Welcome to Valentino Cafe

We had a set menu because we were a group of around 12 and they wouldn't allow us to order individually. Off our set menu I had some very nice Bruschetta but that was where the nice food ended. The T-bone steak I had for mains was full of fat and a few of the people dining with us had to spit out mouthfuls! The vegetarian Lasagna my friend had was stone cold where as other Lasagnes on the table were piping hot with hard melted cheese in it! For desert the chocolate mousse had chunks of gelatin in it and overall the food was terrible

The one waitress did go to the kitchen to ask what the chunky bits of plastic looking stuff in our mousse was but most of the time she was a little spaced out an inattentive. She had to ask us to keep our knives and forks as the kitchen had run out!

Lovely setting and great ambience - just a pity about the food and service!

Would not go back or recommend it to anyone! Unless for a coffee only.

We went on a Saturday night, not expecting it to be too bad, but it was so loud in the restaurant that we were forced to yell out orders. After repeating the orders back to us correctly the waitress managed to get our order wrong when she brought them out. The entree's were acceptable, though one entree was brought out 10 minutes later than the rest.
Onto the mains.. the gnocchi was undercooked and the salsicia pasta was very bland. Luckily the seafood dish was quite nice, couldn't comment on the chicken Caesar salad, as the staff forgot about this dish, and then 15 minutes later when everyone had finished eating they brought out the salad without chicken. Overall the food was quite average, the service was poor and we stood no chance of holding a conversation in such a noisy restaurant.

Valentino's is a restaurant in a prime location of Northbridge which provides for a cosmopolitan ambience, sitting outside in the cool summer nights watching, listening to the buzz of Northbridge as the weekend party go'ers move around the street. It provides a simple menu without going to elaborate fanciful plate/food design, all of which should make a night out enjoyable.

Sadly I found that while the ambience and buzz works well for the location, the restaurant is lacking in food / flavour quality for the prices being charged.

Initial service appeared excellent, staff find you a table, bring you water and menus only to then be distracted by an ongoing ebb and flow of customers. Once your order has been placed the time for delivery of you meal is around 10-15 minutes, I found the food did not live up to the flavours being expected and average, in this case both meals where cold to luke warm. A direct link to the poor attentive service having asked several staff members for cracked pepper and being forgotten about. The table next to me suffered a similar fate having ordered food which was forgotten about, thereby having the manager intervene apologetically.

Overall rating would be average to a shade under average, it is this reviewers opinion that Valentino's could be a wonderful restaurant but it suffers from being too large to cope on busy or semi busy nights and has staff that lack the ability to be attentive.

I reviewed Valentino's a while ago, but have been there for quick lunches and desserts recently and have not been as impressed.

The service is still quite good, although often more... awkward? stilted? The kind of service you get with new staff or people who are not naturally adept at that kind of interaction.

Prices seem to have gone upwards - We went in one afternoon with one member of our party craving a beer. At $7+ for a glass (not a pint, a glass) his craving dried up rather quickly. We settled on coffee and wedges (which were tasty, but also overpriced).

It's still a nice place, it just definitely isn't as good value as it once was.

I've been to Valentino's a few times now, and it has always stood out as one of the better places to eat in Norby.

The food is good, and reasonably priced - with some pretty good specials on offer most of the time. The restaurant is nicely presented, etc.

But what i really love about it is the service - It's always friendly and prompt, and the food arrives very fast. I've been there at different times of the day, on public holidays, busy nights, etc, and every time, the food comes out in a flash. I've never even been left waiting for that new bottle of water that always seems to take ages to arrive.