Mozzarella & Co — Restaurant in Waitematā

The service here was some of the worst I have experienced. I would never recommend this place. The restaurant was maybe a quarter full and we were treated by the staff as if they were complete booked. The service was so bad it because comical. Near the end there was nothing my mom and I could do but laugh.

We were there early jan, 2023.

It took them over 20 minutes to seat us and they were maybe 3/4 table with people on them. So not even close to busy. We ordered a bottle of wine at the bar while we waited for our table, the wine never came. We finally got seated and ordered food straight away. Within 10min our food arrived, no wine still. I reminded the server we had order a bottle of wine and she said it was coming. I kid you not half way through our meal I ask again for our bottle of wine and she said it would be right out, she turned around and started clearing the table next to us instead of grabbing it. More than half way through our meal I got so fristuraed I walked myself up to the bar and asked for it directly. We came here to enjoy Italian food with lovely wine. It had been an hour till we got our bottle and we we’re almost done with our food. Seriously what was holding them up?!? They said they were waiting for wine glasses to be clean but we watched them run several rounds of the dishwasher, dry glasses and never bring them to us. The servers were lazy and careless. Not attentive at all.

Then they forgot our salad all together, so we asked them to take it off our bill, which they forgot to do and we had to remind them when we paid. We also had to ask for more water 3 separate times from 2 different waiters and never got water. The table next to us was experiencing the same frustrations as us, never getting their wine, water and forgetful food. We started chatting with them and they shared their water with us. It wasn’t till we were done with all of our food and wine that finally one of the waiters brought us water and we laughed and let them know we got some from the other table because they had taken so long. They didn’t seem to care.

I not kidding when I saw they were maybe a quarter full, there was noooooo reason for this bad of service. Every time we asked for something like water you would think the waiter would go grab it right away, instead they would go straight to a dirty table and start cleaning it. Like hello go get the water then clear the table. I was in the service industry for 6 years. I’ve never had an experience this bad.

The food was delicious. The only positive we have from the experience but definitely worth pointing out.

I would never...

My recent dinner at Mozzarella & Co. intended to be a special truffle experience, unfortunately fell far short of expectations and was genuinely the worst truffle dinner I've ever had.

We ordered the beef carpaccio with rocket and tuna mayonnaise, Pappardelle Cacio e Pepe tossed in a Parmesan wheel with pangritata, and a Pollo pizza, opting to add truffle shavings to each dish for an additional $12 per dish. We also had two glasses of wine.

The issues began with the Pappardelle Cacio e Pepe. When the server started tossing the pasta in the Parmesan wheel, she commented that "usually it's not this wet." This immediately raised a red flag, making me question if the pasta was overcooked and not al dente. Despite her assurance that it would just be "more cheesy," the pasta served was broken, still wet, and lacked the appealing texture and appearance advertised on their social media. The promised pangritata was also noticeably absent until I was halfway through the dish.

The truffle experience was equally, if not more, disappointing. When the server attempted to shave truffle onto our dishes, the blade wasn't sharp enough, resulting in clogged and crumbled truffle rather than distinct, clean shavings. A manager was called over, who then explained their standard was "three shaves." For $12 per dish, this felt incredibly stingy, especially when compared to the generous, whole truffle shavings clearly depicted in their Facebook photos. The visual difference was stark and misleading. We questioned about the quality of the shaver and asked if that’s all we get. The manager assured that it’s way more than what they would normally provide. If so, again the social media adverts and open night of truffle dinner was just really for marketing.

Pizza was impossible to life as the toppings would drip off from dough and the dough in the middle was too wet that it almost looked and textured as if was warmed up in a microwave.

Beyond the food, a hygiene concern also arose. The server's hair was not neatly tied back and was swinging around while she was tossing pasta and shaving truffles over our dishes. This made me question the restaurant's overall hygiene standards.

This experience was a strong reminder that it's often better to stick with establishments that consistently deliver on quality and provide a guaranteed positive dining experience. I left feeling...

We were directed by FOH to choose a table, when we got to the tables we were informed by wait staff that there were no tables available as they were all booked and the restaurant was full for the night. Informed that we could order drinks at the bar and have a seat on the cafe side, which was fine. Went to the bar to order drinks. FOH had to call for a bartender as there was no one behind he bar. When bartender came over he seemed to struggle quite a bit with our order, which we thought was strange for a beer and two G&Ts (no fancy cocktails, no special requests), but thought maybe they were new? and shrugged it off. Was asked to sit at our table and he would bring our drinks over. Cool. 15 minutes pass and we can see same bartender making and passing out drinks to other tables and guests who had come after us. Eventually I went up to the bar to enquire and was told by the same bartender that our drinks would be out very shortly. When I stood there a few minutes longer the SAME bartender asked me what I wanted to order (??). I told him we were just waiting on some drinks we ordered awhile ago, he asks me what they were, I tell him, and he looks around and points to a tray at the other end of the bar (which we couldn’t see from our table) that our drinks had been sitting on. He hands me the tray and apologises, which is appreciated, but the drinks were already watered down and we ended up going elsewhere shortly after.

TLDR: unfortunately experienced poor service after poor service, won’t...