La Notte

«…GREAT WAIT STAFF — ALMOST SURE SOME O’ THEM WERE EMBARRASSED ~ BS FOOD — PRETTY DISGUSTED…»
Last night we ‘experienced’ a «7 Course??? Italian??? Dinner for 4???» at LA NOTTE Ristorante, Lygon Street, Carlton…
I have never had a more disappointing meal — their choices; the flavours, textures, looks, smells, tastes; the whole thing — up SH. CREEK — so poorly thought out. more poorly prepared — no care. no pride. no sense to please. so blatantly UN-​ITALIAN!!!
What a let down. What a crock. What ignorant arrogance.
And not cheap — the Groupon deal costing close to $ 200 — a few extra drinks [not alcohol] sending it well and truly over…
All I can say to the managing owner — sure he was there — «YOU WILL NEVER EVER GET RETURN BUSINESS. NOT ANYWHERE. UNLESS, AT THE VERY LEAST, YOUR FOOD IS ‘GOOD’ OR OTHERWISE ‘GENEROUS’ — AT SOME PLACES. YOU GET BOTH — AND. IN THE HOSPITALITY GAME. A TINY SMILE GOES A LONG WAY — A LITTLE LAUGH, GOES EVEN FURTHER — FFS…»
The ‘Premium Priced Seven Course Italian Set Menu’ you offered us last night was uninspired, insipid, MEAN and just thrown together like crap — It really ALL looked like left-​overs — There were only 2 things that were any good — the protein component of the 5^th course: that TINY THIN LITTLE eye of grilled fillet steak, albeit had to season it, sitting on that white dinner plate with 4 ridiculous pieces of tasteless vegetable [1 strip of steamed. red capsicum, 1 only, yes. 1 only green bean, 1 ‘little piece of’ broccoli floret, 1 slice ‘raw’ zucchini] and NIL sauce [a drop or two of olive oil would have sufficed], and the 7^th course: the BABY cup of ‘Vittoria Coffee’ cappuccino.
WE DIDN’T HAVE ANY EXPECTATIONS — JUST NEEDED. WANTED. REASONABLY FRESH, BALANCED, WELL-​COOKED, PRESENTABLE, QUASI MEDITERRANEAN FOOD WHICH SATISFIED — If you’d given us an ANTIPASTO OF SOME SORT, A GOOD SIZED SERVING OF PASTA WITH REAL GRATED PARMESAN, ANY TYPE OF SALAD, A PIECE OF BREAD, A LITTLE BOWL OF OLIVE OIL… we’d ‘v been more than happy… over the moon, possibly… and my comments’d be entirely different today…
You cannot treat the dining public like ‘imbeciles’ and presume you’ll get away with it.
Almost everyone in there had some voucher, or another, for half a dozen different promos you’ve got running — Got no idea how the kitchen knew what was for what — I don’t think ONE of those customers is going to return — And most probably they will also tell others not to return — The point of these vouchers. you see. is to ‘showcase’ your biz — Rather, I think you’ve used them to make a quick buck.
Not real smart — unless, of course you’re winding it up!!!“
Last night, I was not too proud of my Southern Italian heritage. Truly sorry about that. I kept thinking of what my amazin’ father, a devotee of Lygon Street, Carlton, [he had balls, a natural sense of justice and great Aust-​Italo pride] would have said to his compatriot.
Hey. I know what he would’v said — can’t be repeated here…
Visited on Friday 12 Feb 2016 for Dinner.

Rude. I’m actually not sure I have much else to say. We made a booking, were advised where our table was and we sat down. I assume it was the manager on for the night then proceeded to come over and tell us we couldn’t sit there, I assumed he was joking because less than 1min earlier we had been seated there by his staff. No, no he wasn’t, we legitimately had to get up and move because regulars sat there every Friday. If that is the case, then that’s totally fine but don’t sit us there on the first place. Also politely ask us to move rather than telling us we cannot sit there!
Safe to say this not so great start set the pace for our night, we would of been better off just leaving and not bothering. The food was tasteless, small and looked very unappetizing. The staff couldn’t even tell us what the food was as they bought it out, they seemed bored and like they would rather be elsewhere, a little how we were feeling.
You are spoilt for choice along lygon, very good choice at that. More fool us for staying but these guys should try a little harder as I’m sure the competition does.

I quite enjoyed my breakfast and latte at La Notte. The staff were so welcoming and friendly making it a rather pleasant way to start the working day!
The vegetarian omlette was delicious and contained all my favourite roasted veges. It was of a generous size and definitely got my day started.
Watching the staff interact with their customers kind of made me want to be a regular. very homely atmosphere!

The service was ok and it was close to our accommodation however, the meal and the coffee were terrible. I was there for breakfast and ordered bacon and eggs (pretty hard to mess up) but everything came dripping with foul tasting oil. Even the tomato needed a wipe down. I would not recommend this restaurant for breakfast.

Really good service the waiter sat down with us and was very friendly. Food was amazing and service was very quick, a little too quick for me as my main came out while I was still eating entrée and felt forced to finish. Overall really good. Best bruschetta and carbonara I’ve had yet

Eaten here twice and the food has always managed to compensate us for the service which we found to be a little slow, though attentive once you attract their attention. Four stars for the food, if they added another waiting staff member things would be perfect.

Whether for breakfast or dinner this place has been great. Service is good, staff friendly and the food right on the mark.

I love this place and I make sure I visit everytime I go to Melbourne. My favourite is the Carbonara. The service is also great!

We came here for breakfast at 9am on a Sunday morning. The waitress we had was very attentive. Very good service skills. We had fresh orange juice which was freshly squeezed and the eggs… eggs florentine… the eggs were poached to perfection. our meals took less than 15 mins to arrive. We were in and out in less than an hour. Could not fault the service or the food.

I’m surprised this place survives in the sea of choices that is Lygon Street. I felt the food was over priced and the service a tad on the slow side. The pluses for me were the outdoor seating and the fact it was early enough for it not to be too busy. Oh, and the beer was nice and cold.

Excellent table service.
French toast was a generous size and reasonably priced.
The iced chocolate was disappointing, essentially a glass of milk with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a small amount of chocolate flavoured syrup — the ‘chocolate’ was almost undetectable.

Glad we wound up here for lunch on a whim walking down Lygon Street. Service was decent, but the food took a while to come out. Décor inside is a bit kitschy and stereotypically Euro/​Italian but adequately prepared me, along with the wait, to indulge in my giant plate of pasta when it arrived.
The starter bruschetta was actually the standout of the meal to me, with perfectly caramelized onions atop cheese with roasted peppers — a new combination to try. The pastas were large portions, as I said, but they weren’t exactly what I expected in other ways — the fettucine alfredo came out with a rose sauce, as best I can describe — halfway between red and white (aka cheese sauce). In the US, alfredo is always white (cheese) sauce, and apparently my partner was expecting the same thing. It was still tasty, just unexpected. My amatriciana was more what I anticipated, but not as spicy as I enjoy. Conveniently, they brought out chili oil and parmesan to the table for you to add to taste.
Despite my confusion, I was stuffed at the end of the meal, and enjoyed the food and experience overall. In the sea of options along Lygon Street, I’m not sure I’d ever end up here again, but it was worth trying.