Sassafras Yamba — Restaurant in Yamba

Turned up on time, they had cancelled my reservation after I rang prior twice, one to confirm and once to add two extra people. This was my birthday dinner. So then had to wait ten mins til they could set up seating. We were all squashed up at the back of the restaurant. Waited over ten mins to get someone to take our order and then we had to catch one of the girls as she was rushing by and asked her to take our order. Did our orders and we asked for drinks and to have some ice bought with our drinks. After half an hour we had to ask if we could have our drinks. Drinks turned up in cans, no glasses or ice. Hubby goes up to ask for ice for drinks and glasses. The little teen he asked didn't understand what he was asking for, so the Manager or whoever she was, steps up and says don't be rude to me. Anyway, he just walked away. Five minutes later, another young lady arrived with ice in glasses and apologised for forgetting our ice. Lovely girl. After 40 mins we eventually got our meals. My pasta was only lukewarm but I ate half of it. My friends pasta was the same, but she was hungry so she ate it anyway. The pizzas were good, hot and everyone said they were pretty good. Prices were very expensive for the size of the meals. This was my favourite restaurant in Yamba, but it's gone down hill. Unfortunately they're employing very young girls who don't know the menus, forget to come and ask people for their orders, don't understand what people want. Need to better train their staff. My birthday was ruined and I felt embarrassed about all that went on there last night. None of us will be back. So...

A very busy pizza place that we walked past on our first night in Yamba so decided to book it because the masses can't be wrong...right?

We arrived at 5.55pm for our 6pm booking and our order was not taken until 6.20pm. Perhaps a 20min+ wait for some parties would not be a big deal, but when you have 2 young and hungry kids, and the restaurant was virtually empty at that time, the wait seemed inappropriate. Furthermore, we saw tables that arrived after us having their orders taken before us, and when I tried to get the staff's attention, it took 4 attempts before they looked at us, and then it was 'we will be 1 minute' gesture.

We were getting ready to leave when a waitress finally came to us, so we decided to stay.

Positives: friendly service when we finally got it, the kids menu was extremely flexible because we could choose their toppings with no limits. My chilli prawn pizza was delicious.

Slight negatives: my husband's Roma pizza was average (I had a taste) and the kids didn't love their pizzas - not sure why, but I noted that the cheese is very well-done (like steak terminology when it's cooked for longer) . I enjoyed my prawn pizza so can only surmise why no one else finished theirs.

A very popular place amongst others, but one that we will...

MISSY THE CAT RETURNS!

Scroll through these reviews for photos of Sassafras' pizza, and those of you who could also find Napoli on a map will immediately understand my two-star review. This sad performance would be unacceptable even if Sassafras' pizzas were cheap, but we're talking Sydney / Melbourne prices here. Might as well buy yourself some frozen Aldi pizzas, slam them in the oven until the moisture's been driven out, and spend your savings on wine enough to wash away the irritation of it all.

As for the four- and five-star reviews, well, enthusiastic ignorance is why we can't have nice things in country Australia.

Missy The Cat Star Ratings:

5 - a place of rare genius that merits repeated return visits

4 - a strong effort with no major shortcomings

3 - a solid, worthy effort with perhaps one important thing to fix

2 - several important things wrong, but at least one important thing right

1 - can't be given a zero, doesn't deserve a dollar (as of...