La Camera Restaurant Southgate

What a beautiful place! Tucked away, High above the Yarra River, we were lucky enough to get a balcony seat! The cheese arancini balls were perfection, as was the eggplant. In regards to mains I had the slow cooked ox cheek, which I would get again in a heartbeat and my partner got a pizza - just as delish. Not only the food but the service was awesome - we’ll be back.

I will start by saying most of us on the table enjoyed our meals (I personally didn’t) and the space was comfortable and clean. We are however a bit disappointed in the overall dining experience tonight. After all our plates were cleared, the bill was immediately placed on our table; a clear sign that we were being asked to leave. We were astonished as we had barely finished our drinks (3 of which didn’t come out until after the food and I had to prompt for them) and in fact nobody had attended to our table to check how the food was or if we needed water etc. I had also promised my 3yr old son a dessert after dinner and he was very upset as we now could not get one. I mentioned to the lady while paying that we were disappointed we didn’t even get offered dessert. I was told that we had a limited seating time of 1.5hrs and our time was up. I mentioned that a seating time limit wasn’t mentioned when I booked nor when we entered and that it would have been nice to have a warning if they would need us to leave to take the table for someone else, but again was told I should have looked at the bottom of my booking confirmation as it states it all there. I booked over the phone and was not told anything, and when I put credit card details to confirm booking online, it also does not state anything, so I’m not sure how I’m supposed to know this information but I wasn’t going to argue it with her. I just wanted to leave. It felt a bit cold to us and like we were being kicked out. She could have easily explained it in a courteous manner but it honestly didn’t seem like she cared about our experience and it really left the whole table a bit turned off the place. Unfortunate as most people from our table had been before and really enjoyed it, but tonight not the great service as usual.

Pizzas are large! Probably only needed 2 for 3 people, rather than 1 each. Quaint that they give you a wheel to cut it yourself (they've done so for years & years) but would prefer it to come sliced. Topping was a little sparse and dry, would have benefited from more cheese and Napoli sauce. Think the 2 of our group that had risotto were both very satisfied. Good wine list.