La Porchetta Restaurant Riccarton — Restaurant in Christchurch

Ate here a couple weeks ago with my friend. As we entered with a smile on our faces to great the staff at the front counter, we were faced with a very rude young girl with blonde hair who just stood behind the stand with no emotion on her face and pointed to our table without even taking us there. She spoke no words not even a hi or hello.

Once seated we decided what we would eat and placed our orders together. I ordered a Lasagne with mashed potato on the side, and a side of cheesy garlic bread which i wanted to use to dip into my beef lasagne sauce. My friend ordered a pizza and deep Fried stuffed rice balls from the entre menu. The food took quite some time and a waitress who was the duty manager at the time was at least friendly and told us that only half of our food was ready if we would like to wait until its ready all together or bring it out as it is prepared. I was concerned it would get cold if we waited for it all together and by this point we were both extremely hungry and asked to have it brought as it is ready. My friend was first brought her Entre of deep Fried rice balls and I was brought my Lasgne and mashed potato. She ate all hers pretty quickly as it was only a small entre and I started on my lasagne slowly hoping to still have enough left of it for my cheesy garlic bread to be dunked. About 15 minutes had passed and my friend still had not received her pizza and by this time my lasagne was almost cold, so i had to finish it without my cheesy garlic bread. Finally my friends pizza came and I was expecting my garlic bread to come out with it and only her pizza arrives. I ask for my bread and they apologize and straight away bring out a plain garlic bread. I immediately advise them I asked for a cheesy garlic bread and they apologize and say it will take another 10-15 mins. I say dont worry about it as I've finished my meal now and wasn't very happy by this stage. They took away the plain garlic bread which i was a little dissatisfied with as I thought they may have given me it as a kind gesture. instead they took it away to i suppose "dispose of". We would have stayed for dessert but by this time my friend and I were upset with the service we had received. We wandered to the counter to pay and were charged the full amount - my garlic bread i never received. We complained at the counter about the service we had received tonight and nothing other than an small apology was granted. We got nothing discounted or complementary at all. I will not be returning here to eat again. Not satisfied with the...

Horrible first time experience! We always loved La Porchetta at Dunedin and regularly visit there. Was very keen to try this one but ended up with so much disappointments. As a family with a kid, they offered us to sit near the main door, quite a cold space with long bar stools. My kid could not sit there comfortably so had to change places. Ordered food and it took a very long time to arrive, no one even bothered to approach us about the delay but no fuss from our side. Food was good. All sorted to pay. Their machine did not work that night.Tried both our cards 5 times but then the manager said there is a problem with their eftpos machine as it was not the first time it is happening and they needed cash instead. We asked him for the nearby ATM and as he advised, my partner went out to get some cash, my kid ran behind my partner so I had to follow him to check if he is good with dad. As I walked, suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder. Shocked to see one of their employees touching my shoulder to say I can't go outside until I pay! If it was in a polite manner and if he was not going to shock me like that, I would have stayed happily. The rude behavior only made my day worse. I stood back as some of them watched me as if I am running with out paying. While, others were surprised to see the way he treated me. My partner did not know anything that happened, he came and paid. I spoke to the manager after we paid when he agreed it was their fault(and their machine's too) but the rude guy never even apologized. It was so arrogant on the employee even though the manager was feeling sorry about the situation as he understood whose fault it was. I would...

Everything was alright at first, we got seated, offered menus etc but when we asked for cutlery from our young waiter after our bowl of chips arrived (which was the only best meal for the night to be honest..) he was very polite and happy and said he'd get it, few min later we're still waiting and i look upto see he was looking at a screen or something by that little post where you wait to line up at the entrance, and he was sorta leaning over and relaxing.. i thought he must be busy so i continued to observe and wait..then another few min later few people turn up and he attends to them and looks at us and awkwardly turns away.. had to ask the owner who was the closest to ask for some cutlery etc. He promptly gets someone to bring us cutlery but then tries to ask us if we went to NYC and kept trying make us believe and understand that in NYC they use no cutlery and just fold pizzas, we ordered a bowl of fries.. we just wanted cutlery plates for our fries.. yet when i stated this he kept explaining to us how we should eat our pizzas like NYC does.. you own an italian restaurant franchise in Christchurch, New Zealand.. while you're telling us how to eat pizza like NYC does when we had a bowl of fries infront of us.. not pizza... not the best cover up for ur waiter's lack of responsibility.., and the risotto we ordered was rice with watery chicken stock that had not been reduced... i appreciate the polite and happy faces we saw at first, but was disappointed with the food, treatment after the first greeting from our waiter...