a disappointing evening at cosa nostra. my boyfriend and i frequent cosa nostra as it is the best byo italian in wellington withgreatfood and service...but not this time. we booked for 9 on a friday night, which i acknowledge that this may be a bit late, but we enjoy going out later, and i believe is quite common in wellington.
we arrived and were greeted warmly, as always. after a specials brief and some time to decide, we ordered starters and asked for more time to decide on our mains. after we ordered entrees, a different waitress came to take our mains- steak and fries with a blue cheese sauce for him and a red wine and sausage risotto for myself now, this may be because i was a waitress, but not having one consistent waitress is a red flag for me. i was worried that out orders may be incorrect- which they were, but more on that later.
our entrees arrived. calamari and olives- absolutely delicious. the olives were tasty and juicy, and the calamari was tender and of a generous size.
when our mains arrived, my man's steak had the wrong sauce- a simple mistake, which they quickly rectified. but, they also sent us a side of fries which had been mis-ordered, as man had simply chosen the 'fries' option for his steak. also, not a huge issue. but...my risotto. bland, under-cooked and with minimal ingredients. i was so disappointed with this. the rice was hard (and in my opinion, not short grain as is needed for risotto), and there were pieces of sausage which tasted as if they came from a packet. man's steak was lovely, but nothing special.
to their credit, i did bring this up and the manager happily took my risotto (and those extra fries) off our bill. although the situation was handled well, we will not be coming back as this food was not up to the standard we usually expect from cosa nostra. all in all, we are gutted that we need to find a new favourite.