Marciano's

Six of us dined on a wintery eve in mid August. There were two overseas visitors in our group, whom we were hoping to impress with a first class Syd restaurant experience, having been very satisfied with this place before, when we came here in Feb 17. This time though, the experience was not so enjoyable, on account of the poor service. The food, once again, though, was excellent. We shared two salads and a generous bruschetta dish to start with, and followed that up with a selection of pizzas and pasta dishes. Everything was fresh and tasty and nicely presented to the table on stylish white crockery for the salads and pastas, and large round stoneware dishes for the pizzas. My fettuccine Marciano was the standout dish for me. Having had it last time, and enjoyed it, I decided to play it safe and have it again. The meat was flavoursome and well cooked, with the pasta just the right al dente texture. But the pizza dishes were equally enjoyable and of course I tried them all. Serving sizes were generous. Ambience was a tad quiet, with the place being only about half full, similar to last time, but despite that, these guys really fell down in the service department. It seemed to me that the young lady maitre d, was the one doing all the heavy lifting, despite there being two other wait staff on duty. Whilst the drinks came out fairly quickly, followed soon after, by the salad and bruschetta, we then had to wait more than 30 minutes for the mains. That’s way too long, especially when the place is pretty empty. In fact by the time the mains did arrive at 7.45pm, we were just about the only diners left. To make matters worse, the main course, for one of our overseas guests, failed to arrive. When we pointed this out, the maitre d was very apologetic. The dish eventually made its appearance about 20 minutes after all the others, but to their credit, we were not charged for it. Of course, there were red faces all around, not least of all, ours. Marciano’s is a modern restaurant occupying the largest and most prominent position in “The District”, the popular new dining hub above Chatswood Railway Station. It’s a spacious, open, and airy place and even though it was midwinter, we were quite warm and cosy on account of the effective heating. But they don’t seem to be pulling in the crowds and I’m wondering whether the poor service we experienced is symptomatic of low staff morale or a lack of focus on the job. Price-wise, it was fairly reasonable with our 25% Ent Book discount, (up to a max $35). We ended up paying $175 for six of us and that included two salads, a single serve of bruschetta, six mains and four drinks (one main was not charged for). No coffees or desserts. However, having now used our Ent Book discount for the 17/18 year, and having been let down by the slow and sloppy service, I don’t think that we’ll be rushing back.

Absolutely horrible. Ordered the risotto to be delivered. The portion size was entree size at best (for $30) and was so oily. I'm not sure if they had put more in the container and then taken it out because the empty side was quite oily too. Rang the restaurant to query my food and spoke to the rudest lady who said it was that way because of the amazing quality. If someone is complaining about the food you may want to reassess the quality and work on your customer service. Way better Italian restaurants in the area

1. Rude attitude about two waiters who wearing black tee and a manageress. 2. Ordering process – we shared food with a group of friends, the waiter questioned again and again with rude attitude and sounds like he’s dissatisfied with our order amount. 3. The waiter asked again and again about any beverage order, when we did not order much on the beverage, he turned to a rude face again, two waiters and a manageress walked around our table very often, and stared at us which made us felt very uncomfortable throughout the dinner. 4. The most ridiculous thing is, one of our friends who took an empty can of Japanese tea to the restaurant and put it on the table, at the end we found that they have charged us a A$7.5 corkage fee WITHOUT NOTICING US, which made us very angry, it was such a rip-off. I understand there is a corkage fee if we bring our own beverage in, but at least they should notice the customer before adding any item onto the bill, and in fact that was just an empty can on the table! This kind of service is really unacceptable, and I would sue them if there is a legal term which allows customers to sue a restaurant when they adding extra charge on the bill without noticing the customers. 5. Other than the service, the air-conditioning is very poor, all of us were kept sweating while eating. 6. The food quality was not bad but with this terrible service I definitely won’t go there again, and will tell my friends to blacklist this restaurant. They discriminate customers if you order less, even our bill was already A$224.5

I had my first and much anticipated meal at Marcianos last night, and was extremely impressed. i was a little worried after reading some really nasty reviews, but my experience was so great, I had to write this review. The CALAMARI E ZUCCHINI entree was perfectly cooked, and the largest i've ever seen. My husband ordered the same, and when it arrived we wondered why our waitress hadn't suggested sharing, as it's plenty big enough for 2. We did share the OLIVES CALABRESE, though, again, huge, we couldn't possibly get through such an enormous plate with just the 2 of us, but the olives were very nice, and a good mix too, with at least 4 varieties. The Pizza we shared was 1/2 CAMPAGNOLA, 1/2 FRUTTI DI MARE. Next time I would not have the FRUTTI DI MARE, it wasn't very interesting, but the other half was exceptionally delicious. The crust is perfection, although our topping was a little underdone, I tried to have it put back in the oven for a few minutes, but the pizza chef came out to apologise that this isn't possible after the pizza is cut. He offered to cook us another, but we declined as we'd already eaten too much calamari!!! instead they packed it up for us, and It will be perfect once reheated in MY oven for brekky yum : ) Now about the wait staff : They are a delightful group of Italian women, of varying ages, who are knowledgeable about the food and wine menu. The service is prompt, friendly and helpful, extra lemon or chilli, not a problem. They were very busy with the restaurant 3/4 full, but we were not kept waiting excessively at any point. The only surprise for me was being at the back of a food court, is not an easy venue, although the view is ok, and the big windows are nice, noisy kids running around seems was a surprise for this level of restaurant, also the "public" restroom is dirty and although it is not Marciano's fault, it is a slightly negative part of the experience. I will say that it wont stop me going back there though, everything else was just too good to miss. I'll be back for sure : )