Michelangelo's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

Initially booked for dine-in, party of 6 for a birthday celebration. Unfortunately, (our own) circumstances changed and we couldn't attend, so instead we ordered meals online for takeaway.

Homemade Whole Loaf Of Garlic Bread - turned out to be a dense, questionably baked loaf with garlicky butter sparingly smeared inside the loaf cut in half.

Fungi and Australiana Pizzas - again these seemed to have missed the woodfire cooking session, with partially cooked pizza base / dough and whilst the Australiana had taste and mozzarella cheese, the Fungi lacked both - the cheese was somehow completely missing.

Salt & Pepper Calamari - the theme of lacking the process of cooking continued, with the calamari undercooked and the alleged batter, claimed as 'tempura', not batter(??) was definitely not crispy, but rather soggy, rendering this dish completely inedible.

Seafood Risotto (2 of them) - OK, so the red sauce and the rice was fine, this was severely tested by the very off smelling mussels, which meant possible contamination of the remainder of the dishes with the apparent 'unfreshness' of those ingredients.

Crispy Pork Belly - underwhelming 3 pieces of pork belly with (sometimes it doesn't travel well when ordered as takeaway) not crispy, crispy skin. The supporting condiments were nicely done though.

Chocolate Mousse (x2) - more custard like consistency than mousse.

When telephone contact was made, during our meal, to advise of our utter disappointment - we were so looking forward to this dinner - the manager(?) did apologise, but also offered polite excuses and surprise (to be fair, this person was very polite and professional and did sound genuinely apologetic) that our meals turned out so poorly. Offered firstly to have the meals recooked (would've been way too late to eat dinner by then, children involved), then offered dinner voucher (not feasible, out of area) and then offered refund of purchase price, which was accepted, advised an email would be sent with details to provide banking info for refund to be processed to.

The email came later in the night:

"Good evening Philippe, After speaking with the Chef/owner of the restaurant further about your complaint, I am sorry, but I am unable to provide a refund for this order as the meals have been taken. We have been busy in the restaurant this evening and we have sold a great deal of the same dishes that you had in your order. We have not had a single complaint about any of the dishes, except for yours. This is why I have been advised that no refund can be given."

OK, of course the meals were taken, that's the whole idea of "takeaway" - am I expected to check each dish before leaving, taste the dishes and sign off on each, before leaving? Pretty disappointing turn of events here.

Sadly, this single complaint has tainted the view of this dining establishment. How could one meal order have gone so horribly wrong? Were they too busy to worry about the takeaway order, rather than dine-in? Would we have had a different experience had we still been able to dine...

I was massively disappointed by the manager here. The food was pretty good, which is the only reason I'm not giving one star. The pasta portion and wine by the glass were both a little small for the price, but that's not a deal breaker.

What was a deal breaker was that they mistakenly gave our pizza to the next table, then let them keep it for free, but refused to compensate us at all.

The manager apologised to us and said they were remaking a new pizza for us, but didn't offer anything complimentary while we waited. e.g. she saw my wine glass was empty and asked if I wanted another, didn't offer to make it complimentary on account of their mistake.

After finished our main meal, the manager apologised again, but once made no offer of anything complimentary. I saw the table next to us take home leftovers of the free pizza they got.

We paid at the front. Since nothing complimentary had been offered for their mistake all evening, I asked for a discount. The manager flatly refused. She admitted that she should not have let the other couple keep the free pizza. Well the fact is, she did, and didn't offer us anything for the inconvenience of losing our order. She deflected blame saying it was a new waitress. I completely understand that new inexperienced staff make mistakes. But the onus is on her as the manager to make up for it, which she point blank refused to do.

I was extremely disappointed leaving the restaurant. The etiquette is that if you mess up someone's order, you give them a freebie or discount to make up for your mistake. Words alone are inadequate. That couple next to us got a free pizza for doing nothing, while we, whose table suffered the actual mistake, got nothing, and in fact were refused when I asked! I felt very insulted by...

Disappointing experience — confused how it's rated 4.5 stars.

Unfortunately, our visit was marked by a string of missteps that made the night feel far from enjoyable.

It started with confusion at the door — the first waitress didn’t seem to know where to seat us. Despite being the first guests to arrive, we were placed right next to the toilets, which felt like a careless choice.

Later, when we tried to place our order, the second waitress bizarrely responded with, “Sure, I’ll just get a waitress.” That summed up much of the service: disjointed and untrained.

We had to eat most of our main course off entrée plates because proper dinnerware wasn't provided until we asked. One staff member even served dishes while standing directly over our baby's head — a risky and inconsiderate move that showed little awareness or care.

Another waitress made a strange comment about us needing to “be nice” if we wanted to order dessert. It was clearly meant as a joke, but it landed poorly and felt patronising.

As for the food — it was average at best.

The house-made bread was thick and doughy.

The pizza was mostly crust, light on toppings.

The $80 “three pasta mains” special? All served together on the same plate, which defeated the point entirely.

We had to ask for salt and pepper because the food lacked seasoning.

To be fair, one of the pastas was genuinely delicious (Linguine Vongole), and the desserts were well done (Sticky Date Pudding and Tiramisu). But overall, the value didn’t match the price, and the experience didn’t match the hype.

Also worth noting — the huge digital screen showing photos of Italy clashed awkwardly with the otherwise stylish decor.

All round, it felt overpriced and under-delivered. We...