Vaporetto Bar & Eatery

Italian food with a strong disingenuous experience – Looking for a new experience, we certainly got it but not in an ideal positive way. None of the waiters and kitchen staff were Italian from a visual perspective and more Asian. Greeting us upon entry via their main door instead of the mall; speaking Italian, adding a sense of disingenuous feelings for us to ponder upon. Sitting down along a narrow passage on the left side of the establishment from the main entry next to the window and opposite their open kitchen.

A strong odor forms with a whiff of vegetable slash canola oil; which for a proper Italian establishment is a sacrilegious thought in using as opposed to olive oil and butter as their mainstream.

The decor is Italian, though seating is squished. Playing techno dance music in the background is rather not appropriate, at least classical music or Italian?

Not deciding what we wanted, we were greeted with the lunch special for $49 per person. Although the dishes we ordered which was a Barramundi all' Isolana attracted an additional $10 and the Controfiletto 300g Angus beef with an additional $15.

Ordering the sparkling water, we got filtered tap water with a soda stream version where we were charged $19.80, rounded to $20 for two people.

The entre, i had two mushroom arancini balls which had a combination of risotto inside placed onto a white sauce. The taste was very artificial and chemical-like and immediately put me off with the earlier vegetable slash canola oil smell.

My partner had the Carpaccio di Manzo which was served with cured meat, rocket and sliced shavings of cheese. A true Italian version would be served with raw meat instead of a sandwich style version.

As for the main, my partner's Barramundi, complained about the fish stock which was not fresh and drenched onto the potato part of the dish. She did however liked the Barramundi and was able to finish that part but did complain to the waiter about the taste and the vegetables especially were disintegrating and unfresh.

As for my Angus which I clearly said "Medium Well", not noticing until one of the sliced up pieces was very gamy in my mouth. I looked down and asked the waiter for "Medium Well", as it looked more Medium Raw. So the waiter took it back and cooked it more.

Upon a second inspection, I said no, nothing has changed. So they took it back and recooked it again.

By the third time, on the outside it was cooked, though on the inside it was medium raw.

Anyway, the experience as a whole put us off, and upon asking for the bill, no considerations were given despite the mess they caused.

So in summary, if you want to go to an authentic Italian restaurant... this is really NOT it. Stay away, please save your money and avoid being ripped off.

We will definitely not come back here again.

Thanks for reading and stay safe.

PS. Providing a Google review earlier, I received a response from Vaporetto that attempted to justify themselves by reclaiming brownie points for the above.