The Italian Bowl — Restaurant in Sydney

This place used to be my favorite, but today’s experience was awful and I won’t be coming back. The food was as good as always, and the inside staff was competent—except for the cashier.

I’ve been here multiple times without any issues, but this time the cashier was extremely rude and disrespectful. While waiting to order, we heard the cashier talking to the customers in front of us in a cynical tone as they decided what to order. When it was our turn, I ordered, “Can I get 1 Spaghetti Calabrese Combo with Chicken Schnitzel, please?” The cashier then asked, “Small or Large,” and I repeated my order, emphasising the combo with Chicken Schnitzel. The cashier snapped at me, saying, “If you want to order a combo, say the word combo first when you order. I keep telling you this all the time when you come here, but you never listen.”

I was completely shocked. After waiting for at least 20-30 seconds, I started my next order: “Also, can I get a 'Combo' Linguine Boscaiola with Chicken Schnitzel and extra cheese, please?” Midway through my order, the cashier cut me off, saying, “I will tell you when I’m ready. Can’t you see I’m still putting your first order in? Because you didn’t tell me that you wanted a combo at the start, now I have to delete the order and re-add it.”

Despite this horrible experience with the cashier, the rest of the dining experience was pleasant. The food was served promptly, and the staff provided great service even under pressure. However, the cashier has left a lasting negative impression, and I won’t return unless she is no longer serving.

The disrespect and attitude are unacceptable. I understand that working in customer service can be stressful and annoying, but nothing justifies being "abused" for absolutely no reason while ordering food, and I do not stand for that.

Reply to owner's comments: I get that as an owner, you want your staff to do their best, and I understand that some days can be tough. But when an employee can't control their emotions and lashes out at customers over something minimal, they either need to be removed or given extra training in managing emotions.

Also, I never said in my review that I've "been for many years." In fact, I only discovered your restaurant late last year and have only been there a maximum of 3-4 times. Please get your facts straight before replying.

I understand restaurant service can vary, but when the first interaction at your restaurant is borderline abusive, that's something I won't tolerate. Moreover, I haven't been to your venue 100 times, so your justification is completely invalid. Please fact-check your reply before responding...

We ordered our food and got the $26 ragu and 24$ boscaiola with drinks, however after being seated we’re told they were out of ragu, so we changed to the $24 carbonara, after our meal it occurred to me that the prices had been increased, so I took a menu to see what the difference was and soon realised that we had been overcharged, upon telling the incredibly rude and disinterested lady at the counter she responded with “so what?, you want your $2” which I will add was the wrong amount, after explaining it to the lady, she said it was due to the Sunday surcharge, (no eftpos charges was mention, nor is there any signs at POS) I then proceeded to do the math in front of her and tell her that it was still wrong even whilst including the 10% surcharge. Once again she failed to understand the simple math behind our predicament all while including attitude and a dismissive tone. Accepting you can’t speak sense to a wall we walked off, to which we could hear her yelling through the small side window, I returned to tell her once again how her math was wrong.

Here is some simple math that she failed to understand:

We were charged $67

Our bill was—— (24x2=48) + (2 drinks x$4=8) =8+48=56+10%=$61.6

Assuming the lady was thinking about the ragu when it came to the pricing here is some more simple math

24+26+8=58+10%=$63.80

So unless math is inverted in this place the change is not $2, and the attitude after being informed of her mistake can be kept to herself. I have let this lady’s attitude go multiple times, but I won’t be mocked to my face, we were not even asking for a refund we just wanted to let her know of her mistake. If there is a card surcharge which we were not told about at any point, and by her math is it really $5 off of a $61 dollar order. We used to come here all the time, food to their credit is usually good and service is similar however I won’t be coming back. Presumed owner alexei on the contrary is always exceptional with his service.

Service got one star because at least there was...

NEVER EVER!!!!!! I had to give a star to write this review! This was my first time coming into this restaurant! Only me and my friend and we advised the front staff that we are 4 but waiting for our friend!!! He advises us we order and pay wait for a table. I advised him we are waiting for our other two friends and I asked him we will wait till our friends come as we can’t order now without them. it’s going to look weird he then advised another older man that was allocating people to tables and that man said yes don’t worry here is the table you can just sit now & order when your friends come and I asked is it Okai and he advised yea it is!!! We waited for our friends that were running behind due to parking. As my friend goes to the bathroom and comes out I say let’s just go order drinks while we wait. As soon as we get up another older bold man approaches our table leans forward on the table puts his hands out & starts saying just leave you got to leave and picks up the reservation sign slamming it on the table out 3 times and yells very loud you got to go this is reserved. I explained to him, we advised the man he put us here and we waiting for friends to go order. He then starts yelling in front of people order in the front go! Go! In a angry way. Me and my friend by that time get so embarrassed and scared, so he then followed us to the door push’s me towards the order & pay section and while saying pay & order here. I advised him no we leaving. I literally was very disgusted how they treated us. Very racist towards Arab women. He would of never done that to none Arab women. I will never approach this restaurant ever. You should be ashamed of how your...