The Italian Job （formerly known as Coconut House） — Restaurant in Petaling Jaya

Disclaimer: I don't like dishing out 1-star reviews.

My girlfriend and I arrived on a rainy night. Due to the lack of small tables, we were awkwardly seated at a large table clearly meant to seat six. We browsed the menu and inquired about the toppings on a certain pizza. The waitress stared blankly at us. She clearly didn't know either. Strange. Anyway, a quick chat with the chef cleared things up.

The wild mushroom soup arrived with little fanfare. We took a spoonful and were immediately hit with the overwhelming taste of black pepper. Another spoonful confirmed my disappointment - underneath all that black pepper was the taste of blended boiled mushrooms. Oh well, at least the wood-fired pizza was up next. I'd never had a wood-fired pizza that wasn't at least decent.

The mushroom pizza arrived in all its galore. At last, the main event! I eagerly grabbed a slice and flipped it over...

Oh my days! The bottom of the pizza was whiter than an Englishman stuck in the middle of a snowstorm! Where was the wonderful leopard spotting provided by the wood-fire oven? Instead of a delightful crispness, the base was sickly white and squishy to the touch. If it wasn't for the shape and thickness, I'd swear I was touching a plain tortilla wrap.

As I fearfully bit into it, I realised that the pizza was sauceless. Surely they hadn't just melted some cheese over some mushrooms on a pizza base and called it a day? Not quite. They sprinkled some herbs too. But it seemed they had forgotten the salt because the pizza was incredibly bland. Luckily, at this point in the meal, my lady and I were salty enough to compensate for the lack of seasoning.

As we paid for our meal, I optimistically wondered if the waitress would ask us about our meal. Spoiler alert: she didn't. To be fair, we could barely see her behind the ridiculously tall bar counter, and the table in front of it meant we had to stretch over just to hand her the money.

In summary, if The Italian Job truly does represent Italians, then I'm never ever hiring an Italian to do...

Before I start, let me put on record that I liked the food when it was The Coconut House in Jaya One. And I do not like giving honest but negative reviews in times like these when most are trying to survive but sometimes justice needs to be done. I didn't bother taking pictures.

Thinking that this was a restaurant I've never tried before, what the heck, what can go wrong with Italian. So, like any new F&B outlets I try, I will select the "chef recommended" or "signature" dishes cos if these are not up to mark, then don't bother with the rest.

So, the sliced pork pizza was a blasphemy to anything called pizza. Yes, you experiment with ingredients like pork lard and that is commendable but if the pizza pastry looks and tastes like an uncooked low-grade frozen dough, then for an Italian restaurant, it is an epic fail. Sliced pork was as scarce as the taste and unless you are skimping on the cheese, don't call it a pizza. The wild mushroom soup was unfortunately bland. I've had much better wild mushroom soup from cafes and we didn't really taste the garlic in the garlic bread. As for the squid ink spaghetti, it was edible but very dry and the squid wasn't cleaned thoroughly. We finished all cos I don't like wasting food.

It was a really sad experience cos I loved the Coconut House pizza as it was wood-fired and the food in general was good. But as The Italian Job, it was by far the worst meal I've ever had. You obviously changed your chef and probably entire kitchen crew but I believe you would have a standard set from what you served as Coconut House. I hope you try to return to that food quality and I wish you all the best. Also, I believe the young girl is your daughter, maybe, and she really didn't look like she wanted to work there. FOH order-takers are important for first...

Nice environment. Made us feel like we were in an old italian restaurant with the rustic design.

The downside is some items on the menu are stated as "authentic italian dishes", and that's the main reason why we went there to try out. Was disappointed due to most of the ingredients on the dish we ordered are not authentic italian ingredients. We ordered the napolitana pizza (costed around rm38) but was disappointed when we were told that the mozzarella cheese used is not fresh mozzarella, the crust was not thick and was more like a margarita pizza instead of napolitana styled. Felt that it was overpriced as it was just a normal slice of pizza. Tasted good though but it's not what we wanted. Doubt that it was cooked in a woodfire oven as it lacked colour that a pizza woodfire oven would produce.

Ordered the seafood risotto, was quite satisfied with the taste but the risotto was slightly overcooked, texture like asian rice and the seafood freshness was average. Portion of seafood was generous though.

The waitress there has no idea and knowledge about italian food when we asked what ingredients are used, how big are the portions for each dishes etc. Probably a new worker that has just started working there.

The owner of the restaurant was kind enough tho to explain every question that we asked regarding the food. So overall, great service but items on the menu do not match description, lack of authenticity as stated...