Finding this place is a challenge and anyone who does eventually get to this cafe and open its frosted glass doors will be pleased to find it completely empty - definitely a plus for its quiet atmosphere.

A good friend of mine took me here for lunch and we arrived at 12:30pm on a Saturday. Upon our arrival, the waitress serving us was not able to speak English and insisted on answering our questions in Mandarin which I only had a basic grasp of as I am obviously not Chinese. Shouldn't service staff at an Italian restaurant be capable of speaking and answering questions in basic English?

We waved the weird experience off and continued to ordered our food - having heard from a friend that this place had excellent, value for money food.

When we ordered water, a bottle of room temperature ice mountain was ungraciously plonked onto our table. You will have to jolly well open the bottle and pour the drinks out yourself - no service at all in this area.

I love pasta and I'm a big fan of Italian food but unfortunately, there was only a couple of choices that weren't even on the menu. Like the other reviewers have said, the dishes are limited. I picked the seafood pasta and my friend ordered the spaghetti bolognese.

Honestly, my pasta was pretty enjoyable. It came chock full of seafood (pictures below) and though I wish it was served hot, I didn't mind eating lukewarm pasta.

My friends spaghetti bolognese was really sad looking and I felt so sorry for her. It looked like puke, the meat sauce was brown and it was just so unappetizing. She said it wasn't worth it as it didn't taste exceptional as well.

So we asked for TOBASCO sauce, to save the dish of course. Guess what? The Italian restaurant did not have any such sauce. Instead, the China waitress offered CHILLI PADI for a spicy kick instead. My friend and I were shocked. Wow, way to go, the first Italian restaurant which serves chilli padi with pasta and apparently, according to the waitress, includes it on the pizza they serve. It's a Guiness record for the oddest combination!

Honestly at that point, I wish we went to Pasta Mania instead.

We still persisted and having faith in the fact that yummy dessert COULD save the entire lunch - we ordered a tiramisu each. I heard that it was assembled on the spot and all. It shocked us when we saw the China waitress scooping out the tiramisu from a tub and plonking it onto a plate, and drizzled strawberry sauce with no sense of pride at all.

The dessert arrived and that was seriously the final straw. We ordered two and it wasn't even cut in a similar shape (one was square and the other, a lopsided rectangle). The strawberry sauce was the instant Smuckers sort that was dotted around the tiramisu in a very odd fashion (see pictures below) which did not look appetizing at all. And best of all, it was a very tiny portion that was about two teaspoon fulls.

My friend was upset as she brought me here for my birthday lunch and she knows how much I love my dessert and tiramisu especially. She wanted to see the manager or owner but the only ones who were in the restaurant were two China servers and two Indian nationals who cooked our food. Italian? Yeah, right. If the owner wants to take a break and not be at his restaurant on a Saturday, he should simply close down shop and not torture unsuspecting diners with such horrible service and gross food. The waitress was apologetic about the measly portions but insisted it costs more because of the premium ingredients used.

Needless to say, it tasted like plain cream. I would rather pay $14 and have authentic, yummy tiramisu where I can taste the coffee and kahlua at Porta Porta.

Overall, it's a very dissapointing meal and the only saving grace was my friend's awesome company.