Lombardi Restaurant

Wow, what an experience..... We had booked Lombardi's (used to have a great reputation)months in advance of our trip to Queenstown and re-confirmed just 2 days prior to our dinner that was meant to be our 50th birthday celebrations, to find when we arrived that they had no knowledge of our booking. I showed the gentleman at the front of house our confirmed email booking. His answer to this was, well you cant have a table at the window.....Not that we had requested one anyway.....It went downhill from here but it was pretty funny. He headed to an empty table at the window with a cloth to wipe down the table where he lifted the salt and pepper grinders, cleaned under them and left the rest of the table not cleaned and invited us to sit down. A new "short" menu was delivered to us which had 3 items on it. Scotch fillet of beef, Salmon and a Mushroom vegetarian dish. There was a small list of entree's and desserts. We ordered a couple of pre dinner drinks with the waiter and discussed the finer points of how Saivignon Blanc is apparently a red wine in the USA. Very funny stuff. The waiter then came back with the drinks and informed us that the wine we had ordered was not available so he said here's another one that is a similar price.....um ok thanks. We ordered an entree and main each. I had a Seafood chowder and my wife had salt and pepper calamari. The chowder was heated in the microwave to the point the bowl was unable to be touched for nearly 5 minutes and the chowder so hot that it couldn't be eaten for minutes after. The small amount of seafood was over cooked to the point where most had disintegrated or was so rubbery you couldn't chew it. The texture was of whipped potato and despite having some seafood in it did not taste at all of seafood. My wifes S&P calamari was just that. Pieces of calamari on a plate with a bowl of pre-made mayonnaise. No salad, or anything to make it look remotely appetising. The calamari was nice and tender however and tasted pretty good. During our entree our waiter informed us that there was only one Beef left. We had both ordered this..... This was at 7:30 with maybe a dozen people in total in the restaurant. We had a laugh and said we might finish our entrees and head off then. OK he said I won't charge you for the fillet, which we gratefully accepted. As we continued to laugh and eat he returned to say that he had made a mistake ("the chef spoke into his bad ear") and now there was beef available. In fact, after us there was another 3 left.... Very handy yet surprising information. We'd gone too far now and the $40 Uber eachway and the Fawlty Towers display was too much to miss, so we decided to stay. The cutlery for our main was delivered as we nearly completed our entree. Both sets handily placed in a bunch in the middle of the table so we could select our own weapons.....nice touch. The Main was delivered at the same time our entree was collected, can't complain they weren't prompt....The piece of steak was cooked very nice but wasnt seasoned at all and the vegetables were bland and tasteless. There was a mushroom on there that tasted nice. It was supposed to come with a Jus which wasn't there but was replaced with an over reduced, burnt, sticky streak of balsamic sauce we think? After a few other comical interuptions and lots of apologies (poor fella) from our waiter, we eventually paid the bill and decided that we might postpone the birthday celebrations to another time and place. It is very obvious that staffing issues as a result of covid are still impacting the area but we never went close to the experience we had here anywhere else. If they continue to operate like this their reputation will be damaged beyond repair. I'm amazed that the Hotel St Moritz continues to allow them to operate. They have set the poor waitstaff up for failure and I do feel very sorry for them. Needless to say I wish we had never gone to this place and suggest that anyone reading this that they think twice about it. There are better ways to spend $200 in NZ.
Oct 17th, 2022

Food : 4/5 | Service : 5/5 | Atmosphere : 5/5 More
Mar 15th, 2023

Food : 1/5 | Service : 1/5 | Atmosphere : 1/5 More
Nov 12th, 2022

Nov 11th, 2022

Was alright, great location - I understand how hectic staff shortages are at the moment and saw a lot of people in training. This restaurant could have made a lot of money off of me but I decided to wonder the town.
Jul 13th, 2022