BASTA Trattoria — Restaurant in Wollongong City Council

I just finished having dinner for my mother’s birthday and am overall not very happy with our experience tonight. Although the taste of the food was nice the rest wasn’t. We had ordered 2 entrees and 3 mains. An hour had passed and still no food or at least an entree. We noticed other guests who had ordered after us had received their food before us so we had enquired into what was taking so long. An hour had passed and we received our entree and pizza. We spoke with the waitress who was nice and helpful with our regards and she had come back saying that the kitchen had missed the entrees and that in order for the mains to come out the kitchen waits until the entrees have been collected to then serve out the mains. The entree then came out 15 mins after this and the restaurant served us a dish of olives along with our garlic and rosemary bread that we had ordered in which the olives were on the house without asking if we were wanting them as you never know certain people may not like olives.

I can understand that mistakes happen and I am fine with that however it wasn’t very busy tonight therefore the kitchen weren’t getting smashed with an enormous workload, so I cannot understand fully as to why our order and entrees first were missed.

We had suggested perhaps a round of drinks to compensate but 20 minutes after suggesting, our waitress had come to our table asking if we wanted any drinks on the house. By that time we were ready to leave as we had finished our meals.

The other issue was that our pastas were warm not hot in some areas of the dish but then some were more cooler.

We were then walking out and thought to mention our concerns to the lady at the corner of the desk and all that she had said in summary was that she was sorry that we felt this way and offered two free drink vouchers.

I felt that the situation was not handled correctly and that the manger on duty either wasn’t aware or didn’t want to ensure that paying customers left without any concerns. If I owned a business and had an issue raised from a customer I would do anything to try to fix the concerns perhaps offering a 50% discount or whatever it may be to ensure that the customer leaves happy. If the situation was handled correctly I would be more than happy to keep returning back although this experience has left a sour taste...

Terrible experience and so unprofessional, we waited so long for someone to take our order that we had to get someone’s attention. After we ordered we waited for the starters which didn’t take long to get but it was completely average and nothing special. Once we finished we waited for our mains which took a while, I got my main but the waiter didn’t clear the table until we asked her to, I also gave her my cutlery since it was dirty and waited 20min for her to bring me a fork to eat my food, while I was waiting for my fork, my friends main still hasn’t come (normally mains should be served all together). While we waited I noticed the waiter put food on a empty table, which I thought it was odd, then watched her go outside and talk to some customers and pointed to the table with food on it, those people then came in while there food was unattended and sat at the table. To me that’s so wrong and you should never leave someone’s food just sitting on a table unattended as you don’t know who will walk past there food! After that we waited another 10min for my friends pizza and still nothing so we told the waiter we are still waiting (while we were waiting we noticed the pizza chef cleaning and packing up so our order was completely forgotten about). We finally got the pizza 40min after my main got to the table but the waiter still didn’t clear any dirty dishes and glasses from our table so we had piles of dirty dishes and glasses. The waiter compensated 2 glasses of moscato, which I think wasn’t enough for the horrible experience we had and how long we waited. The staff where not really apologetic but to put it in the nicest way possible, they where just air headed. I DONT recommend coming here i for sure will never dine here again for the horrible experience I had, I was annoyed we had to pay for the pizza after waiting so long and forgotten about and we had to remind the staff how to do there jobs like clearing the table and...

We were really looking forward to going for a drink followed by dinner at Basta. We went to make our booking on the website but couldn’t so rang and were told the website was changing platforms so they took booking over the phone 3 weeks in advance. Arrived and guess what, no booking! Managed to find us a table in the end. Menu is relatively small but was what seemed a good selection of starters and mains. Ordered our starters (share plates) at first with drinks, all good. Mains consisted of a few pasta dishes, pizza and 5 other non pasta dishes which we all (6) had selected only to find that 3 of the 5 were not available and we were an early time 6:30PM. Reason given was “Oh we are changing menus”. This isn’t a cheap restaurant so this is pretty unacceptable. Mains around the $45 - $50 mark. Wines start at $49 a bottle but generally in the $70 to $80 mark. If meals aren’t available, tell people up front, not after you have made your selection! Great location and vibe. Seemed to be very young staff with some confusion. Had to ask for our drink order twice on 2 occasions. Overall it is quite a nice place but they need to iron out the bugs, train their staff better and ensure they have a full menu selection if they want to stay at the price point they are currently at otherwise word will get around. Disappointing and not sure I would return as the price paid should have been for a much...