Marinara Restaurant

Nice food but not so authentic though which was disappointing. Kids meal was better than our mains. Bruschetta is delicious but be mindful that it’s huge. Carbonara isn’t what I usually order but felt like some real Italian carbonara and unfortunately it just didn’t hit the spot - didn’t enjoy the cream and bacon in comparison to pecorino and guanciale. No one asked whether we would like pepper and there was a tad too much parmesan on everything. Their pizza’s are great though 👌🏾for the price and beautiful ambience and service, a bit more authenticity would be amazing. Yet to try the tiramisu which is the real test! ✨ P.s this post is not real-time. We ate a couple nights ago. I post when I have time. 🙂

This beautiful Italian restaurant is my favourite place to go to with my partner for dinner. The atmosphere is great, food fantastic, service splendid and the drinks are delicious. I usually spend more than the normal person would when I go here because I don’t go often. When I do, I make the most of it because it’s definitely worth it. If I’m going to spend money and time on something it has to be worth it and this restaurant deserves that much.

Unfortunately my experience last night was not a good one. We waited 50 minutes for our mains. At around the 40 minute point we asked to check in on our food, to which the server came back and said they were going to make it now. The couple next to us were seated after us and were on to their desserts before we had received our mains. They obviously rushed our orders as just under 10 minutes later after bringing it to the server’s attention, our mains were brought out. My girlfriend ordered a risotto and it was very much undercooked (assuming because they rushed to get our orders out). I’m vegetarian so I ordered a vegetarian pesto pasta, and I was brought out a dish with chicken in. I then had to wait longer for my dish to come out, and when the dish came out, the pasta was completely drowned in sauce and not enjoyable. We were polite and understanding during this whole experience, but once I finally received my main after over an hour I was very disappointed. We told our server about our experience and his attitude was not good at all, considering we were being polite and apologetic as we didn’t want to cause any disruptions, however we were met with “well, it was just a mistake” when we brought up the chicken dish being served to a vegetarian. He then proceeded to say we can just take the dishes off the bill and he took our food away, there were no apologies in this exchange, and we were disappointed with how it was all handled. Considering the dishes are around $30 each, it would have been a close to $70-$80 dining experience including drinks and starters, however it was definitely not worth that with our undercooked pasta and waiting times. Unfortunately it is our second experience there of not being served/long waiting times because they forgot about our dishes, which is a shame because the atmosphere is so nice and it had potential for being a lovely night out both times.

I have been to this restaurant on two occasions now and it is simply fantastic. From the warm and friendly service staff who genuinely love where they work (I noticed someone who worked there come in early for their shift and was greeted with hugs & laughter like they were family) to the amazing food. I can't wait to have another night of beautiful food in a place that I automatically felt like I was part of the extended family. This is what Italian dining is all about.

We had the best food and dining experience at Marinara Restaurant a few months ago. The staff were so kind, generous and patient with my children. Marinara reminded me of the good old fashioned authentic Italian restaurants my parents would take me to as a little child, which I enjoyed so much. We will definitely be returning again to this restaurant.