Robba da Matti (Westend) — Restaurant in Vancouver

This restaurant surprised me in a bad way. Considering that most reviews on this location and the other location in Yaletown are pretty good. Multiple servers, including the bartender and the manager served us. Please bear in mind that there seems to be a language barrier with all the FoH staff. Some basic English revolving service in restaurants should be a must. It's a long one, here goes!

No problem getting us seated, my dining companion and I ordered 2 drinks, a Burrata Caprese, and 2 pastas (Spaghetti Pesto Burrata and Spaghetti Carbonara). The drinks took a while to come but they came regardless. I didn't finish mine as it wasn't very good. The Caprese was good but the pastas weren't. Both pastas came and looked very good, the flavour was there however, they were both very undercooked. I spoke with one of the servers and she didn't seem to understand me so I spoke with a different one. We were offered something else on the menu but I wanted the pasta redone and sent back to us. Eventually the two pastas were remade and sent back to us, again, looked very good and the flavour was there, unfortunately, still undercooked. Though it wasn't nearly as bad as the first time, I suggested to my dining companion that we eat a little bit and take the rest home to recook it. One of the servers came to check in on us and I told her that it's still undercooked, she said she was sorry and didn't report it to the manager or anyone else. Finally it was time to go, I asked one of the Italian servers to take the pastas away and please pack it up. She didn't seem to understand what I was saying and I repeated twice more saying 'to go' and 'takeaway'. She then said if I wanted the pastas anymore and I said no. She took them away and that was that. The bartender came and asked if we wanted desert and I said, 'no thank you, just the bill'. When he returned I noticed that the my drink was not on the bill, he noticed the mistake but said it was on him. I paid and asked if he could check on my pasta takeaway boxes as it's been over 15 mins at this point. I managed to get to speak to the Italian server who took the pastas away and asked her where the takeaway boxes were, she had no idea what I was talking about. Then my dining companion and I explained it to her again, she then said something in Italian and said she doesn't know what 'takeaway' or 'pack it up' means. The manager came and spoke to us, explaining that the server said I didn't want the pastas anymore, of course, I explained to him that I said I wanted the pastas packed up and taken away because it was undercooked for the second time. He apologised and said it had already been thrown away. Then I asked for a refund as there was still quite a bit of pasta left on the two plates. He refunded me in cash, $18+$25=$43. He did not refund me the taxes as I've already paid for the bill. I do not understand why he couldn't have just used the machine.

Fun fact: I was told they used fresh pasta, which was false. The difference between the two is that fresh pasta uses more water and usually with the addition of eggs, resulting in a more tender pasta. Al dente is often described as the 'bite' of the pasta. When fresh or dried pasta sticks to your teeth after you bite into it, it's undercooked. A clear indicator for undercooked pasta is that after biting into it, it is white in the centre. In this case, both the first and the redo had this indicator.

The only person that seemed to have been putting any type of effort in service recovery was the bartender. He gave us schnapps later and said it was on the house.

Needless to say, I did give them a reasonable amount of tip, but the tip was all because of the bartender. I do not think anyone else deserved it nor will I be returning here again. To be fair, you should at least try the Yaletown location on Mainland St., perhaps you may enjoy it. Or you could chance it at this location, maybe you'll have better...

It started out as a promising night when we arrived at this cute neighbourhood restaurant. It was tastfully decorated and had an inviting ambiance.

Unfortunately, it turned into a busy night where the staff was over run by a full house. The front of the house did not have time to extend much of any table service let alone establish rapport with their guest.

Delivery of drinks and food was extremely slow.

Our cocktails were a hit and miss. The limoncello good but the Marinara lacked flavour. The Marinara drink was made of pomegranate, lime, vodka and basil. It tasted diluted and was not fruity nor refreshing.

When appetizers did arrive, the Insalata Roma was ok but we were disappointed with the fried mozzarella balls. The breaded cheese balls were slightly warm and lacked any seasoning or flavour. Some balsamic vinegar. marinara sauce or salt and pepper would have helped give it some life.

After the appetizer plates were cleared, there was over a ~50 minutes wait before the entrees arrived. An acknowledgement or check-in to let us know what was happening in the kitchen by our waiter during this longer lull of waiting time would have been informative. Unfortunately, he was busy with the other tables when he wasn't in the back kitchen.

A small ~

I went with my partner to that restaurant because we saw they have good reviews but unfortunately our experience wasn’t really nice. Since we got there the service was really bad, when we get to the tables no one gave us a menu to see what can we get, I believe there was only 2 servers and it wasn’t that full but none of them pay us attention since we got there but after 10 minutes one of the server approached to ask and said what we would like to eat, even though there was no menu on the table we had to ask for it. The waiter being the menu and took us a minute to decide so we ordered around 8:10, we didn’t ask anything to drink because we mainly went for the food. So we went 10 minutes, 20 minutes and even 40 minutes, we ask the server what happen with our order and they said that they are going to check first, after checking they realize they didn’t do the order so we had to wait more time but then another server came to apologize and said there was a glitch on the system that didn’t went to the kitchen but they will be cooking it. After all this bad inconvenience, my partner and I were a bit uncomfortable and annoyed for the situation and because of what happen all the server now start to pay attention to every moment, at the point to make us feel more uncomfortable but I know that they were trying to fix something that it’s hard after all. My boyfriend ask for a sangria because we had to wait for time, the server talk to us and said it was on the house because they feel bad for the inconvenience. So it was 9:05 and food still not coming, we ask and they said it’ll be ready soon. We have to wait for an hour so we can get 2 dishes, the server told us that he speak with the manager and said it was on the house for the inconvenience. At that point, we were not hungry, we had a couple bites and then leave it because that experience was bad at all, we felt disrespected and annoyed. It looks a great place to eat and have dinner but I won’t recommend because of the service, we literally saw how the servers pay attention more to other tables with more people that look like friend of them too than us. And I hope no other pass for this...