My family arrived on time at 7.45pm, expecting to be seated. This is because we had already made a reservation. The chinese-speaking waitress asked us to wait at the back of the restaurant on a sofa and told us that our table would be ready very soon. We didn't make a fuss and waited patiently, as did our 2 hungry children. 30 minutes later we were STILL waiting. So I asked for the menu and thought maybe by the time our food arrived, we would have a seat. At 8.30pm the pizza was ready but no table. This was despite our 2nd reminder. The waitress just kept on apologising but offered no solution. We now believe she had given our table away (how on earth can a restaurant make customers wait for 45 minutes despite reservations?) My husband was ready to walk out the door, but seeing that our first dish was ready and the kids were famished, we stayed and asked the waitress if she could put 4 chairs around a small table (for 2) near the kitchen. She set the table and we chomped down our parma ham pizza with rocket.
5 munutes later we were led to our table (for 4). Soon, our pink tagliatalle with clams arrived. It was delicous, no doubt, fresh, with an intense flavour of the sea. I was ready to enjoy my dinner and forget about the earlier unpleasantries. But my joy was short-lived when my veal chop (special of the day)arrived. It was dry and over-cooked. I couldn't reconcile the double standards! But I was determined to make this dinner an enjoyable one and said nothing. However, when the Penne with ricotta cheese and fungi arrived, my daughter asked why the penne was so hard and refused to eat it. My husband and I tried some and true enough it had not been cooked through, so I asked the chef (and owner) about it. "I cooked this myself!" was his very indignant reply. He insisted THAT'S the way pasta's cooked but added if I wanted mine cooked further he would do so. Oh my God! I may not be a chef but I have eaten in enough italian restaurants (from Italy to Singapore) to know that my pasta was not cooked. And of course by now I realised I had committed the cardinal sin of questioning an Italian chef about his pasta's "doneness". What with all the "rave" reviews he's been getting from his customers, I must seem like I didn't know what I was talking about.
Enough said, we ate quickly and left. I only wished I had left sooner. This place certainly "lived up" to its name : it's definitely our last time there.
Ratings : Service - SO bad, Food - Inconsistent, Ego - 10.