Monsterella Pizza — Restaurant in Western Australia

Monsterella. Often recommended.

And for good reason. Pizza is reliable, wood fired and tasty. And their pasta. Home-made and under-rated. Al dente and loved by all.

So why the three stars? They're a victim of their own success.

Monsterella is busy. Often booked out week(s) in advance for popular evenings. Seatings even on weekdays are time limited. Which wouldn't normally be a problem if their wait staff weren't so stretched that they cannot maintain a well timed service. To the point where a 90 minute seating isn't enough for them to serve lamb skewers, pasta, pizza and dessert.

Two staff indoors. One floating outdoors. Constantly running between tables. Visibly under the pump. Surely, Monsterella is doing well enough they can afford to put another member of wait staff on.

We enjoy a leisurely dinner. We don't mind a short dinner. But it's not good enough if there are lengthy waits through no fault of your own ; and by the time you have to get up and ask to order dessert, there is

Last Saturday went for pizza with my partner. We ordered at the counter. No problem. Pizzas came after a normal time. My partner's choice was delicious (9/10). Mine was good (6/10) except that i found a small wood splinter. I called one of the helpers and showed him the nasty discovery. He was very apologetic and, without any request, he said we will see what can be done. He came back and explained that is the nature of their business and issued an apology!!! Firstly, in over 30 years leaving in Perth and regularly attending woodfired oven pizzerias, never had a piece of wood in my pizza. Secondly, if this would have happened in many other countries, the nature of the business would have made them take my pizza from the bill. Finally and more importantly, what would have happened if this splinter got lodged in one of those children eating a pizza?? I understand that is it was an unfortunate event but to use "nature of their business" as an excuse, it is simply...

So it’s really 3.5 stars. Nice wood fired pizza place, busy both with eat in & takeaway. As a larger group we were placed at a table outside & it’s very close to the road (with no enclosure/barrier, so feels quite exposed at night). I ordered the mela pizza, which had a lovely base but was bland & we couldn’t taste or see any eggplant (compared to the zucchini). Needed seasoning & a bit of chilli, garlic & other herbs/spices would’ve helped. The meat pizzas seemed to deliver more flavour. The broccolini side was delicious (with a good combo of chilli & lemon), as was the panzanella. My nieces report that the chocolate cannoli was ‘yum’. Service was average - we had to chase up one missing pizza & broccolini dish, & were not attended after our dishes were delivered. An all round nice enough place, but choose dishes with...