Cucina Vivo - Gold Coast

For my regular catch up dinner date with a girlfriend, she gave me options to try one of the venues at the casino and I opted for Cucina Vivo. It was a Wednesday night so not super busy. The venue itself is absolutely massive and beautifully styled. We were escorted to our table by a friendly server who took our drinks. The first lot of drink orders was incorrect receiving a champagne instead of a Prosecco. The Cosmopolitan however was delicious and I thoroughly enjoyed their mix. Four entree we ordered a half dozen oysters Kilpatrick, pizza and the meatballs. The oysters were a bit bland in flavour and more expensive than most, And the meatballs were absolutely overflowing in sauce however they were quite flavoursome. The rigatoni was fresh hot tasty and delicious I absolutely loved it. My friend ordered the veal, however she did not enjoy it and was unable to eat much. The chocolate dessert was tasty although the dish was very difficult to eat we weren’t given any bowls or plates to eat out of. My friend also ordered an affogato and the coffee was burnt. When the bill was brought out to us we were offered a 10% discount for our dissatisfaction even though we advised staff immediately, this made us more dissatisfied, however after some polite discussion, some items were removed from the bill. Sadly, it was a very average dining experience overall.

The service was very poor and the food was average at best, pizzas was definitely not was the 25 dollars that was paid for. The waiting time was long for the mains but the entree was faster. When we first arrive at the reception, the lady at the front was very nonchalant and didn’t seem welcoming at all as we were expecting exceptional hospitality for the fact that it is a fine dining restaurant. Yet the experience was very poor even from the very start. After the meals when we were going to pay for the bill, the waiter have snatched the card from my hand and was rather cold as he said a simple thank you and swiftly left the table without making any eye contact or thanking gestures. I did considered the fact that the restaurant might be busy at the time, but this type of service is quite unprofessional and unacceptable from the staff when we simply wanted to enjoy our time out and especially as we paid a fair amount for the food as well as the service. I do still want to reiterate that it was only two particular staff that we ran into that was quite unprofessional in their standards of service but the rest of the staff were quite friendly and hospitable. Thank you for reading and we hope that this can be taken into consideration in the next time the restaurant conducts a staff appraisal. Have a nice day.

Worst Italian food I've ever tasted, all the Nonna's would cry if they ate it! Can't believe what we paid for it, my three year old could have made a better pizza. Thinking about it is making me sick. Pasta had no depth, just a tin of tomato puree poured over pasta. The seafood pizza (more like green pizza) was the worst pizza I've had in my life. It's a crime to serve seafood that way!

Outstanding service and so friendly and professional staff. The food was from this world and there was a wide selection of amazing drinks to choose from. We will definitely return to Cucina Vivo when we are at The Star.

A beautiful restaurant, love aesthetics! Waiting staff were super friendly and very helpful when we had questions about certain items. I ordered the gnocchi, food came fast and was absolutely delicious. Definitely will come back to try more from their menu.