Robba da Matti (Yaletown) — Restaurant in Vancouver

The WORST service I have ever experienced in Vancouver. (this review is for the West End location)

Get seated in the middle of the room, lots of staff going by, wait 15 minutes with nothing more than water and a tiny bowl of olives put on the table.

Nobody saying 'Good Evening, I will be taking care of you tonight', Nothing!

After 15 minutes, I flag down a guy carrying a bottle of wine to another table to ask 'Can we order wine?' Turns out this is the Owner, and he comes back over to take the wine order and brings the bottle to the three of us and pours.

Another 15 minutes go by, and I flag down the guy who turns out to be the Manager to ask 'Can we order food?'. He seems quite surprised to see we've now been sitting there for 30 minutes (he has walked past numerous times) with NOTHING on the table other than water, wine, and the tiny bowl of olives. NOTHING ELSE.

He takes the order and about twenty minutes later (we only ordered one main dish each), some other person shows up with the order, only two of the three dishes were correct. He seems to take offense when I point out that what he is trying to put in front of me is NOT what I ordered. He then wanders off with the dish.

About ten minutes later, I walk over to the bar where the Owner is, to fill him in on what is going wrong. The Waiter magically appears and engages me in the first conversation since arriving in the restaurant more than an hour earlier. He is in a huff with me! The manager shows up, telling me not to worry, he is working on it.

When I point out that for the two dishes that did arrive, they did not even bother to offer grated parmesan cheese, he takes off and returns with dried ground cheese clearly out of a box.

Things did not go better from there and for the rest of the meal (my food arrived about twenty minutes after the first dishes, pasta is obviously difficult to prepare) the Owner COMPLETELY IGNORED US.

I will NEVER set foot in this circus again.

RESPONSE TO THE COMMENTS FROM THE RESTAURANT:

"... we gave you a free bruschetta..."

• This was brought to the table without any warning. As I told the Manager, had we wanted bruschetta, we would have ordered it with the meal. It was refused when carried to the table, but left on the table against my wishes.

"... we didn’t allow you to pay for the pasta..."

• That is correct, my dish alone was 'comped'. Would you like a star for that ?

"... then we offered you free dessert ..."

• Once again, this showed up without warning. One small dessert with 3 spoons. I made it clear to the manager that NONE of us at the table eat desserts and we did not want it.

"... and an after dinner digestivo... "

• No, there was NO offer of a free drink. There was an attempt to sell us more items when all we wanted to do was pay and get out the door.

"... Once I and my floor supervisor were aware of what happened at your table we bent over backwards to make your evening enjoyable .."

• You must have been doing your exercise in private because you never came by the table or even looked in our direction after I had to leave the table to find you and complain about the issues we were...

I recently went to Robba Da Matti’s Yaletown location with my girlfriends to celebrate a birthday. We had been to the Haro Street location before and had an incredible time, so I thought this would be the perfect choice again. The booking process was smooth and our server was very sweet. The restaurant itself is quite small and cozy — the indoor space feels a bit squished, though the patio seating (where we sat) was fine and works if you’re looking for a more intimate atmosphere.

The biggest concern I had, however, was with my meal. I have an allergy to gluten, and last time I ordered a salad (which was delicious), but I really wanted the carbonara this time. When our meals were brought to the table, I noticed that the noodles didn't look like they were gluten free. I double checked with my server, and sure enough, they were not. I then had to wait an additional 15-20 minutes to get my food while my friends all had their pasta. My gluten free carbonara was finally brought out, but I was extremely disappointed with the meal. The sauce was wonderful, but the gluten free pasta itself was probably one of the worst pastas I have every had. It was extremely brittle/crumbly and some of the noodles were far too undercooked. Not to mention, it is an additional $5!!!! for gluten free pasta, and there is no warning that the noodles are just penne, no other shape option. I would not have ordered carbonara if I knew it was coming in a penne shape. The restaurant was barely apologetic about this inconvenience, and although they ended up not charging the $5 gluten free fee, I still had to pay $32 for the meal.

Overall, I do think that Robba Da Matti is a lovely restaurant... for those without dietary restrictions. They very much need to work on their accommodations for gluten free individuals (e.g. improving service, finding a new brand/better quality of gf pasta, perhaps even offering multiple noodle shapes, and $5 is a ridiculous fee to have to pay for an allergy...

Celebrating an early birthday for my step daughter as she loves pasta. We made reservations as one of favourite Italian restaurants and it was the kid's first time. Our table was ready and we were seated in the patio. We were seated in the corner and it was cold as the cold air was seeping in as there was a gap to our left. It's super cold as it's suppose snow tonight. We had kept our coats on the whole time.

We put our order in and timing of food coming out was on point knowing the food is made to order. The server did tell us the entrees are almost ready but I wasn't concerned but appreciated the heads up. I can tell it was busy as the restaurant and patio was full. The server kept all guests calm consider it was a busy Saturday night.

We started with BURRATA CAPRESE . Did you know the burrata mozzarella is flown directly from Puglia? We order this appetizer every time, so good. The burrata is so fresh, smooth and light, almost like cottage cheese consistency. It's so good with slices tomatoes, basil and greens.

Entrees: -LOBSTER & CRAB RAVIOLI - wow! This was a decedent dish. I had a bite of this and was an exciting bite! I would order their next time. PAPPARDELLE "ROSCHE ROSCHE" - my dish was delicious! The short rib and sausage ragu was flavourful and paired perfectly with the al dente pappardelle. It was a hearty dish good for a cold evening. -SPAGHETTI ALLA CARBONARA - birthday girl also enjoyed this dish. The Guanciale was really nice add to the dish. -GNOCCHI AI QUATTRO FORMAGGI - stepson ate all of this himself and I asked him how it was? His response "it's pretty good" and continued to eat. That's always a good sign.

Dessert: Birthday tiramisu with a candle of course!

The service is always good and our server tonight was fantastic. It took me back to vacation pre-COVID to Venice.

We will return! Thank you of keeping open and following protocols during...