So my friend and I used to come here a few years ago and we thought it was just the absolute worst. Last week friends of mine told me that it was 'actually quite good' and to try it again. So with the original friend, we both decided to give it another go. We went there expecting good service and some yum italian food, we wanted to be shown that we had in fact been wrong, and perhaps judged too harshly and prematurely.
We first ordered wine. I received mine in a water cup (the exact same kind of cup that my water came in). Obviously confused and also curious, my friend went up and politely asked why my wine hadn't come in a wine glass. He replied "We don't have wine glasses, we only have champagne glasses" my friend couldn't help but laugh, as this is a successful restaurant in Grey Lynn, yes? It also has wine and not just champagne on the menu, right? It has 'Vino'('wine' in Italian) in the actual name of the restaurant, yes? but they don't have wine glasses....hmm.
Perhaps they should invest in some, we thought.
I was reluctantly (without an explanation) brought out an empty champagne glass for my sav, which my friend then proceeded to exchange from the water cup to the champagne glass herself, (while also spilling some), all the while the waiter just blankly watched us. We decided that the waiter was having a bad day and we opted to ignore him. Perhaps the food may save our night, we hoped.
Out come our meals which admittedly looked very sad. My friend's looked okay though. My plate was dropped from a 2cm height onto the table in front of me and my friend had hers passed to her. I ordered the vegetarian Ravioli Verdi, which sadly was indeed the worst. I ate one ravioli and the corners off another. We left feeling quite sad and wondering if we had said or done something to deserve this treatment. We decided to take our tarnished self esteems to get ice cream on Ponsonby Road.
I'm very surprised about the raving reviews, maybe we got them on a bad day - who knows. read more