Tuesday, December 23, 2008

La Porchetta Werribee: A Lesson in Mediocrity

ShopB008, Werribee Plaza Shopping Centre
Heaths Rd (cnr Derrimut Rd)
, Werribee 3030
P: 03 9748 4888

I thought about this long and hard last night and this morning, trying to work out how to put a positive spin on the meal. Sadly, sometimes this really isn't possible. Most of the positives about the meal were more to do with the company than the victuals.

First and foremost, I can't speak about the other dozens of La Porchetta's in the world. I hear the one in Williamstown is quite a lot better than what I sampled last night. But that wouldn't be all that difficult to achieve.

The girls I work with on the weekend and I decided to have a christmas dinner together. As the dinner had to be held somewhere fairly central to us all, and easy on the wallet, La Porchetta was suggested. I'm going to campaign strongly that we never, ever, EVER eat there again.

Between a table of about 16 of us, we covered a fair bit of the menu. My ravioli napolitana (sp?) was thoroughly unenjoyable - the ravioli was over cooked, and the sauce tasted like something you'd expect to get out of a no-name bottle at the local corner store. Mum (who is visiting) ordered a penne marinara which was... she reports not much taste in the sauce and it was rather watery, and she had to mix her meal so that the pasta and seafood were together instead of separate sides of the plate (she says with a "meh" waggle of her hands). Others along the table ordered garlic prawns ("the prawns were ok, but won't have them again"), fettucine funghi ("not impressed"), fettucine con pollo (the side salad eaten, the pasta mostly left on the plate)... you get the idea.

Happier customers were D and her husband, with seafood and a T-bone steak respectively. Also some pizza's were reported to be good. Except one... this pizza came out with bacon laid across the top of it, crust to crust... uncut. The pizza beneath was sliced, but not the half a pig they'd stuck on top. WTF?

I can, however, heartily recommend the garlic bread.

After a meal like that none of us was tempted to try a dessert.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I used to dine at a quite good northern suburbs La Porchetta when franchisees were given greater licence for their own menu variations. Then a more standardised menu was enforced and it went downhill. Some of the later meals were truly dreadful.

Stuart said...

I used to get spaghetti bolognese from la porchettas, and I was always wary of the fact that it would come out as a solid, steaming, greasy mass. Because of this I always suspected that it was just microwaved and brought out. Then I mentioned it to a friend who worked there and they said that yes, that is what they do. Blech.

thanh7580 said...

La Porchetta falls into a similar category as places like Smorgy's and Sofia's, constantly disappointing. La Porchetta is a tad better than the other two as occasionally some stores are ok.

These places aren't really value for money considering the awful food you get.

Anna said...

Hi all,

The really sad thing is that when this place first opened it was actually alright. I remember going there to try it out one time when I was visiting my brother, years ago when he lived in Werribee. Such a shame it's gone so far downhill, and keeps sliding.

If you can suggest somewhere decent, in the western suburbs, that's not too expensive please let me know! I'm yet to find anything suitable :(