Old Town Italy Menlyn Maine — Restaurant in Gauteng

Subject: Unpleasant Dining Experience at Old Town Italy

Dear Old Town Italy,

I am writing to share my recent experience at your establishment, which unfortunately, was far from satisfactory.

Upon our arrival, we were informed by the supervisor that there were no eggs available. Although this was disappointing, we understood and decided to wait for the lunch service. We were initially told by the waitress that lunch would begin at 11:00 AM. To accommodate this, we ordered sodas and patiently waited.

However, after expressing our intention to wait for lunch, we noticed a significant change in the waitress's demeanor towards us. Despite spending 80 minutes waiting, we were not checked on even once. Whenever we needed refills, we had to make considerable efforts to catch the waitress's attention, as it seemed we were being deliberately ignored.

When 11:00 AM finally arrived and we asked if lunch could be served, the waitress informed us that lunch would only be served at 11:30 AM. This was contrary to what was initially communicated to us. The supervisor was called over to clarify, and she approached us in an irritated tone, insisting that she had said 11:30 AM.

At this point, both my fiancé and I were hungry and frustrated. We decided to ask for the bill and leave. Hoping to salvage the experience somewhat, we inquired about the ice cream options only to find out that not only did you not have any ice cream available, but also that the ice cream machine wasn't working.

Overall, our experience at your restaurant was extremely disappointing. We had been looking forward to dining with you all week and even skipped breakfast to ensure we had enough appetite for your meals. Unfortunately, the service we received was far below our expectations.

I regret to say that based on this experience, I cannot recommend your restaurant and would rate it zero stars. If negative ratings were possible, I would give it -5 stars.

I hope you take this feedback into consideration and make necessary improvements to your service.

Kind...

We were invited by my partner's friends for lunch yesterday (Sunday). Arrived at 13:00 and left at 16:00. I had a pizza - a standard bacon, feta & avocado. And, sadly, it was one of the worst pizzas I have ever had. The bacon was rubbery; the feta was burnt to a similar elastic compound. And the base could not be cut with a knife - it had to be dragged loose. Needless to say, it was absolutely tasteless. I was actually considering sending it back, but did not want to embarrass my host. So I (literally) struggled through it My partner had a chicken pasta. It was oily and tasteless as well. The food is already pricey, but barely at the standard of a regular take-away franchise. The drinks, though, are exorbitantly expensive. R78 for a 500ml draught beer is simply ridiculous. The wines, however, is even more crazy. The average bottle costs way over R200, and some are even double that or even more. And it is not as though it seemed like exquisite wines. How they justify their prices I don't know, as it is a standard restaurant in a shopping centre. They probably take $ or € and then convert it to ZAR. As far as the service is concerned: at a venue with these prices, one would expect properly trained waiters, who would not be hovering around you all the time, but appear as and when required. The waiter should, amongst others, keep an eye on their table(s) and, as soon as a plate is empty or the patron gives some indication that he/she has finished, the plate would be cleared away. Sadly, this is not the case. I eventually had to put my and my partner's empty plates on the adjacent table (which was fortunately empty). It appears the staff are only taught to take the orders and place same on the table, and to collect the payment. All in all, not a value proposition.They will not...

Okay, I don't usually write overly negative reviews, but this place was so disappointing that I could write a whole book about how negative our evening was.

My first disappointment is that this restaurants drink menu is so limited and even if you order something, you'll probably be disappointed by it. Hubby and I both ordered frappes and there was so much raw ground beans in it, that we chewed through our drinks and had to order water just to rinse out our mouth unless we wanted charcoal coloured teeth for the whole night. Our friend decided that she wanted to try this one drink with gold flakes in it or something for a R140. The drink came and lo and behold, no gold flakes and it literally looked like murkey beer. The taste was also so watered down that she instantly regretted her choices...and shame on her birthday even.

Our service was equally as terrible as we waited 20 odd minutes for our horrible drinks and saw our waiter maybe 3 times during the whole night. The pizza is brilliant and as such gets the 2 stars from me, but the price is actually not worth it. The pasta is bland and although we ordered a chicken pasta, you could maybe find 3 if lucky 4 pieces of chicken in it.

This restaurant is a commodity restaurant and not a place for all types of patrons. The only thing that works for the restaurant is it's aesthetics and it's pizza, but it's definitely overpriced...