[Ruzzle]

Add your review of Pasta Opera Restaurant and be part of the fun .

Contact Details:
157 Pt Chevalier Road
Point Chevalier
Auckland
Ph. 09-815 5519

Cuisine:
Italian

[Djinni]

Good little surburban restaurant. Food was average. Seating was well spaced and the staff were lovely.

[brentmorris]

Where do I start....? Well I have just gotten in from what I can honestly say is the worst dining experience of my life.


First, the two of us arrived 5 minutes after our 8pm booking. There was no table available immediately. 5 minutes later we were seated. 10 minutes later we were finally offered drinks. 10 minutes later we ordered, garlic bread as a starter, then two pasta dishes with garlic bread to accompany. Our garlic bread arrived after about 15 minutes, it was the most disgraceful sight - two thin slices of soya bread with pure crushed garlic (no butter or anything else mixed in) piled 1cm high (no exaggeration) on top. They were barely warm, as if they had been grilled for 30 seconds. After scraping off as much garlic as possible it was still inedible, even after scraping every bit of the topping possible it was without a doubt the strongest thing I have ever tasted. It was laughable, and we did share a laugh, commenting it cannot get worse. Famous last words. We then waited for over an hour for our mains, just as my patience was on the point of breaking our second garlic bread arrived. It was much the same as the first, a few minutes later I looked around confused at where the rest of our mains were. Finally 10 minutes later they arrived. Mine, the seafood pasta, was overcooked. The mussels had been taken straight from one of those plastic containers with the vinegar marinade. It was flavorless, I even considered adding some of the garlic off our overloaded garlic bread. My partners main, the smoked chicken and mushroom penne in a cream sauce was equally bland. There was more fat than chicken and the sauce tasted like plain cream. Needless to say neither of us finished our mains.



Although they were far from full (bout 50% max) the service was extremely slow - I heard others complaining. With the exception of one blond girl who was friendly courteous and efficient the staff were terrible. They were sullen, blunt and simply plain rude. I cannot believe that I did not complain at the time, I was waiting for the "how was the meal?" comment by the waitress who took my payment, however this was not asked - I am wondering if this is because they are used to a barrage of complaints when they do ask.



I have eaten all over the world and throughout NZ. I can say with confidence that this was the worst dining experience of my life.

[T2DMan]

Thanks for your review of Pasta and Opera Restaurant. Never the nicest when there are not sorry's, or smiles, or opportunity given to comment, let alone food that you are not enjoying.

You mention that you have dined around New Zealand. I would love to hear about some of your positive experiences of restaurant dining.

Thanks for being part of our forum, hopefully the Pasta and Opera Restaurant can learn from this review.

[Fat Little Hobbits]

Would never have happened in the days of Ian Ross.

Thanks for the warning Brent, we were planning to revisit not having been there for a couple of years.

Regards

[tcourtney]

Wished I'd found this site prior to going to Pasta & Opera.

We arrived at 7pm - party of 4. By 7.15pm no one had given us any wine or food menus. I went to the desk to ask if we could order some wine please. Wine lists were handed to me (very minimal choice with only two still white wines by the glass - a sauv and chardonnay both same brand). No one came to see what we wanted. I again approached the desk to say that we would like to order now. Order taken. Still no food menus offered. I chased this up. Order taken for entrees. Seafood chowder served but no spoon - only a fork. I suggested that he go "Survivor" style and scoop from his mussel shell. Or do a "Tom Hanks from Castaway". Had to chase up again to get our mains ordered. These were very bland. By the time we had finished our mains it was 10pm. (Lots of waiting time in between).

By the end of the night I joked it was a BYOFW restuarant - "bring your own food and waiter".

[sarahk]

We perservere with P&O because it's local and because Caffe Latte is soooo appalling.

It wasn't perfect in Ian's time either but he was certainly a genial host

I was last there a few weeks ago with a group of 21 and Tony managed the night really well - and we only booked 2 days prior!

I think the description of a "good suburban restaurant" is quite appropriate.

Sarah

[Nova]

Hi all,

I dined at Pasta & Opera tonight with 7 others. The other reviews are a good indication of what to expect from this restaurant, so I won't bother going through it all again.

However, the service tonight was pretty good, though they weren't very busy at the time. Having said that, the waitress brought out the meals, and called them out at the head of the table waiting for a show of hands to dish them out to the right people.
Oh and she called one meal with a fancy Italian name "Bacon and Tomato"

Seemed quite expensive given the portion sizes. The Pollo Modena I had tasted very strongly of the sauce it was swimming in, and not much else.

If I was asked what I thought of the place, I think "meh" would cover it.