Perth Food Review

" Despite the terrible review, and that one comment, the place always seems to be packed..? Something must be good there.. Will have to try it myself one day.. =)"
This was the comment I left after reading some of the reviews on Incontro.. After dining there just this recent Saturday night, I still ask myself, why is the place packed..? Me and 3 of my mates decided to give Incontro a try, especially after one of our other mate told us, the food is simply fantastic.. We thought, "Why not?".

We arrived, thankfully having booked a table, and were brought to our seats.. Our waitress was swift enough to take our drinks order first, while we look at the menu.. So far so good.. We ordered 2 dishes for entrees, and our mains.. I thought to myself, "This place isn't half bad..". But as the night progressed things just went downhill, a very steep one at that.. We waited for about 35 minutes for our entrees.. A dozen oysters and battered squid.. The oysters were half natural and another half cooked with pancetta and wagyu beef.. The cooked ones were alright, but the natural oysters were very salty, and lacked even the slightest hint of freshness.. It was worrying if anything..

After having put through the long wait for the starters, we thought maybe mains will not be far away... Boy we were wrong.. We waited 50 minutes for our mains..! I understood it was a busy night, but they didn't even have the courtesy to tell us, "We're sorry, but we're really busy, and your dishes may be a bit late." Imagine our further dissatisfaction, when a table arriving a good 20 minutes after we sat down and ordered got their entrees and were happily halfway through their mains.. At this point, I simply couldn't take it anymore, so I got up to ask one of the waitresses, whether our mains have been started, when the manageress cut in from nowhere, raised her voice at me and she said, and I quote, "We are serving other people as well, you just have to wait..!".

I was flabbergasted, having never been shouted at by a restaurant staff while dining out.. When our dishes finally arrived, we thought maybe the food was what kept people coming.. But no.... 36 dollars for 2 small pieces of chicken breast served on a common mash, a dish that lacked taste, presentation, and certainly isn't worth the price..
Also, the squid ink risotto was tasteless, 'milk and water' would be the right words for the dish.. The better tasting dish was the pork rib eye, but only slightly better than the others... A terrible waste of ingredients..

The location might be a good one, but the atmosphere in the restaurant was not helping at all, most of the waitresses were not very friendly, and as the restaurant got busier, the stress began to show.. Asking for something seemed like such an inconvenience to them.. After we got our mains, we were simply ignored, there were no offers to top up drinks, no "How is everything?".. It was very obvious that the staff lacked organisation, and a glance into to the back showed the order dockets way ahead of the lagging kitchen staff.. I was still appalled at how I was told off by the manageress.. We paid the bill with such discontent, I have never felt this ripped off eating out..

I am absolutely clueless as to how this place survives, and I hope it doesn't, sorry to say.. I will never eat at Incontro again.. Thankfully Perth is blessed with a smorgasboard of fine restaurants..

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