Giovanni's Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Christchurch

I've copied my review from first-table:

I'm sorry to say that we had such an unexpectedly terrible experience tonight that I felt inclined to write a review as soon as we got home. (I say unexpected as we have had immensely positive experiences at every other First Table restaurant that we have ever dined at). Firstly, we ordered a starter followed by two mains: the 'Lasagna' and the 'Melanzane Parmigiana'. After we had finished eating our starter (a very plain 'Prosciutto with Buffalo Mozzarella' with a heap of undressed mesclun in the middle), I was told that they had run out of my main choice! This felt unbelievable as it had already been 30 minutes since I had originally placed my order. So, I chose to have the Steak instead. The waitress asked me how I would like to have my steak cooked and with the choice of potatoes or vegetables to which I chose vegetables. When our mains finally arrived, the steak was with potatoes not vegetables. Additionally, my husband's lasagna was extremely overcooked and very heavy on oregano - again, we are not the people to complain, as you can clearly see from every other one of our First Table reviews. Lastly, when we had finished our mains, even though we waited for almost 25 minutes, no one cleared our plates or offered us a look at the dessert menu. Naturally, we felt we should just leave. When I told the Manager about our experience, he was very apologetic and offered us a takeaway tiramisu on the house. To be honest, I felt awkward complaining as the food was already going to be discounted due to First Table but it was such an unpleasant evening from service to food that I felt I had to speak up. Unfortunately, because there are many other Italian options in the city, we will likely not return and would not recommend this restaurant to any of our...

We were looking forward to a homemade Italian experience as advertised. We were greeted at the door by the manager, who explained that they were "crazy busy" and that due to this, several items on the menu were unavailable. When we entered, this was not the case as most of the restaurant was empty. Once we were seated, it was around 20 minutes until we were offered water, to which we then ended up getting our own. It was around 45 minutes until we had our orders taken. My partner had requested for her meal to be vegan, the manager was not sure whether the starter, bruschetta was vegan or not, she then made a point of stating the wine was vegan, however forgot to write down that her main was to be vegan. The meal came out with cheese on it after a 1 hour and 25 minute wait. My main was less than pleasing. As previously stated in another review from a month ago, I probably could have made this better from a dolmio jar for half the price with more taste. We had made a mention to the waitress who happened to be walking past regarding the issue with the vegan main, she graciously passed this on to the manager who eventually came to talk about this to us. The manager made an excuse to us that they were run off their feet that evening and that due to this mistakes happen and that she would have happily remade this instantly. We were not willing to risk waiting another 45 minutes for a main to come out and could clearly see they were not run off their feet as only 3/10 booths had people and we were one of 4 tables occupied in a large restaurant. Overall this experience cost is $115 for two mains, three disappointing slices of toast with salsa on top and two...

Thank you for a pleasant night! The staff here are some of the best I’ve ever experienced, really lovely and great service, you girls are such a treat and an asset to the restaurant! Thank you for your service. My husband had the lamb shank and said the serving was too small and the shank a little over done but the veges and flavours were to die for, he would of loved more of the veges to fill him up for the price. Mum had the pork belly and I had a bite and wow that was absolutely devine! She loved it, can not fault it at all, highly recommend! Nana and the kids had lasagna, the kids loved it but nana said it was a little over done and dry, not enough Béchamel sauce, a little let down. I had the Ravioli in Gorgonzola sauce and that was lovely, can’t fault it! Would definitely order again. We shared the 4 cheese pizza 10/10 loved this so much!! Also the Giovanni’s special pizza! Delish, we all loved the pizzas. We also tried the focaccia which was lovely and the arancini, I don’t like mushroom at all but those arancini were delicious and I would eat them all over again!! Over all it was a lovely restaurant with the best staff and great food. The wait was a little long and I don’t recommend bringing younger kids but for a lovely intimate meal I definitely recommend! Thank you! And to the staff, you’re doing amazing I really...