Farelli's by Giovi — Restaurant in South Island

As a local, Farellis used to be hands down my favourite restaurant in Queenstown but since the ownership changed I don’t think I’ll ever go back and I’m devastated to have lost such an awesome restaurant. I visited with a group of friends in early December for my birthday celebration and can still vividly remember how poor our experience was, this review should have been written weeks ago, sorry.

We had booked a table in advance, yet when we turned up they put us on a table that had been set for more people than we booked for. The staff quickly took the extra cutlery away but it was obvious they hadn’t actually taken notice of the booking details, but still left the chairs so we awkwardly had extra chairs in between us all the entire meal. We also specified in advanced that we had multiple vegans but they had such poor options for us, and our waiter hadn’t been made aware of the specifications prior so had to go back and fourth between us and the kitchen. To be fair, she was lovely and absolutely did her best but it could have been avoided if management were more onto it.

VEGO AND VEGANS BEWARE, they no longer have the amazing plant based menu that the original Farelli’s had, and very few options to accomodate us. I ordered a vegan version of a pasta which just meant they removed a few things but charged the same price, and it came out with dairy cheese on top so had to have another plate made. When I got the second plate, it was so underwhelming!! The tomato sauce tasted like a plain can of tomatoes with some dried herbs thrown in, I would have rather stayed home and cooked myself. The focaccia we shared as a table was a small plate of 4 extremely dry pieces of bread and didn’t come with any oil to make it easier to get down. Compared to the garlic bread and bruschetta the original Farelli’s used to serve for a similar price, it was an absolute rip off and not restaurant standard food. The wine list was tiny and expensive as well so I decided to fork out for a Bellini cocktail instead which again was not as nice as they used to make. It felt like it was disappointment after disappointment.

The ambiance and decor of the place has entirely changed too! The cosy, authentic family style space it used to be now has stark plain walls and is not as vibrant and comfortable as it was before the renovation.

Overall, Farellis by Giovi is literally nothing like what Farellis got it’s great reputation for and Giovi are just piggy backing off it’s previous success by keeping Farellis in the name. The only similarity is obviously it’s the same location and they serve Italian food but of a far lower standard.

I hate to be so brutal but it needs to be said and people need to know that they are likely not going to have the same wonderful experience that they may have had in previous years and all the raving reviews are for what it was before the new owners came and botched it all up!!

Absolutely gutted about what the place has...

I trusted the good reviews and as expected, I shouldn't. I put the blame on myself as I'm not sure how people can honestly give 5 stars to this restaurant. Very disappointing food. Absolutely not Italian. Pizza was burnt, dry and devoid of taste, similar to a frozen supermarket pizza (would bet it is). Ravioli was watery and most without the meat filling, just an empty raviolo. The garlic bread is the same as the Domino's garlic bread, which is not the place in an Italian restaurant. Also, the garlic bread, which is a starter, came last. Yeap, last. We got a pizza, ravioli, and then minutes later, garlic bread. Tables that arrived later got their food first (we had a small order so not the case of difficulty, just disorganisation). The pizza was mostly uncut and I couldn't separate the slices. I asked if they had a pizza cutter, and they said no. An Italian restaurant without a pizza cutter. Yeap, that happened. So I had to cut my pizza with difficulty because it was really dry and with a blunt knife while juggling a baby.

The waitress was lovely, but not the most helpful. It's not really their fault the restaurant food is bad and they don't have basic utensils. It seems the place is badly managed and would desperately need a Gordon Ramsay intervention. No one that enjoyes good food would genuinely choose this place. This is an absolute genuine review. I wanted a pizza, I looked for an authentic Italian place online and I went there with my family. I didn't have any other issues with the place and don't hold a grudge. It was my first time there. The place is a tourist trap and very expensive for what they offer, which is very very disappointing as it has so much potential and a...

Today I went to dinner, I ordered a capri pizza as the first complaint, it wasn’t in proper temperature , also without its tomato and without artichoke, waiting for someone to attend to which did not happen, I had to ask waiter why my ingredients were not there On the pizza & the waiter said that he forgot to mention that are out of artichoke and then when I asked him about the tomato which is clearly mentioned TOMATO (not tomato sauce) he told me that it was tomato sauce( of course pizza base always have tomato sauce) People please tell me what you call the tomato in an ingredient on pizza?!!! because it is clear to me or to them that it says tomato or tomato sauce... any pizzeria you go to it clearly mentioned tomato sauce, BBQ sauce or pesto or any other sauce comes with pizza ! If it says tomato it is because it comes with tomato and not tomato sauce". I went to pay and mentioning to the girl the DISLIKE of my food or actually disappointing on the service, she only said sorry we are out of artichoke. she didn't give me a solution and having to pay 33 dollars for a pizza that comes cold without tomato and without artichoke doesn't work for me. She didn't even give options. It’s not about money. All you want a nice meal after a long day & here I went to just spend my money. 👎🏻👎🏻FIX ​​YOUR MENU!! Below I leave you proof that it is wrong in your own menu, please mentioned proper ingredients on the menu and tomato sauce not the tomato only.

Clearly if you had told me that you didn't have the ingredients I would have chosen another option! Terrible service and...