La Tazzina

Thursday, August 25th, 2016

Reviewed by Leigh Epstein

Hosted a baby shower at La Tazzina on 21 August 2016, and found that the service received and the coordination of my event to be poor. Cristina, the owner lacks to attention to detail in that specific requests forcatering are ignored. I asked for the cupcakes to be iced in specific colours, only to arrive on the day to find them all iced in a colour she chose. The same applied to macaroons I ordered. I made a time to meet with her to discuss all the requirements for my function, but she is not available when I arrive and so I had to email her with all the requests. She took days to reply and in writing agrees to my requests but then does not deliver on the day. I chose a set menu that was to include among other items, fruit juice and fruit skewers. I asked if she can serve Fruitime juice instead of Sir Juice and she replied to say that "everything asked will be arranged" only to get charged for the Fruitime juice on the day when the charge for juice was included in the price per person. Surely she should let that be known at the time of my request and not surprise me with a bill on the day. In essence I paid twice for juice. Two hours into my function I realised that the fruit skewers which were paid for, were not served! I had to request them to be made only to get blank looks and confusion. Cristina herself believed that the fruit was not part of my menu when she herself had put the menu together in an email! The service received by the waitresses and manager on the day was mediocre and fitting to what you expect from a fast food restaurant. Glasses that guests were still drinking removed from under their noses without asking, the manager practically took my half a glass of champagne out of my hand. When guests arrived the jugs of juice and water was not on the table... probably a ploy to rack up a higher bill as guests then order drinks as there is nothing on offer on the tables from the set menu that was ordered. There was a lack of ensuring that there was enough ice on the tables for the wines, jugs of water were not refilled, sugar not brought to the table with coffees. We felt so rushed on the day as though the staff wanted to leave, the table cloths were taken off the tables while we were sitting at the tables and the waitress kept asking about when she can bring the bill. When I did receive the bill I found was charged for an extra person that was not the case, charged for juice when I had paid for it in the per person menu charge. When bringing this to Cristina's attention the next day (as she was not available on the day of my function) she does nothing to remedy. It is such a pity that a venue with so much potential is run by a preoccupied and absent manager and staff who have no idea about service etiquette. I will not recommend you host your functions here as Cristina is not able to give the attention to detail and level of communication that you wish for when hosting a function.