The service was second to none. Wine to match each dish was reccommended by our waitress and we were glad we took this option up. It enhanced our dining experience.

The bill totalled $230 for the two of us.

Thanks for your comment. I’m interested to hear that you found Fifteen Melbourne excellent last week – what did you order, how was the service and what did the bill total? Your experience seems to go against the grain of what others diners have said in response to my review, but that could just be because generally only people who agreed with me bothered to comment.

Jetsetting Joyce

It made me wonder whether the cafe at William Angliss TAFE, another training ground for hospitality and cooking students, would be any better than Fifteen. I might give it a go just as a comparison.

Jetsetting Joyce

Tiny is right! Ridiculously tiny. Even at $15 I felt a big ripped off. Especially when the gnocchi was so mushy! I was willing to overlook the stringy soup, but not the poor pasta as well.

Jetsetting Joyce

When I was thinking about better lunches for $15 I forgot about Cafe Vue – thanks for reminding me! An infinitely better experience.

Jetsetting Joyce

Just goes to show how one bad meal can affect your opinion of a place. Even though Mr Calombris argued that food bloggers don’t provide accurate reviews because we only visit a restaurant once, surely this is a case which highlights that food bloggers have their place because we’re regular punters. And regular punters aren’t going to spend their time and hard-earned money returning to a restaurant that has dished out a bad meal once already. I’m with you Emily, I ain’t going back.

Jetsetting Joyce

This is exactly the conundrum I came away with. Presumably the $15 lunch is a way to entice diners to come back again and try the more expensive lunch menu or dinner menu. So surely you’d do your best and not cut corners, even if you have to use cheaper cuts/vegetables only/serve more ‘rustic’ style food. Definitely a case of two wrongs do not make a right.

Jetsetting Joyce

True – service was friendly and they were accommodating with providing the vegetarian dishes. But the service wasn’t enough to make up for the sub-standard food. It made me wonder whether Jamie Oliver has actually eaten there? Seems weird that people say the London restaurant is so excellent yet the Melbourne incarnation is so poor. I also note that Tobie Puttock was in the kitchen at lunch (though not cooking) – presumably he is responsible for overseeing the staff and the training and checking the food as it goes out? Strange because there is no way any self-respecting chef would serve up salty, stringy soup.

Jetsetting Joyce

Thanks for posting your review – it seems that things haven’t improved too much at Fifteen since you were there. I also went to Fifteen when it first opened (I’m a sucker for a bit of hype sometimes) and don’t recall being blown away by the food.

And you’re absolutely right – there are MANY excellent restaurants, Italian or otherwise, in its vicinity which are comparable in price or cheaper. I really don’t know how it can continue to be in business if it can’t get the food bit right, let alone the service.

Jetsetting Joyce

Fifteen, jesus where oh where do I start?

Situated in the ‘paris end’ of Collins st, we enter down the stairs to be confronted with the stench of sewerage, ‘plumbing backed up?’ I asked the maitre d. She basically denied that there was a smell, and anything I was smelling was because they were in a basement and there had been construction happening along the laneway all week. We wait at the bar to get a table, have a cocktail. The cocktail list was boring, unimaginative and tastless. The 2 cocktails I had were disappointing to downright bad. We all decided to go for the 4 course degustation menu. Our waiter was like a pimply, blonde, teenage Australian version of Faulty Towers, who had to keep coming back to the table to profusely apologise because he had got it wrong yet again and our first course was so and so. He came back 3 times. Once our courses started coming out we only ever saw him when he would zip past to ask whether the current course was fine other than that we never saw him again.

The food, first course tasmanian ocean trout with a fried quail egg on top. It was delicious but nothing too special. Second course for me (I had the vego degust after that) was a pan fried homemade gnocci with talleggio, which was quite simply exquisite, this was the best course I had there and quite frankly what I expected from every course. My main meal was roasted pumpkin, wilted spinach, a poached egg on a bed of polenta, which was plain average. I could have gotten a better main from the Vegie bar for a 1/5 of the price. The dessert was a sliver of lemon tart, although lovely, nothing too exciting. We had 2 pallette cleansers, me, one of roasted beetroot with sweetened soft cheese (I cant remember whether it was a ricotta or not) which was served before the courses started, and was quite tasty, and a homemade apple gelato cleanser before dessert (which was lovely).

For the money we paid I expect excellence. Being the charity training side of it, I expected a little bit less quality in the food, particularily in presentation, however front of house staff *should* have been immaculate. I expect to have a dining experience fuelled by little genies, that I dont even notice when my plates are cleared or the water is topped up. I had to ASK for water and had to hunt down a waiter to order a coffee before the dessert arrived after waiting for 5 minutes to try and flag someone walking by. Also the timing between courses was too rushed, we could have done with at least 5 minutes extra between courses, I had to ask to wait for dessert until we were ready. Basically, for that kind of money I do not want to have to ask for ANYTHING, I want the experience to border on religious.

Now coming from a city world reknowned for its produce and food, its a stiffly competitive environment to be running any kind of cafe or restaurant in. Fifteen really needed to pull up its socks on this one and it failed dismally. I could get better service at pretty much ALL of the establishments I frequent and food on par with 3 of the 4 courses at a tonne of restaurants around Melbourne for at least half the price. I went there partly out of altruism but also because I had been to Fifteen in London and it was exquisite. It was the dining experience I was looking for above and if not more. The irony is, is that we had Australian waiters when we went there as well haha! This is probably where the problem lies, all the superb wait staff are working at other establishements, and it really adds not much to your credentials working at Fifteen, when you have so many more options around town to make a name for yourself.

It pains me to say but avoid Fifteen, I actually agree with this review from the age. For the same quality modern italian food and better service try Il Baccaro and its sister restaurant (jee I cant remember what its called, its around the corner right next door to Gin Palace) or wanky but EXCELLENT gnocci and cocktails at Hairy Canary (I had to go there 3 times in one fortnight because I literally kept dreaming about their gnocci), Tutte Bene or Scusami at Southbank.

Gepettos in East Melbourne has to be my favourite Italian restaurant in Melbourne. Small, unassuming, still family owned and run, it is the stuff that dreams are made of. Regularily serving every kind of meat under the rainbow, its rustic italian home style cooking in such an environment. I’ve read reviews where they’ve dissed how long things have taken, but this is the italian way of eating, a meal takes 3 hours. Thoughts or comments? Fav italian food in Melbourne? We are so spoiled for choice here its ridiculous.
.-= Carla´s last blog ..Monday Melbourne Roundup (Wednesday edition) =-.

*such, such woody soup*

*such, such small serves of pasta*

On the positive side, it WAS good orichiette, and the service was good.
.-= Billy´s last blog ..Donnini’s =-.

I can be a harsh critic so I have never been back. After your review, I don’t think I’ll be changing my stance!!
.-= Emily´s last blog ..Combining for protein: tofu + buckwheat noodles =-.

Welcome to the blog! I’ve never been to the London (or other) Fifteen restaurants so I can’t comment on how the Melbourne version compares. But on its own merits, it really was a poor meal and frankly you can get some really great sit-down lunch in Melbourne CBD for $15 or less – Sushi Ten, Don Don, Coco Rice, FYG Gallery. Old Town Kopitiam to name a few.

Jetsetting Joyce