that did eat, the food was delicious, but with service like that, I doubt we will be stepping foot there...

My partner and I went to dine there last Saturday after quite a long time, thinking of giving this place another try after some years. Our initial experience was not so memorable. This time was memorable for all the wrong reasons. It is a shame as Majors Bay Road is one of our local haunts.

While the customer service was accommodating seeing as we were walk-ins during Covid, the dishes served up were horrid. Garlic bread was dry, with barely any garlic on the bread. However, what took the proverbial cake were our mains.

My 'Filetto Maranello - Eye fillet, prawns, cream, green peppercorns, flamed in a white wine, served with seasonal vegetables or salad' tasted like it had just spend 1 min in the pan. The medium-rate beef was wobbly, and practically alive on the plate right under the surface. I still ate half of it, then had to stop, spitting out a few mouthfuls. Unfortunately, it was already a bad idea as I spent the rest of the evening nursing an upset stomach.

Similarly, my Northern Italian partner ordered the 'Vitello Funghi - Veal cooked in mushrooms sauce'. From the moment it arrived, I thought it looked wrong. Sure enough, the veal tasted like it had been washed, and the sauce was nauseating. When asked how the meal was, my partner was honest but objective, and constructive. However, the waitress then replied: "Well, you ate quite a bit!". Personally, I do not believe making customers feel invalidated is a good idea - we did not want to waste too much food. Upon getting the check, my partner reflected this experience back to the manager, who kindly offered half-price, but he equally kindly declined and paid in full. Nevertheless, we would like the restaurant to note the feedback.

No photos, because they were not Instagram or Facebook worthy at all. P.s. I do not expect a fair response from the owner and/or manager, I'm merely sharing my review...

We loved this place and would order pizza from here about once a week. Unfortunately there must have been a change in chef as the pizza is now soggy with too much cheese and the dough is now thick, spongey and soggy. In the past 2 weeks they have sent us the same wrong pizza on 2 seperate occasions through UberEats. We ordered a Primavera and received a Casalinga both times. First time we gave them the benefit of the doubt as things happen so we let it slide. Now that it's happened again we thought we would call up to see what went wrong. The staff were very unprofessional, passed the phone around without telling us who we were talking to or that we were talking to someone new so we had to explain the situation all over again. It took them awhile to actually understand the error they made, and when they finally did they advised that we should order a garlic bread through UberEats and that they would send the correct pizza and cash for the refund of delivery and garlic bread. When the pizza finally arrived, they only refunded us the delivery fee, and pocketed the money for the garlic bread. When we called up again the manager couldn't understand the problem and provided us with no options for resolution so we frustratingly hung up and we've just accepted our losses.

You've lost us as customers, which is a shame as you were the best pizza around our area but obviously something has changed in...