ischia restaurant

"tried" to have lunch atischiaristorante. after ordering starters and some drinks....we were left waiting over an hour for our mains to arrive. after mentioning to the waitress we were in a hurry, the mains did arrive only to be incorrectly served to another table. i tried calling out to the waitress "wrong table" only to be told to keep quiet....whilst she offered condiments. when they did eventually work it out, the other table already commenced our lunch...obviously tired of waiting of their own or perhaps no idea of what they themselves had ordered. poor, poor pi.s poor service....here's an idea perhaps you should implement some table numbers?

needless to say we paid for our drink and starters and were happy to leave. no offer of discount or formal apology. suggest you avoid this disorganised rabble and don't waste your time.

i’ve popped in toischiatwice now for dinner in the past month, and whilst the food is delicious the service is just absolutely terrible. there are always multiple waiters & waitresses standing around gossiping and even bickering at times. both times we’ve had to try catch them as they pass and get their attention. on our last visit we had finished our entree and main meals and just ordered dessert and they brought us back our menus and asked if we were ready to order our mains?! whilst the food is of a high standard nothing else really matches it, and we won’t be returning after our experiences unfortunately.

i have been toischiaa few times now and unlike some of the other reviewers on here, have yet to find something to whinge about.

our most recent visit was as part of a group of 6.  the decor hasn't changed much since the building housed siena's all those years.  they have added some 1960's style photos of their namesake island, but it's a big, airy room, suited to the cuisine it serves.

the offering is similar to siena's - good, hearty, bold italian staples and very good pizzas.  it is better that its predesessor though.

the service is always friendly, with several staff being "genuinely" italian.

someone mentioned that it is a bit pricey.  i haven't found it to be anything out of the ordinary for beaufort street price-wise and the pastas are particularly good value.  

i shared a bruschetta for my entree and launched into the linguine puttanesca for main.  it was rustic, loud and when topped with extra chili oil and parmesan, just heavenly.  $22 is not what i would call expensive.   

corkage is a little steep at $8 per bottle, but that is a small inconvenience.  my score is probably a 3 1/2, but i am not sure how to do that so will err on the side of generosity with a 4.

this was our second visit to ischia. we loove italian food and arancini is definitely our favorite entree to order in any restaurant. sadly the arancini here was my least favorite of all time, and any restaurant.

although they had great consistency, the rice balls were completely flavorless. the menu describes them as filled with mozzarella cheese and a spicy arabiata sauce. our portion was lacking not just the spicy part but any kind of flavor. a bland ball of rice with mozzarella and a side of garlic aioli is what we got and this definitely wasn't what we were hoping to start our dinner with.

probably even more frustrating was the fact that i wanted to mention it immediately as i wanted to at least ask for arabiata on the side, or just for some salt (there was no s/p on our table) but we couldn't make contact with any of the staff and our server didn't come around until we've long finished. maybe we didn't get that much attention due to sitting outside a bit away from the entrance, i don't know. our server seemed to be in a rush when we ordered our mains, so again there was no opportunity to say anything.

we have also finished our pizzas without anybody checking in on us. my partner was content with his pizza regina, which was a simple margerita with buffalo mozzarella. i've ordered pizzaischiaand have asked to have no cherry tomatoes or parsley but they forgot to put garlic on as well, therefore the pizza was quite bland. luckily the guy that brought the pizza also brought some chili oil, which definitely helped to make it tastier.

after we paid and still nobody asked us how everything was, i mentioned the arancini to the front staff, because i do think that they should know so maybe they could fix the batch and other customers could have a better experience.

on a better note, we both thought that their pizza dough is extremely nice. it makes the pizza very light as a meal. and as you can see from the photo, my pizza was topped generously. and we've had the chocolaty almondy cake again and again it was fantastic!

as i have worked in hospitality for years myself, i consider myself to be very patient when eating out. i am one of those people that are happy customers even when not all is perfect, as long as things are fixed to a satisfying level. withischiathere is definitely room for improvement of the service.

my partner and i dined atischiarecently and unfortunately we were disappointed with our meals.
my partner ordered the stuffed squid which turned out to be quite tough and chewy.
i have a love for broccolini so when i see it in the menu or as a side i like to order it.
on this occasion it was supposed to come with my scallopini so i was not impressed when my meal arrived with broccoli.
not going back

when i visitedischiaristorante first time was at their grand opening party!!

their authentic & proudly produced italian pizza were so delicious 😋 they were came out from their iconic ocean blue woodfire oven, then straight to the table (still steaming!!!!!). smells so inviting and especially the dough was my favourite type, very flavoursome, chewy and perfect texture!!!!!
i loved its flavour when it got closed to my mouth, i could smell a beautiful woodfire smorkiness from it. they kept my mouth watering!!

it really reminded me the pizza which i had inischiaisland in italy 🇮🇹 

at the party, the pizze were baked nonstop and came out to the huge table, with lots of different toppings and the surprisingly biggest size of pizza in perth which was 180cm!!!!!

everyone was taking pictures because they were sooooo instagramable😍📱📸🍕 (actually it was a bit hard for me to take photos as i’ve never seen such a huge pizza in my life!!)

since that time, i keep visitingischiaevery time when i feel “italian”.

strongly suggest to try their pizza “burrata”!! (i always add extra cherry tomatoes)😋 you won’t regret and will thank me andischiaristorante❣️ buon appetito🍽