1 /5
Rating
★
This is the first time we had tried the Italian Restaurant within Mona Vale RSL, The club has had a refurbishment recently, and this is a new place. There seemed to be some sort of a bar area, which was extremely loud and overflowed into the table area. The staff was, as always, very helpful, friendly and pleasant.The Bruschetta was gorgeous, although the tomatoes could have been cut more finely.We had 2 pizzas, one veal, and one pasta Napoletana, between 4 of us.The pizzas were unexpectedly huge, had a strange taste with a long aftertaste, I had a couple of pieces, but when offered a taste of the veal, I was keen to try it. The veal had the same taste, although my husband didn't notice it.The pasta was so heavily spiced, with chilli, that none of us could have eaten it. It tasted a little of raw fish, also with the strange aftertaste, that we were struggling to identify.When the waitress came to clear the table, she was told how awful it was , and quickly took it back to the chef. The explanation was that the pasta was spiced, and the sauce which was the tomato base for all their pizzas, was also spiced.That sort of explained the odd taste in the pizzas. As the veal also had the weird taste, though, something else was affecting everything.We were offered and accepted a refund for the pasta.Hopefully, this is just teething problems, and will be sorted out quickly.The main bistro at the club is always very good, so we will just have to stick to that.The only decent coffee is set in an area designed to be like a coffee shop. Although this is a little annoying, at least a good coffee is available. The bistro itself has a self-service coffee machine, of the type found in car dealers showrooms.We have been using this club for a couple of years, and this was the first time that the meal has been disappointing.This was quite expensive, coming to well over $100 with drinks.