Jamies Italian Canberra. A restaurant review

JC said :

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Oh god JC, outback jacks is the worst.

There are worse, Outback Steak House for example and it wasn’t my choice of venue either.

When I first came to Australia, my relatives very proudly took us to a Black Stump ‘restaurant’ in Sydney. This was 20 years ago, but by golly it was a bad. I’m not sure they still exist – one hopes not for the good of mankind.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd said :

Oh god JC, outback jacks is the worst.

There are worse, Outback Steak House for example and it wasn’t my choice of venue either.

Oh god JC, outback jacks is the worst.

Has all the hype died down with this restaurant to the point where one can ring say, a week in advance and get a booking?

Erin B said :

We walked past today and saw five or six empty tables outside – after trying to get the attention of two different staff (it was almost hilarious the extremes one waitress went to in ignoring us while getting cutlery right next to where we were standing) we sat down. One of the waiters whisked past and asked if everything was okay, we told him we wanted to check if the table was free (there were no ‘Reserved’ signs around) and he said he’d go check with the hostess. Then he never came back.

One of our party went inside and asked another waitress if we were right to sit down, and she was told we had to speak to the hostess and that there was a line for the hostess. We decided to go elsewhere and then a hostess came out to tell us there was a half hour wait for tables (even with all the empty tables outside).

We weren’t trying to queue jump, but if you want people to see the hostess, it might be worth putting a sign or something (we approached from the opposite side to the hostess) or get your staff to tell people straight up.

Whilst I get you were trying to do the right thing a lack of a reserved sign doesn’t mean the table is free and available. Not all restaurants put signs on the table and may have it reserved in their book. It of course can be frustrating when you see plenty of empty tables only to be told the joint is full. Indeed I went once to Kingslys which was in the same location as Jamies one evening at around 6pm, not a customer in the store but not tables available. Now I reckon they were being plain stupid as some of their bookings weren’t till 8, but their policy was not to double book, so my wife and I moved on.

Also went to Outback Jacks at 6:30p, the other evening without a booking to be told no tables free until 8. We tried to call someone else that was meeting us there that we were looking for somewhere else to eat, he didn’t answer, then 5 minutes later told us he was waiting for us inside Outback Jacks. It seems in the 5 minutes between when we were there and he arrived a table became free. Of course during our 1.5 hours in the restaurant the place was only max 3/4 full with plenty of empty tables.

i never liked the jamie oliver shows (he just annoys me) but having gone to his restaurants throughout UK, i was pretty excited when one opened in canberra. i’ve been a couple of times now – one time having a previous booking and then last night, without. i still rate the restaurant for food choice/quality/price and good service overall but a couple of funny things i noticed about last night – firstly the number of empty tables but we were told one would be free in 1/2 hour – which was fine with us, we headed to shorty’s for a pre-dinner cocktail – but then got an sms only 15 minutes later saying the table was ready. anyway all good, we sculled our drinks and headed over – then when placing my order i asked for a main size of ravioli and was told the kitchen had run out of main sizes and only had the entree sizes – maybe i’m just ignorant from never having worked in a cafe/restaurant but is this weird as in it points to not being freshly prepared? because certainly it doesn’t taste/look like reheated food when it comes out. anyway i still think the place is great – walking away from a delicious 2-course dinner including glass of wine for $40 p.p. is great.

tommy said :

The kids dishes were a bit bland too – but maybe Jamie doesn’t give them much/any salt – so going from your adult main dish to the kids is a bit of a shock.

That’s interesting, I can’t say I’ve noticed him on TV being stingy with the salt, though he definitely doesn’t pile it on like some cooks. I did notice though his pasta sauce line has appeared in the local Woolies stores and has about 1/3 the salt per 100g than any other brand.

We walked past today and saw five or six empty tables outside – after trying to get the attention of two different staff (it was almost hilarious the extremes one waitress went to in ignoring us while getting cutlery right next to where we were standing) we sat down. One of the waiters whisked past and asked if everything was okay, we told him we wanted to check if the table was free (there were no ‘Reserved’ signs around) and he said he’d go check with the hostess. Then he never came back.

One of our party went inside and asked another waitress if we were right to sit down, and she was told we had to speak to the hostess and that there was a line for the hostess. We decided to go elsewhere and then a hostess came out to tell us there was a half hour wait for tables (even with all the empty tables outside).

We weren’t trying to queue jump, but if you want people to see the hostess, it might be worth putting a sign or something (we approached from the opposite side to the hostess) or get your staff to tell people straight up.

tommy said :

The place is loud when fully seated – looking at the ceiling they have done nothing to dampen sound. They have an open kitchen as noted – and polished concrete floor, ceiling to floor glass.

What contempt for their customers.

I tried to go to the Sydney restaurant last night and it was 1.5-2 hour wait for a table 🙁 ended up eating elsewhere